Systemwide QC Using MXF and Metadata As more and more assets are being managed and manipulated in the file domain, processes are becoming increasingly automated and thus invisible. Overall Quality Control of the asset is becoming a significant cost factor in the lifecycle of any audio visual production. Creating an audit trail of QC information and asset lifecycle information in MXF allows highly automated reliable systems to be built with a minimum number of human touch points. This session will illustrate the principals and technology involved.

The Technology Conference Website

Following Metaglue's continued support of the Advanced Media Workflow Association, Metaglue has now moved from Associate Member to Principal Member of this organisation.

Oliver Morgan was re-elected to the Board of Directors.

Please visit http://www.aafassociation.org/ for further details.

Putting AAF and MXF to Work

The conference, Mastering Digital Workflows, organised by Broadcast magazine took place in London on 6th March. Neil Dunstan of Metaglue gave a presentation on behalf of the AMWA about "Setting Industry Standards for Digital Workflows" to the audience of senior production, operational and technical strategists.

With the increasing use of MXF across the industry, many manufacturers are working to include this as an interconnect standard for their products. With finite staff resources, companies often look for external support on an “ad hoc” basis for specific projects of this type – which allows their own engineers to concentrate on company specific developments.
 
Since it started in 2002, Metaglue has provided bespoke MXF consultancy to many organisations in many markets. However, we are aware that an “off the shelf”, cost effective, service is more appropriate in many cases. So employing Metaglue’s past experience, we can now offer an MXFplus package to help organisations implement MXF in their products and systems.
 
MXFplus is a software development kit (SDK) which builds on the standard MXFLib and provides extra libraries to simplify MXF developments. At Metaglue we never like to make things more difficult or expensive than necessary. So our aim is to provide a service which:-

• Can be scaled to exactly satisfy the customer’s needs
• Is commercially straightforward and easy to administer
• Has no hidden or retrospective costs
• Includes all source code to the libraries
• Delivers what you want, when you want it

If you feel that your organisation could benefit from this type of service, please so we can explore your requirements!

Putting AAF and MXF to Work

Metaglue is proud to announce its involvement with the MXF Mastering Format Project. At NAB 2007, the Advanced Media Workflow Association – AMWA (formerly The Advanced Authoring Format Association - AAFA) sponsored the first public demonstration of this long-term initiative.

The aim of this project is to bring a fresh approach to MXF and to provide proposed, real-world solutions for key workflows, focusing on creating a single MXF master file from which multiple versions of a program may be created.

This rationalization project currently includes two key strands: MXF Mastering Format and the MXF Processor API. The work, which was started two years ago by Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., was demonstrated at the show and was open to comment and scrutiny. The Advanced Media Workflow Association welcomes input on this technical proposal.

The full list of manufacturers which took a leading role in this MXF rationalization work is:
EMC, Marquis Broadcast; Metaglue; Omneon; Open Cube Technologies; Pro-Bel; Quantum; Snell & Wilcox; Softel; TMD.

Please visit http://www.aafassociation.org/ for further details.

Once again, We at Metaglue enjoyed an insightful and successful IBC. As metadata devotes, we are gratified to know that so many of you are now engaged in in projects utilising this exciting new technology, and we are excited to be in a position to contribute to your projects with our knowledge and tools.

We look forward to seeing all of you at IBC 2007!

As a special offer for new orders on Diffuser and MXFixer, taken before October 2006, we are giving the first year's maintenance free of charge. This applies regardless of whether they are bought separately or together.

July 11th & 12th in Burbank.
Download the event brochure.

The AAF Association will be holding its Technical Awareness Event & Conference on 11th & 12th July in Burbank. Again we are pleased to support this event where visitors will be able to see MXFixer and MXFactory in action.
 
Visit the AAF Association website for full details about this event.

On Thursday July 15 at 6:32pm Pacific Time, Oliver and Brad Glimer of the Advanced Authoring Format Association join Philip Hodgetts and Michael Horton to discuss AAF, MXF and the upcoming AAF Technical Awareness Event.

Listen to the Podcast

If your organization has to manage MXF files, you probably have a requirement to check the metadata. MXFixer has been described as "the waveform monitor for metadata". It enables you to unwrap the file and check that the metadata is present and correct before rewrapping.

Learn more

Broadcast Engineering published this white paper piece by Neil Dunstan in their May 2006 edition.
Download a pdf of the white paper.

Read the article in the Broadcast Engineering online edition.

Metaglue is pleased to announce that the Ascent Media Group has extended the provision of their Hosted Service of Diffuser by a further year and added a package of MXFixer and AAFixer to complement it.

Read the full press release.

Find us at SL1513C in the Avid Developer Community.

Once again our booth will be staffed by Oliver Morgan, Ian Baker, Lisa Coen and Neil Dunstan.

We will be demonstrating the integrated operation of MXFixer and Diffuser to provide a full package to extract and analyze metadata whilst comparing it to a custom metadata dictionary before rewrapping it.

As always, we would be very pleased to see you at the exhibition and invite you to contact us to set up a time to meet. The dates for the show this year are: April 24-27.

MXFactory is a family of products which creates MXF files. Launched in a version that creates high quality proxies from ultra-high resolution telecine outputs, the range is expanding to include other combinations.

Oliver Morgan participated in the Hollywood Post Alliance Technology Retreat.

Once again, Oliver lead several breakfast roundtable discussions:
•  "Metadata and Workflows"
•  "MXF in Production, Post-production, and Archives"

Visit the Hollywood Post Alliance Website to learn more about the Hollywood Post Alliance.

MXFixer 30-day trial
If your organization has to manage MXF files, you probably have a requirement to check the metadata. MXFixer has been described as "the waveform monitor for metadata". It enables you to unwrap the file and check that the metadata is present and correct before rewrapping.

Obtain your copy or learn more.

On November 10, 2005 Oliver Morgan presented
"Storing User Metadata in MXF (and other) Files"
as part of the Media Infrastructure - MXF, GXF, and AAF session.

View more details about the session.

Please visit the SMPTE web site for details about other conferences and seminars.

File Under "Too Difficult"?
Different organizations are at different stages of planning for the exploitation of metadata. This article draws parallels with other technological leaps that our industry has experienced and describes a few of the ways that companies are planning today to get significant business benefits and competitive edge.

TVB Europe published this op-ed piece by Neil Dunstan in their October 2005 edition.

Download a copy of the article.
Visit TVB Europe at http://www.tvbeurope.com

Public beta testing of the SMPTE Registration Authority website is now underway.

Thanks to everyone who visited us in Amsterdam. This provided valuable insight into your current and future projects. We hope that our discussions helped our customers to formulate their thoughts in the use of MXF and metadata and look forward to our continuing discussion. And thanks also to those who placed orders!

Due to overwhelming demand at NAB2005, Metaglue released an online trial version of Diffuser.

Our Diffuser™ product began shipping in January and we are now pleased to announce our new Diffuser online demonstration tool.

To experience Diffuser in action, go to http://metaglue.tv/diffuser and register to set up your own trial account. You will gain quick and easy access.

Metaglue demonstrated MXFixer at NAB2005.

After 4 days of talking with customers and demonstrating Diffuser™, AAFixer™ & MXFixer™ at NAB2005, we are all tired but happy - with new insights and ideas about your needs, projects and questions.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by our booth. It's always wonderful to be able to catch up with old friends and to meet so many new colleagues with exciting cutting edge projects. It is very encouraging to see a growing appreciation of how metadata can improve both your creative and business processes. It is your thoughts and ideas that have helped to make our products a success.

We are very pleased now to be shipping the Diffuser™ product into the US and Europe with AAFixer™ & MXFixer™ due shortly, and we look forward to helping you with your projects

Oliver Morgan participated in the Breakfast Roundtables: AAF & MXF Working Together on Thursday, January 27, 2005

Metaglue also participated in the AAF Association Demos from Wednesday evening through lunch on Friday. Visit the Hollywood Post Alliance Website to learn more.

Oliver recently appeared on the DV Guys internet radio show.

Listen to the archive of the show.

On November 13, 2004 Oliver Morgan was elected to the Board of Directors of the AAF Association.

Visit the AAF Association website to learn more.

Oliver Morgan presented a tutorial covering online access to the SMPTE Registration Authority Conference in Pasadena CA

Please visit www.smpte.org for details about other conferences and seminars.

As the dust settles from a whirl wind of activity at IBC 2004, we want to tak e a moment to reflect on our experience. As always it is rejuvenating to connect one on one with the individuals we define as ‘the industry’, share our ideas and progress, hear about yours. We came away with substantial validation of our concept, a clear vision of the extensible path we are on and a renewed vigor to ship product.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the show in Amsterdam and look forward to seeing you again next year, if not before. Thank you for making IBC a success!

Each year respected columnist Bob Turner announces a select list of the best and most exciting products exhibited at NAB. This year, Metaglue Diffuser and AAFixer were named to the list.

Products making THE CUT are those that are poised to take video postproduction to the next level. subscribe to Bob Turner's online newsletter: THE CUT./a>