EROS Media World
CASE STUDY – Eros Media World
Eros Motion Pictures’ eMAM and Ateme Solution Brief
Eros Motion Pictures, a division of Eros Media World PLC, is an established leader in the Indian film industry with a track record of over 40 years. The company co-produces, acquires and distributes Indian language films in multiple formats worldwide. It has aggregated multi-format rights to over 3,000 films in its library, including recent and classic titles that span different genres, budgets and languages. Eros Now, its digital OTT entertainment service, has digital rights to over 12,000 films, including approximately 5,000 films in various languages owned in perpetuity. A pioneer and innovator in Indian entertainment, the company works in tandem with Eros Now to target a majority of the Indian population of 1.3 billion, building a dynamic business model combining the release of new films every year with a robust film library.
Challenges: Eros had been managing its media in its on-premise MAM & LTO tape library. Staff faced numerous challenges with the running setup and required a technology refresh to deal with the increasing volume of content and the demanding nature of the content delivery business. Especially for DPX and DCP delivery packages, they faced numerous challenges including:
- Creating frame-accurate proxies for preview
- Archiving & restoring media
- Tagging metadata at multiple levels – frame, asset, folder
- Creating custom metadata fields and associated workflows
- Handling & connecting different types of elements associated with a movie –videos, audios, subtitle files, graphics, promos, certificates, etc.
- Previewing packages with subtitles and different audio tracks over the network ina simple-to-use browser
- Managing and linking different versions of assets
- Updating the archive management system.A major requirement at Eros was transcoding content for delivery. Assembling all of the movie elements for different delivery requirements in an editing system is time- and labor-intensive. A process was needed to select desired videos, audio (language), subtitles and graphics and automatically transcode and process them in the required specification.The required system needed to accurately and rapidly process and deliver the packaged media while efficiently using tiered storage, avoiding media duplication, and easily setting up additional delivery options.
Solution: After a series of detailed discussions held with the Eros team, HSM, transcoding & storage vendors to understand the requirements and workflows , the eMAMTM Workgroup media asset management platform was deployed with Ateme TITAN transcoding solution, Adobe Premiere Pro extension panels, and Atempo archive management in their local infrastructure.
They migrated their existing workflow and tools into the new system. Custom tools were developed in eMAM to aid users in selecting elements for Ateme packaging and end delivery.
The following solutions were implemented for Eros to meet its current challenges and enhance its MAM workflow experience:
- Ingest: Library team can ingest their media files (.RAR, .DPX, .WAV, .MOV (4K and HD), .MP4 (Mezzanine), and image files (JPG, etc.) to eMAM using ingest options such as Web Uploader, Feeder, eFeeder, watch folder. Migration from old archive system to eMAM system was done using watch folders. Using this ingest workflow, Eros is ingesting daily around 1.5 – 2 TB of content on a daily basis.
- Ateme integration: Delivery is a critical workflow for Eros as it has multiple delivery partners/vendors such as local channels, streaming services, etc. that need files in different formats. eMAM integrated with Ateme TITAN File transcoder to meet this ingest and delivery workflow requirement. Ateme delivery profiles support stitch and deliver workflows, i.e. assets can be packaged together (video, audio, other files) and can be delivered as one package to the defined locations. Using the Ateme transcoder, files are packaged together and delivered to vendor locations in the desired format. This packaging or stitching is based on the job presets configured at the delivery profile level. eMAM users can initiate stitch and delivery of assets from the Category widget. Based on the set validation, just drag and drop the missing files or choose the right files and initiate the delivery of the selected files.
Different delivery profiles can be configured using different job presets. To facilitate delivery profile creation, a new feature to clone the delivery profiles was also implemented in eMAM.
Results:
- Automated processes allows staff to work faster and more efficiently.
- Improved operational efficiency ensures timely deliveries for increased customersatisfaction for Eros.
- Reduced dependency of external parties: The Eros team can create deliveryprofiles, test them and run them.
- Making test profiles could take days and there was a dependency on externalparties. With eMAM and Ateme in place the team can clone, edit and test theprofiles themselves – in minutes.
- Tape to delivery timelines have seen a massive improvement – up to 50% insome cases.
- Improved management of DPX, DCP packages and proxies reduces strain on the tape library and storage to minimize infrastructure overhead and costs. Restore- from-archive requests reduced by up to 70% after the new system went into production.
- Multiple segmented, disconnected systems have now been integrated into one enterprise-class platform to minimize system maintenance. Users have experienced up to 25% improvement in asset search and preview times.
- eMAM’s efficient support team ensures that support tickets are addressed in a timely manner for minimum delays to operations.
Conclusion:
eMAM has established itself as a modern, well-established media asset management platform allowing users to navigate, edit and review content with ease. Ateme’s powerful and cost-effective transcoding and packaging options allow the organization to meet organizational challenges within budget limits. eMAM has also established an enterprise-level framework to allow future departments to integrate into Eros’s company-wide catalog. – Swapnil Haldankar, Head – Corporate IT – Eros International.