NAB attendees can find Dalet in the West Hall at booth W1717.

Driving Industry Conversations: Executive Briefings & Thought Leadership

Beyond the technology showcase that addresses enterprise workflows for News, Media, and Sport verticals, Dalet will drive urgent discussions around reshaping business models and the critical need for Time-to-Value solutions at key events like the Devoncroft Summit and the annual Dalet Executive Breakfast.

Devoncroft NAB 2025 Summit – Dalet on CEO Panel

Dalet CEO Santiago Solanas will join industry leaders on stage at the Devoncroft “State of the Industry” Summit on Saturday, April 5, 2025, to explore the path forward for media organizations. For more information, click here.

Rebasing the Industry – Dalet Executive Briefing

The annual Dalet Executive Breakfast will take place on Monday, April 7, 2025, at the Wynn Hotel. Featuring guest speaker Josh Stinehour from Devoncroft, the session will offer fresh insights into modernizing industry practices for long-term success. Register your interest in attending here.

Customer-First Innovation: The Dalet NAB 2025 Solutions Showcase

NAB attendees are invited to book a meeting with Dalet leadership, account managers and customer success to discuss how Dalet’s fundamental shift in deployment methodologies and enhanced underlying technologies significantly enhance the customer and user experience and business outcomes from first engagement to onboarding, proactive support and beyond.

Key Innovations in the Dalet Solutions Showcase:

• Optimized Media Production and Supply Chain: Media workflow solutions today need to generate revenue or save money, and they need to do it quickly. The latest developments of packaged workflows for Dalet Flex are focused on providing a fully customizable solution designed to meet the high demand of top-tier organizations from day one. New AI integrations with DeepVA, semantic search, and a full migration to Kubernetes promise a better user experience with even more elastic, resilient performance on premise, hybrid or in the cloud.

• Next-Generation Story-Centric News Operation: Dalet story-centric news operation means content is no longer locked to a specific distribution channel. It can be easily accessed and packaged for digital and linear via a web browser or the new Dalet Pyramid Mobile App. Integrated tools for news story planning, editing, rundown management, and distribution streamline the entire operation. Dalet Pyramid Rundown, the latest release from the Pyramid family, enables news operations to access planning from the rundown and access the rundown from planning.

Enhancing Operational Efficiency: Key Updates

• Browser-based Audio Editing: One size does not fit all, especially when seeking operation efficiency. This is why the latest updates to Dalet Cut brings a new dedicated user experience for audio-only editing. Whether it’s for radio, podcast, or any other audio format, editors have the accessibility and intuitive experience of a browser-based editor, tailored for their specific needs.

• Scalable Ingest Management: Live ingest today is more variable than ever in volume, format, and workflows. Dalet Brio and Dalet InStream continue to expand functionality and support for additional formats and workflows to provide a cost-effective and innovative ingest solution for your operation. Managing this increased variability in a centralized manner is crucial to an efficient operation. Dalet will be previewing its latest web-based ingest manager, Dalet Ingest Portal, which will provide modern, intuitive scheduling for Dalet products as well as 3rd party solutions.

• Advanced Media Processing & Transcoding: With the increase of both sources and destinations for your content comes more formats, codecs and standards that you need to convert to. Transcoding today needs to not only be done at the highest quality but also efficiently. Dalet AmberFin’s latest updates bring both technology and pricing model updates with best-in-market pay-per-use pricing that can be combined with your other Dalet solutions or utilized as standalone. Recent updates bring new HDR10+ support as well new codecs such as HTJ2K, all of which is available on-premise, in the cloud, or hybrid to best match your operational needs.

Dalet NAB Networking & Engagement Opportunities

Join Us for NAB Afterworks Happy Hour

Network with industry peers at Dalet’s NAB Afterworks Happy Hour, hosted at booth W1717 on April 6th, 7th, and 8th from 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM.

Book a Meeting with Dalet

Schedule a meeting to discuss industry-leading solutions and learn more about Dalet’s commitment to media innovation and advocacy.

The post Dalet welcomes you to NAB Show 2025 appeared first on Dalet.

To meet these demands, most newsrooms have adapted their workflows to be more story-centric. This sees a shift from planning around broadcast rundowns to planning around the story itself to accommodate both linear and online news production—enabling digital teams to cover stories as they happen without needing to wait for a later broadcast. Newsroom technology has evolved in line with this, expanding the tool set to include News Production System (NPS), NRCS, Media Asset Management (MAM) Systems and Content Management System (CMS) to cater for the growing volume of media assets and online distribution.

But this complex web of tools contributes to fragmentation and silos between newsroom teams. So, is it time to evolve your newsroom technology once again?

Let’s explore how you can better align your newsroom technology with story-centric reporting through a new, centralized system that empowers digital and linear teams to break stories in real time, without relying on the other.

The Importance of Story-Centric Reporting to Modern Journalism

The way news is consumed and produced has fundamentally changed in the last 20 years.
With the rise of digital, audiences increasingly expect to engage with news stories as they break across streaming platforms, social media, and websites. Story-centric reporting empowers newsrooms to reach broader audiences and work smarter—repurposing content across channels to break stories as they happen, maximize reach and reduce duplication of effort for digital and linear teams.

So, how does story-centric reporting impact delivery for broadcast journalists?

1. Speed and Agility

Breaking news waits for no one. To stay relevant, journalists need to be the first to break a story. This means they need immediate and remote access to media assets, including archival footage and cloud-based editing systems like Dalet Cut to compile accurate, quality stories in real-time.

A story-centric workflow enables digital and linear teams, as well as journalists, freelancers and the many other news professionals to work on the same narrative at the same time, without needing to wait for the other. This means any updates and adjustments can be made at pace as new information becomes available, ensuring the story evolves fluidly across channels. Having access to modern solutions combining NPS, NRCS, PAM, and MAM into a single, story-centric platform provides teams with the assets they need to react quickly while maintaining accuracy.

2. Consistency Across Platforms

Inconsistent or disjointed narratives can confuse audiences and dilute the impact of a story. Journalists require tools that help them adapt stories for different formats without sacrificing the integrity of the message.

Story-centric reporting ensures that the core message is preserved across channels, enhancing the audience’s understanding and engagement. With the capabilities to ensure all relevant assets are connected to the same story, teams can maintain consistent messaging across all distribution channels and get the story out faster.

3. Collaboration Without Silos

Modern reporting demands that all newsroom teams including linear, digital and social work together regardless of their location. Traditional newsroom workflows often separate linear and digital production, leading to silos and inefficiencies.

Story-centric reporting breaks down these barriers by uniting all contributors around a single narrative giving all stakeholders access to resources, updates, and insights in real-time, so digital teams can produce stories before the broadcast is finalized and linear teams can incorporate digital insights—ensuring a seamless workflow between teams for more cohesive storytelling.

How to Align Your Newsroom Technology with Story-Centric Workflows

Although modern news production systems support a story-centric approach, digital and linear teams are often left using different tools impeding collaboration and efficiency. To capitalize on the story-centric reporting needed for future-proofing the newsroom, you need more than just upgraded hardware—you need an integrated platform that evolves with changing workflows. Dalet unifies the core newsroom technology of NRCS, NPS and MAM into a single, unified newsroom solution that integrates with your CMS to provide:

1. Centralized Planning Around Stories

To move to story-centric workflows, you need story-centric capabilities within your planning, NRCS, and production system. If you have separate platforms across your workflow you can suffer from misalignment and loss of connection to the original story.

Dalet’s unified news solution, Dalet Pyramid, combines your planning, NRCS, NPS and MAM for a story-centric news production approach. With all the tools you need in one place, your teams can manage all aspects of production from a central hub—maximizing access and collaboration. Centralizing your tools in this way simplifies planning, enabling teams to focus on the core story and not navigating disparate systems. This means digital teams don’t have to wait for a linear broadcast before covering stories as they break.

2. Multi-Platform Distribution

Today’s audiences expect news tailored to their preferred platforms. Meeting these expectations requires publishing to multiple distribution channels quickly and effectively.

Dalet Pyramid ensures that stories can be easily adapted and distributed to TV, social media, and digital platforms simultaneously. Linear teams no longer need to finalize a broadcast before repurposing content for digital teams—everything can move forward concurrently. With seamless CMS integration, stories can be published to your desired digital channel directly from the same system used for TV. This means that both teams can create platform-specific versions of a story without duplicating effort, allowing for broader reach with minimal delays.

3. Enhanced Collaboration Across Teams

At the heart of a story-centric workflow is collaboration and so breaking down silos between linear and digital teams is critical. Dalet Pyramid enhances collaboration through:

• Real-time updates: All contributors can access the latest version of a story, ensuring alignment and reducing duplication of effort.
• Remote Collaboration: Multi-user, real-time collaboration from anywhere on scripts ensures alignment, accuracy and speed to delivery.
• Shared media assets: By centralizing media storage, Dalet’s platform empowers teams to work from the same pool of resources e.g. digital teams can access archival content as a story breaks for accurate, digital-first stories, while linear teams can incorporate elements prepared by digital contributors into their broadcast like graphics or social insights.
• Cross-discipline integration: From social media managers to on-air producers, all team members can contribute to a single, cohesive story within the same platform.

By facilitating collaboration, Dalet’s unified platform ensures a more consistent and efficient story-centric workflow.

4. Simplified Media Access

Having quick access to media assets is vital for crafting impactful stories as they break, especially for digital channels where speed matters most.

Dalet’s integrated MAM functionality ensures that digital and linear teams have instant access to centralized media assets, regardless of location. For example, digital contributors working remotely can pull footage, graphics, or statistics from the archive without delay, streamlining their workflow and covering stories as they break.

Dalet: Enabling You to Focus on Storytelling

The mission of newsrooms has always been to tell impactful stories and in today’s multi-platform environment, technology can either be a barrier or an enabler.

When it comes to story-centric reporting, news systems often have fragmented tech stacks that force digital and linear teams to spend time switching between tools, managing assets and troubleshooting workflows. Dalet Pyramid simplifies newsroom operations by integrating planning, production, delivery and management, eliminating the need for separate tools and boosting collaboration between teams.

By centralizing these capabilities, Dalet helps you focus on what truly matters; delivering compelling stories as they break to audiences everywhere.

Ready to level-up your story-centric reporting? Request a demo.

The post Aligning Newsroom Technology with Story-Centric Workflows appeared first on Dalet.

• Work with your content faster: access, edit, and deliver content while it’s being ingested.
• Increased format support: seamlessly manage the latest production and post-production formats.
• Easier review & approval: eliminate bottlenecks and review on-the-go.
• Gain key business insights: keep tabs on system usage and related costs.

Let’s take a closer look at how the latest LTS release of Dalet Flex provides these benefits.

Live Scenarios

Efficiently managing, editing, and producing content while it is being ingested has become increasingly critical to meet current audience demands. Dalet Flex addresses this need even before content recording starts. When recordings are scheduled in Dalet Brio or Dalet InStream, placeholder assets are automatically created. These placeholders allow you to organize your media and pre-populate it with metadata in advance. Once recording begins, these placeholders become live-growing assets. Within Dalet Flex, you can preview, enrich with additional metadata, and even clip segments in real time. Live scenarios extend beyond Dalet’s ingest solutions, with added support for importing growing OP1a MXF and H.264 DASH files from Telestream Vantage and previewing them in FlexMAM.

If you need added editing functionality besides basic clipping, Dalet Cut now offers full editing workflows for growing assets. All collections created within Dalet Flex, including your ingesting assets, are accessible in Dalet Cut. This allows editors to seamlessly access both their editing tools and all of their content via a web browser from anywhere. Growing files can be directly added to the timeline and extended out as they grow. Dalet Cut timelines, complete with all ingested or still-growing content, are part of your media library and can be distributed using the same delivery workflows you already have. 

For more advanced editing, you can use FlexXtend within Adobe Premiere Pro: whether you’re starting your edit in Premiere or picking up a Dalet Cut edit, high-resolution growing assets are now available for editing through the Adobe integration panel.

More Formats

With a plethora of formats already in use, and new ones emerging regularly, the ability to manage and edit content in any format is crucial for business expansion. The latest Dalet Flex updates provide additional support for both production and post-production formats. A production-connected MAM must accommodate this variety, and Dalet Flex now extends its support to a wide array of camera formats, including updated R3D, ProRes Raw, and more.

For post-production workflows, the latest Dalet Flex LTS version introduces MXF Op-Atom support, allowing seamless import, transcode, metadata extraction, and export to facilitate full integration from Flex Core, FlexMAM, and FlexCUT into Avid Media Composer. Alongside video codecs, we have integrated additional formats such as .gfx so you can centralize and efficiently manage all your media through Flex.

Efficiency and Insights

While Dalet Flex significantly automates media workflows, certain critical aspects, such as review and approval, still require human involvement. The latest LTS version brings further improvements to the recently revamped Review & Approval application, offering users increased clarity in ongoing reviews through improved assignment notation and advanced search and filtering options. This enables reviewers to prioritize and identify what requires their attention next. Additionally, you can now access review sessions via FlexMobile, accelerating delivery by enabling users to work from anywhere.

And whether you need to identify open review sessions, or monitor potential bottlenecks across production workflows, understanding system usage and anticipating issues are crucial to gaining operational efficiency. Recent updates to Dalet Flex provide expanded data and dashboards for increased in-depth system monitoring, including user, workflow, and resource utilization insights. For AWS-hosted instances, additional data collection facilitates advanced cost monitoring, enabling cloud cost analysis at the project level. This allows for granular reporting on a per-production basis for storage, data transfer, and transcoding expenses.

There’s more…

At Dalet, we remain committed to delivering updates that help our clients enhance their operations and expand their business opportunities. With its cloud-native architecture built on microservices, the Dalet Flex platform is consistently updated to ensure compatibility, security, and the introduction of new features. Beyond the updates mentioned above, additional features and fixes have been implemented. For detailed release notes and documentation, please visit the Dalet Support Hub.

The post Accelerate Production and Expand Business Opportunities with the Latest Dalet Flex Release  appeared first on Dalet.

Demand for Sports Content is Skyrocketing

The way fans consume sports content is evolving. Over 95% of US sports fans now subscribe to some form of sports VOD service, documentaries like Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ are generating new international audience bases and the global sports streaming market is projected to reach $133.98 billion by 2030.

This growing demand is pushing sports organizations to manage and distribute their media more efficiently. Sports brands are evolving into de facto media companies.

Content strategies are extending beyond single-channel domestic broadcasting deals, positioning organizations as global content producers in their own right. Historically, rights holders have relied on broadcasters and media partners for revenue. However, the landscape is being shaken up by new stakeholders, such as technology companies and athletes, generating innovative revenue streams and expanding IP monetization.

New Direct and Indirect Opportunities

Advances in media capture, media asset management (MAM), workflow automation, distribution and monetization are helping companies to make the most of these opportunities.

While MAM systems such as Dalet Flex have always offered unfettered access to content archives, they are evolving to provide sports organizations with the tools they need to maximize the potential of their video assets. This has generated new avenues for direct monetization (the licensing and selling of content) and indirect monetization (leveraging archives to enhance or produce new content).

So, how is this playing out in practice? Here are five ways teams, leagues, federations and even sports broadcasters are using MAM solutions to monetize their sports content:

Licensing Storefronts

Media-rich sports organizations are providing their own branded online storefront experiences, leveraging MAM systems for backend content provision and delivery. One of the primary ways storefront portal systems provide content monetization opportunities is through access-based models.

Leagues and federations typically license out the rights to live coverage, replays and highlights over a set period. Media owners can leverage storefront solutions to provide access to all the content a third-party broadcaster is entitled to, without the need to pay for specific clips.

At Dalet, we partner with Veritone, a leader in human-centered AI solutions, to provide slick, customer-facing storefronts. Dalet Flex’s media asset management and workflow ecosystem, combined with Veritone’s AI-powered Digital Media Hub, allows for frictionless curation and sale of valuable assets. Pricing can be set depending on the usage type, content and region.

Through Dalet and Veritone’s partnership, sports organizations can launch licensing storefronts for B2B transactions, providing broadcasters with access to cleared, indexed and metadata-rich video in a highly secure environment in seconds. The Dalet workflow engine then helps to power content distribution. Its robust API framework paired with cloud and hybrid deployments enables connection to all distribution channels. Content teams can therefore work with great agility to realize monetization opportunities.

Storefront Ecommerce

With storefront ecommerce models, sports organizations can create platforms akin to stock image and video sites, where media, marketing and commerce teams purchase video clips from the archive. In some instances, teams use the same functionality to provide fans with premium content access too. In-game footage, plus interviews, press conferences, and behind-the-scenes clips all suddenly become additional sources of revenue.

The MAM system easily provides the right access to controlled collections of clips, based on licensing agreements. All videos are tagged with accurate, AI-driven metadata, meaning customers can quickly find the footage they are looking for and purchase.

OTT and FAST

Streaming services are having a massive impact on sports, with live-streamed sporting events doubling in the US over the last six years. It’s no secret that streaming heavyweights like Apple TV and Netflix are keen to break into the major sports arena, while Amazon Prime’s forays into NFL in the US and Premier League Football in the UK have proved a success.

Over-the-top (OTT) distribution services and Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST) platforms have opened up a whole world of new monetization avenues for rights holders.

OTT providers like ESPN+ and Dalet customer DAZN expand content delivery and reach beyond traditional broadcasting routes. Media owners are even creating subscription-powered platforms in their own right, such as the WWE and their WWE Network. MAM systems are powering many of these services, delivering content matched to user searches, with speed and accuracy.

This democratization of distribution is helping to free audiences from regional and scheduling constraints. More fresh content is being produced and broadcasted to a much wider global audience. For sports organizations, OTT is becoming a powerful tool to grow reach, influence and revenue.

FAST services, such as Tubi, XumoTM and the UK’s ITVx, offer free, ad-supported streaming. This platform format’s emergence has allowed streaming companies to create specialty networks. Broadcasters are increasingly launching channels focusing on a single sport or niche interest area.

For instance, DAZN recently launched a FAST service dedicated to women’s football. This is already generating large viewership figures and advertising revenue. Viewership of their Women’s Champions League channel grew 17% during the 2022/23 season, receiving 50 million views across 230 global territories. This led to DAZN collaborating with Visa on ‘The Visa FanZone’ for the knockout rounds of the 23/24 competition. The interactive online fan portal ran alongside video content and delivered 72m impressions for the brand.

Advertiser interest in these channels is quickly growing, particularly for live sports via OTT and FAST. Innovative picture-in-picture ads and QR code formats are driving business in the space.

As Jon Diament, head of advertising sales for Warner Bros. Discovery explained to the Hollywood Reporter: “You have a combination of live and VOD, all ad supported. So there are new elements for the sports marketplace, and advertisers love reaching new audiences on new platforms.”

Repurposing Archive Content

Existing content archives can be a goldmine for generating new material and if there’s one thing sports broadcasters have a lot of, it’s footage!

Pulling together a package of a golfer’s greatest shots or a highlight reel of the best track and field moments from the 1992 Olympic games was something that used to take a lot of time and effort. The process would usually involve dispersed team members scouring physical archives for footage across multiple locations.

Media-rich sports organizations can now use the power of AI-generated metadata to search for all clips in their archive that show a particular action or event. Say, for instance, a sports broadcaster wishes to create content around buzzer-beating 3 pointers from the NBA. With production-connected MAMs like Data Flex, producers are able to track down all last gasp, match-winning shots in seconds. This makes the formulation of clip shows, and even entire series made exclusively from archived footage, much easier to create.

This approach saves on production costs and creates new revenue opportunities through ad sales.

AI-assisted Ad Sales and Sponsorship

Not long ago, media libraries were unnavigable jungles of content, where finding a specific object or clip was a painstaking task. However, advances in MAM systems’ automated and AI-powered metadata tagging have changed things.

With Dalet Flex, it’s possible to search an entire media library in seconds using facial and object recognition. Users can track down all clips containing a specific person’s face, even if they are merely a passing by in the back of the shot.

AI capabilities are having a big impact on ad sales and sponsorship revenue in sports. For example, the NBA uses the technology to tag players, making clip-sourcing for sponsors much easier.

Football clubs are using similar methods to identify how often, and for how long, sponsor logos are shown on screen during a match. This is making it easier to sell lucrative shirt sponsorships and advertising hoarding positions, with screen time data being used to back up advertising effectiveness. Dalet Flex’s analytics and reporting functionality makes it easier than ever for our customers to run reports and relay information to their partners.

Ready to Start Monetizing Your Sports Content?

As the distribution channels continue to evolve and the opportunity to capture a global audience broadens, media-rich sports organizations must stay ahead of the curve. By leveraging advanced technologies and strategic partnerships, they can unlock new revenue streams and maximize the value of their content. With tools like Dalet Flex, the possibilities for sports content monetization are vast and continually evolving.

Want to find out more? Speak to a Dalet representative today!

The post Sports Content Monetization: 5 Ways Sports Organizations are Monetizing Video and Media Archives appeared first on Dalet.

The proliferation of social media and streaming platforms has completely changed how sports fans interact with the leagues they follow and the teams they support. Discussions of last night’s game are no longer confined to the office water cooler. Fan engagement has become big business in its own right, with dedicated supporters hungry to consume on and off-field content around the clock.

Direct-to-consumer video and over-the-top (OTT) media services are helping to unlock substantial revenue streams and open up new markets around the world. At the same time, TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are making fans more accustomed to consuming bite-sized content. A recent survey by Deloitte claimed that the future of sports fandom could hinge on captivating Gen Z and Gen Alpha fans with personalized and interconnected digital experiences. These factors have made fast-paced content production integral to the success – and the bottom line – of sports organizations of all types.

For teams, and the leagues and federations they compete in, the creation of an efficient media workflow can mean the difference between a winning content strategy and the scoring of an own goal. Putting tenuous sports puns aside for one moment, teams, leagues, and federations have joined broadcasters in the need for robust, production-connected media asset management (MAM), distribution, and monetization systems that streamline and accelerate the game-to-fans content workflow.

With 2024’s sporting calendar packed to the brim, including the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris (practically next door to Dalet HQ), how are sports organizations leveraging MAM solutions to accelerate their media workflows?

Ready, Set, Go: The End-to-End Sports Production Workflow

Before we start, let’s define the end-to-end sports production workflow. In essence, this covers everything from multistream ingest, transcoding, and content enrichment, all the way through to distribution, archive, and monetization.

For sports organizations that need to move fast, getting media into the production system at speed helps to accelerate all workflows.

While speed is paramount, quality is also key in delivering captivating experiences for fans. Solutions that enable the capture of rich content, that can then be transcoded, cut and distributed to multiple channels easily, are highly sought after.

The most savvy teams and organizations are focused on making processes faster and breaking down physical barriers for field teams. They are looking for remote and collaborative services to help ensure a flow of content from multiple sources and contributors without complexity. In addition, they need back-office processes that can automate useful metadata creation, packaging, and delivery to all digital outlets, at scale.

To help streamline processes, many sports organizations are looking to cloud-native MAM solutions with production capabilities, such as Dalet Flex. As we know, MAM and PAM solutions are converging to help deliver seamless media workflows. But which features specifically benefit sports firms and help to accelerate sports production workflows?

Live Elastic Ingest: Faster Content, From Kick-off

When it comes to live sports, capturing every moment from every angle is crucial. For a lot of organizations, matchday content is sourced from multiple sources and locations. This might include different camera crews, field journalists, partners, producers, and fans.

With so much live video to capture, it’s important to handle the volume and variety of sources, all while bringing in content with the rich metadata required to keep your library organized and efficient. This saves time and effort later down the line.

At Dalet, we developed Dalet InStream for this exact purpose. Dalet InStream seamlessly manages multicam, multifeed ingest to the cloud, as the action unfolds. This is a real time-saver, allowing editors to start working on live feeds while they’re still growing, producing edited clips in real time.

Dalet InStream’s flexibility and scalability is a major advantage. It can handle as many channels as required on a game day. With multiple feeds available — with or without graphics and various commentaries — every aspect of the live broadcast is captured and ready for the highlight reel. Channels can subsequently scale down to zero when there’s no action. This ensures no resources are wasted on off days.

One of London’s biggest soccer teams, Arsenal, uses Dalet Flex to offer their fans service well beyond the live match experience. Our custom solution delivers frictionless ingesting, processing, reviews and approvals, before content is seamlessly delivered to the club’s viewers via in-app highlights and social media.

“Video is critical to football. It’s all about the match, and specifically, it’s all about the highlights. They want to show their mates in the pub, see it on their mobile, watch it at home or on their desk at work.”

– John Dollin, Senior Product and Engineering Manager, Arsenal Football Club

Cloud and On-premises: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

A lot of sports organizations require hybrid MAM solutions, particularly when niche technical equipment and high-res video formats combine with legacy systems. Take the case of Monumental Sports & Entertainment in Washington. The company owns and operates the NHL’s Washington Capitals, the Washington Wizards of the NBA and WNBA’s Washington Mystics team, amongst others.

The group needed a solution for its new full SMPTE 2110 broadcast facility which was a format that the legacy system was unable to ingest. Our on-premises ingest solution, Dalet Brio, was the answer. Dalet Brio is perfect for SDI and IP high-res formats like 4K and HDR, ensuring top-tier content capture.

Dalet InStream and Brio can be used in tandem to cover both cloud and on-premises ingest needs in a way that is both connected and centralized.

Chop and Change With Advanced Editing Capabilities

Editing could be described as the star playmaker in the sports production workflow, connecting content ingest, transcoding, and tagging with distribution and monetization.

For digital and social media professionals, editing functions that sit within production-connected MAM systems, such as Dalet Cut, are making it easy to engage fans with real-time highlights and key moments. Editorial teams are rapidly creating highlights from live streams or existing content inventory. These can be quickly published to all digital platforms at the touch of a button.

Production-connected systems also provide easy access to broadcast footage and archive clips for traditional broadcast and replay purposes. Tools, such as Dalet Xtend, seamlessly connect MAM systems with creative applications like Adobe Premiere Pro, making the creation of highlights and edited packages for live coverage far easier.

Editing tools are also having an impact away from back-office functions, affecting play closer to the pitch. With lightweight, web-based editors, coaching staff are whipping up highlight reels and tactical clips for halftime reviews and post-game analysis in record time. This is giving forward-thinking teams a competitive edge.

Transcoding At Speed For Pitch Perfect Distribution

Transcoding is the process of converting a video file from one format to another, making it compatible with various devices and platforms. This is an important part of the sports content production workflow, particularly when content needs to be adapted for broadcast, streaming, and social media clips simultaneously.

Standards conversions are very important in sports as well, particularly for frame rates and HDR. If a broadcast is shot in 60fps HDR, it may need to be converted to 30fps SDR for social media, or converted to 50fps for international distribution.

Once live content has been ingested, transcoding ensures it will look great on any device, from the biggest screens to the smallest.

Dalet Flex efficiently manages distribution to transcoders and encoders, ensuring high-quality content for fans, whether they’re watching on a smartphone, tablet, or TV. However, with Dalet InStream, producers can record both broadcast quality and proxy files at the same time, removing the need for time-consuming transcoding. This is a game changer for workflow acceleration.

Speed is important but so too is quality. Another of our proprietary solutions, Dalet AmberFin, has its own transcode engine that can be deployed on premises, in the cloud (or both) to deliver consistent high quality results. The scalability of the cloud allows users to ramp up their transcoding operation on game day and scale back down when it’s not in use.

Content Enrichment Through AI-Powered Metadata

Metadata creation is the unsung hero of efficient media management. More and more MAM solutions are using AI to supercharge the process. Sports organizations are capitalizing on these advancements.

In addition to typical content tagging for efficient retrieval later down the line, teams, and leagues are further enriching their sports content metadata through external match data providers and AI sources. With Dalet Flex, sports feeds from providers like Opta and Sports Radar can be integrated to enable a real-time data layer for key metrics like goals and possession stats. Our AI integrations take this further, enhancing content with even more metadata such as face, logo, and voice recognition. This allows users to find the exact moment they are looking for, with all elements in frame.

From here, all of this advanced metadata can be used to curate your edit bin, auto-generate highlights, and generate speech-to-text transcriptions, saving valuable time and money.

The End Goal: Distribution and Monetization

Getting content out to the right platforms is crucial to maximizing its value. Digital content has become a major revenue generator for the biggest teams in sports. Back to the world of soccer, the Financial Times reports that Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona collectively garnered over 2.9 billion Instagram engagements in 2023, while Manchester City was able to grow its new WhatsApp channel to over 254 million members. Video content posted to this channel is now a major driver of traffic to the club’s £5/month streaming subscription service, City+.

Advanced production-connected MAM systems streamline distribution to archive and monetization platforms, ensuring content can start generating engagement and revenue quickly and efficiently. A great example of this workflow in real life is the partnership of Dalet and Veritone and the integration of Dalet Flex and Veritone’s AI-powered Digital Media Hub.

On the leagues and federations side of things, having sophisticated control over content rights is imperative. Organizations are utilizing MAM solutions to make sure users and partners can view or edit only the information that is relevant to them. Other use cases for this functionality includes presenting a subset of metadata to referees, coaching staff, production teams, league clubs, and OTT fans.

At Dalet, we help a leading international sports broadcaster deliver live football highlights within minutes to dozens of licensees worldwide. Using workflow automation within Dalet Flex, a complex process is simplified and streamlined to ensure service-level agreements are met, expanding the broadcaster’s revenue options.

Dalet and Veritone recently tackled the subject in the comprehensive webinar and Q&A, ‘Score Big: Unlocking the Power of Sports Media for Fan Engagement & Revenue Boosts’ which is available for you to take a shot at on-demand now!

Ready to Accelerate Your Sports Production Workflow?

With video content only becoming more powerful, more and more sports organizations are exploring the benefits of production-connected MAM solutions to their media production workflows. Here at Dalet, we’re leveraging Dalet Flex to increase agility, generate efficiency, and maximize content value for major sports-affiliated companies across the globe.

At the heart of Dalet Flex’s media workflow is its automated workflow engine. This powerful tool automates the entire production process, from ingest and editing to metadata enrichment and distribution. By streamlining these workflows, we ensure that sports content moves smoothly through the production pipeline, reducing time-to-air while enhancing overall efficiency.

If you think your team, league, federation or broadcaster could benefit from our production-connected MAM solutions for sports, get in touch with a Dalet representative today.

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Production budgets are being squeezed, ways of working are becoming more complex, and global, remote teams face more challenges than ever when it comes to collaborating effectively. This is driving a need for better collaboration tools across media workflows, and thus an increased demand for agile MAM systems with production capabilities.

At Dalet, we’ve responded to this change with the development of Dalet Flex, the world’s first production-connected MAM.

So, what exactly is a production-connected MAM and how does it help foster collaboration for creative teams in real terms?

A MAM That Serves User Needs

At the heart of Dalet Flex is FlexMAM, the main interface that serves as the gateway to your organization’s media assets. FlexMAM makes it easy to upload, organize and review assets, search for and update metadata, begin editing, export edit decision lists (EDLs), and trigger workflows.
Unlike traditional asset management systems that categorize files by folders, FlexMAM adopts a flexible data model with customizable taxonomies. Robust filtering and search capabilities are built in, ensuring that asset search and retrieval is as intuitive as it is frictionless. This approach encourages team members to explore and use assets more efficiently.

Improved Collaboration from Import to Archive

The platform offers a suite of web-based applications designed to streamline every stage of a typical media workflow. In addition to FlexMAM our core applications encourage collaboration in the following ways:

• FlexMOVE simplifies the import process, allowing users to upload content from various sources directly into Dalet Flex, supporting every file type.
• Dalet Cut provides editing capabilities, enabling users to work on videos directly within the web interface, enhancing collaboration between editors and producers.
• FlexREVIEW facilitates the review and approval process, allowing teams to provide feedback and make decisions swiftly.
• FlexTRACK offers a real-time overview of workflows, ensuring everyone involved is up-to-date with the progress of projects.
• FlexXTEND allows access to media libraries directly from NLEs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, enabling remote production workflows.
• FlexMOBILE allows users to work from anywhere with an easy-to-use application available on Android and iOS devices.
• FlexADMIN allows users and administrators to manage users, groups and workspaces in an account.

These applications are fully web-based. This ensures accessibility from anywhere, improving collaboration across different locations and time zones.

In addition, the wider Dalet ecosystem consists of a selection of tools that streamline the wider technical video production process. High-density ingest and playout, media conversion, real-time multilayer graphics and augmentation through AI are all taken care of by our suite of complementary products.

How This Enables Collaboration Across Media Workflows in Practice

In the past, MAM systems were seen as tools to support content managers and archivists.
With a production-connected MAM, the lives of individual users across the media workflow are made easier. What’s more, team members reap the benefits of features that encourage collaboration.
This is especially important as modern studios and production teams utilize hybrid working and remote collaboration. It’s unrealistic to expect all relevant stakeholders to sit within the same building at the same time. Effective delegation, providing feedback, changing creative direction, editing on the fly and meeting tight deadlines – these are all tasks that have become more challenging in recent years as a result.

Luckily, production-connected MAMs boast cloud-native features that help to simplify and automate processes, bringing colleagues and collaborators closer together… even when they’re split across cities, countries and continents.

So, how does this is bear fruit in practice:

1- Easy access for multiple users

Video production and media management is a group effort and production projects can be fluid. Freelancers often need to be brought onto projects and given access to the right media, often without much lead time.

Within a production-connected MAM like Dalet Flex, project owners can easily grant access to multiple users and set permissions accordingly.

Users, groups and workspaces can be created quickly, at the touch of a button, and it’s easy to add or remove members to and from groups and workspaces at speed.

When personnel changes or user permissions need to be adjusted, having a MAM that is able to react in real time is crucial.

Who benefits: Producer, Director, Project Lead

2- Collaborative editing on the fly

Dalet Cut further enhances collaborative efforts by enabling teams to work together on editing processes.

As a lightning-fast multimedia editing tool with native access to the full media library, users of all video editing skill levels can quickly edit and publish content from anywhere. Anyone with a web browser can begin editing and assembling a project, which can then be seamlessly handed over to another editor.
Versions of edited files with different aspect ratios for all playout scenarios can be quickly created and distributed to multiple platforms directly from the edit suite.

For more involved edits, there’s frictionless connection between Dalet Cut and advanced NLEs such as Premiere Pro. This enables a smooth transition when projects need to cross from MAM to the editing suite. Dalet Xtend allows Premier Pro users to access the same collection of media and edit lists, making it extra easy to pick things up where they were left.

Who Benefits: Editor, Producer, VFX, Colorist, Finisher

3- Faster asset retrieval via advanced search

Locating assets by metadata allows users to find exactly what they need without the typical hassle associated with large libraries.

Moreover, Dalet Flex’s taxonomy-based structure, along with technical filters, affords the ability to refine searches by characteristics such as asset type, frame rate, language, and more. Need to find all clips shot in 4:3, in German, with owned rights, that feature… elephants? No problem.

There is also the functionality to save and share searches. If a user has a detailed search request that they frequently use, they no longer need to repetitively type it in and apply relevant filters. Instead, the process can be saved and repeated at the click of a button. This action can also be shared with other users.

Faster, more efficient retrieval helps create time for more creativity and collaboration at other stages of the workflow.

Who benefits: Archivist, Ingest Manager, QC, Legal, Producer, Editor, Sales

4- Better curated media through collections

Central to Dalet Flex is the creation and management of collections. These serve as repositories for organized production assets. Collections can include assets, clips, and sub-collections, with customizable access and metadata settings.

They help production teams to better curate the media they work with.

For instance, collections help to simplify the process of bringing together a selection of assets to be later used in editorial.

The collection can be shared with other users, either to send them the finalized content selection or help contribute to the curation process further.

Who benefits: Producer, Editor

5- Simplified workflow orchestration and automation

Dalet Flex’s Workflow Designer turns the process of building workflows into a frictionless, drag-and-drop experience. Users can visually map out a project’s flow using a variety of “ingredients” like actions, resources, and scripts. They can then select and arrange these elements to design a perfect workflow. This can either be launched into action immediately or saved as a draft for later refinement.

Workflows can run manually, or even more efficiently through automation. Project leads can select specific sets of business rules and metadata properties, enabling complex workflows to run automatically.

This type of orchestration helps to bring about greater collaboration. It enables the correct people to receive content or notifications at the right steps of the workflow, keeping everyone involved informed and in sync.

Who benefits: Everyone working across the project

6- Streamlined review and approval processes

Dalet Flex Review streamlines the feedback and approval processes.

Team members can comment directly on assets, providing clear and actionable time-coded feedback that can be exported straight into editing software. This can be done anywhere, at any time, as long as the user is connected to the internet, and comments can be searched for across the media library.

Advanced workflows can be set up to trigger certain actions based on review sessions. For example, if a copyright concern crops up, an email can be automatically triggered for Legal to review.

This helps bring the right team members into the production process efficiently – only looping them in when needed.

Who Benefits: Producer, Editor, Director, Legal, QC, VFX, Colorist, Finisher

7- Improved archiving through metadata management

Dalet Flex integrates AI technologies to enhance natural language and visual content processing. This allows for efficient and detailed metadata generation. Users can therefore search for assets based on what is contained within shot, as well as what features within various audio tracks.

This turns content discovery from a laborious chore into a task that is second nature. Teams are able to work more harmoniously when the content they require is within easy reach.

Who benefits: Archivist, Ingest Manager, QC, Producer, Editor, Sales

8- Advanced integration with other systems and platforms

Even with a MAM as comprehensive as Dalet Flex, third party apps, programs, and systems will still likely be used across the production process. Dalet Flex’s capability to integrate with external systems through APIs means that it can seamlessly fit into existing workflows, connecting with traffic systems, task management software, and more.

This integration capability, coupled with automation features, streamlines operations, reducing manual work and allowing teams to focus on creative tasks.

Who Benefits: Producer, Editor, Project Lead

Get Ready to Boost Your Own Media Workflow Collaboration

By centralizing asset management, streamlining approval processes, and enabling real-time collaboration, Dalet Flex empowers you to produce high-quality content faster and more efficiently than ever before. Whether you’re managing a small team or coordinating large-scale media production, Dalet Flex’s adaptable and intuitive platform is built to help teams work better together, at every stage of the production process.

If you’re keen to hear more information about Dalet’s production-connected MAM services or are looking to increase collaboration in your own media workflows, get in touch with a Dalet representative today.

The post How Production-connected MAM Enables Collaborative Media Workflows appeared first on Dalet.

Dalet AmberFin is a leading transcoding and media processing solution that delivers trusted media conversions wherever you need it. It has earned recognition for meeting the highest quality standards across the entire media supply chain, to deliver the best possible viewer experience – all while abiding by rigorous certifications. The latest updates to Dalet AmberFin continue to build on this reputation by bringing new codec support and elastic workflows to the platform.

With new camera models, codecs, and standards surfacing daily, Dalet AmberFin supports a wide array of the most common advanced formats and standards, from capture to distribution. Whether high-end RAW camera formats, such as RED Raw or Adobe DNG, advanced delivery workflows like Dolby Vision HDR or standards’ conversions, Dalet AmberFin has got you covered. The latest release has expanded codec support to include ProRes Raw, Nikon NEF, and more. Be sure to check the latest datasheet for a comprehensive list of supported codecs and standards.

Premium Quality

Our ongoing commitment to adding capabilities to Dalet AmberFin is not just about supporting new codecs – but about processing and delivering those codecs at the highest possible quality. With the current media landscape being intensely competitive, giving your content a superior edge will give you a headstart. Whether it’s frame-rate conversions, color space conversion, or HDR tone mapping, Dalet AmberFin delivers superior quality results, certified by industry leaders such as Apple and Dolby. This is made possible through Dalet AmberFin’s proprietary transcode engine, designed and optimized to serve high-end media and entertainment companies.

Elasticity and Deployment Flexibility

While quality is paramount, it must be paired with efficiency to stay competitive. Dalet AmberFin accomplishes this with a flexible architecture that allows for on-premises, cloud, or hybrid deployments. Dalet AmberFin Cloud introduces a new level of agility with elastic processing, enabling limitless scalability. Whether you already have AmberFin nodes or existing on-premises hardware, you can augment it with additional elastic cloud expansion that maximizes efficiency. ​​​​​​By leveraging the cloud’s power, you can adjust your processing power with a flexible pay-per-hour model, minimizing your on-premises resources and upfront investment.​​​ Depending on your use case, you can see a savings of up to 50% with cloud deployments over fixed on-prem nodes. ​ Dalet AmberFin Cloud utilizes the same proprietary transcoding engine regardless of your deployment, offering you the best of both worlds – elastic processing and top-tier quality results.

State-of-the-Art Automation

​​A powerful workflow engine is the final crucial component of a successful media processing solution – to maximize speed, quality, and elasticity automation is critical. Dalet AmberFin houses a robust workflow engine with a graphical workflow designer for you to create and manage your processes. It also provides a complete set of APIs for integration with your existing workflows. Built on the same unified platform as the rest of the Dalet ecosystem, Dalet AmberFin enables even more streamlined and optimized integrations with Dalet Flex, Dalet Pyramid, and Dalet Galaxy five. This empowers you to take your media processing workflows to new heights.​​​​​

Leading media companies such as ​BBC, DAZN, NBC Universal, and Paramount Pictures have trusted Dalet AmberFin to handle their standards’ conversions, archive packaging and color conversions for over a decade.

Available on a subscription basis, Dalet AmberFin comes with various hosting and operation models including SaaS. On-premises, hybrid or in the cloud, in your environment or as a service, we offer flexible deployment options to meet your business constraints and ease technical transitions. Visit our product page to learn more or reach out for a demo today.

The post Leveraging Premium Media Processing for Business Success  appeared first on Dalet.

This convergence reflects the quickly evolving needs of the industry. In recent years a huge leap forward in technological capability has coincided with rising creative demands and shifting media consumption trends. This has all had a significant effect on how media businesses operate.

As a direct result, MAM systems are evolving to provide greater production functionality to users.

So, what is the nature of this change? What brought it on? And why is it that cloud-native MAMs have started to take on PAM features?

Asset Management: As It Was

Historically, PAM and MAM served distinct functions.

PAM was all about managing the media production process within a localized, on-premise environment. It facilitated collaborative work but limited it to a single location, where all media assets were stored on a central server, accessible only to those within the four walls of the business.

Conversely, MAM offered a centralized repository for all digital media files, offering easy access to finished content for users across an organization. It connected active workspaces with archives. Historically, this too took place mostly on premises.

Typically then, the intersection point between PAM and MAM was only once a project was complete.

However, several factors have prompted these systems to adopt features from each other. This has led to a convergence of PAM and MAM.

How the Evolution of Media and Production Has Prompted Change

Three recent media industry changes have accelerated demand for MAMs with greater production capabilities. This can be summarized as how people work, how people watch, and how it all happens.

1. How People Work: Creative Needs and Remote Access

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an exponential increase in the need for remote access, pushing the industry towards flexible work arrangements. A massive 92% of broadcasters now operate hybrid or fully remote working practices. Editorial and production teams need to collaborate effectively despite being geographically dispersed. This shift has necessitated access to media assets from anywhere, catering to new formats that demand higher bitrates and depth, adding to the complexity and volume of data managed remotely.

2. How People Watch: Consumption Trends

The way people consume media has changed too. 99% of US households now subscribe to at least one streaming service. There’s an increased demand for content, leading to higher volumes of media consumption and production. However, this surge doesn’t correspond with increased budgets for production companies. To maximize the investment in production assets, there’s a growing need to tap into archives to repurpose content. What’s more, global streaming platforms have opened up local markets to wider distribution deals. Creating new language versions of existing productions is a more common requirement. Content is less likely to ever be considered “finished” as a result.

3. How it Happens: Technology and Cloud Connectivity

The rise of cloud connectivity has been a key driver in blurring the lines between PAM and MAM. The adoption of cloud-native solutions allows for the storage and management of vast amounts of data more efficiently. Whilst a promise of the transformative effect of the cloud has been foreshadowed for decades, the technology is actually in use now. Cloud storage is being deployed to house petabytes of archives. This is a key driver in the blurring of MAM and PAM.

It should be noted that all three trends have been accelerated and exacerbated by recent economic changes. Higher inflation, market volatility, and general uncertainty brought about by major geopolitical events have led to a tightening of budgets across the board. Media companies are being forced to do more with less. Content repurposing and the development of additional monetization opportunities have become far greater necessities.

Convergence to Production-connected MAM

Today, what is being asked of PAM and MAM systems has almost become indistinct.

User requirements for both system types are converging. In response, we’ve developed a single, comprehensive asset management solution.

At Dalet, we refer to this as production-connected MAM. At its core, a production-connected MAM is a solution that manages content across the media supply chain, from acquisition to distribution.

This unified approach provides a central repository for all media assets, integrating production tools with archive environments. This facilitates the creation of content more efficiently, with accessibility from anywhere.

What this integration looks like:

• Production-Centric Media Library: A unified view into raw and finished media, enabling the connection and tracking of all content under one roof. This overlapping of previously distinct worlds significantly enhances productivity and insights.
• Insights and Efficiency: To avoid duplication and maximize existing content utilization, it’s now easier to identify which raw clips were used and in what context for any finished clip.
• Cost and Storage Monitoring: Cloud-native solutions offer lower total cost of ownership but require monitoring to prevent unexpected expenses. Modern MAM systems should provide detailed breakdowns of individual production costs, improving efficiency and decision-making as content demand grows.
• Comprehensive Ingest and Organization: Production-connected systems are format-agnostic, supporting a wide range of media types and facilitating automated workflows through proxy file creation, live ingest capabilities, and advanced media processing.
• Workflow Automation and Flexibility: The integration of MAM with Non-Linear Editing (NLE) systems and the implementation of workflow automation are core to the production-connected MAM concept. This not only simplifies the production process but also ensures greater mobility and efficiency, enabling rapid editing and rendering for multi-platform distribution.

A Use Case for Better Connecting MAM and PAM

One vertical where seamless, efficient workflow is increasingly important is sports broadcasting, where archival content plays a huge role in live transmission.

Fox Sports Australia recently approached us because its content wasn’t findable, it had disorganized metadata and its archives were not easily accessible.

Through the implementation of Dalet Flex, our production-connected MAM, we were able to build a centralized modern media library to provide ubiquitous access to content. We transported over 13,000 hours of live broadcast video to the cloud, where it became accessible to multiple teams across multiple sites. This provided the network’s production staff with powerful search tools that eased their content production pain points.

Ready to Streamline Your End-to-End Workflows?

The convergence of PAM and MAM represents a significant evolution for media organizations. At Dalet, we are leading the charge with Dalet Flex, our cloud-native, Production Media Asset Management solution.

Allowing our customers to make informed decisions and optimize their operations in an ever-changing media landscape is central to our thinking. By connecting not only to Dalet applications, but also to third-party systems through our robust API network, Flex sits at the core of any media operation.

This holistic approach not only streamlines the production process but also ensures that content creators can meet the growing demand for high-quality media with greater efficiency. To find out how Flex can integrate with your business, get in touch.

The post How Cloud-Native MAM is Adopting PAM Features for Seamless Media Workflows  appeared first on Dalet.

You’ve made a significant investment in capturing and creating engaging content. Now you need a well-thought-out strategy to maximize its potential. Enter monetization, the game-changer.

Monetization can be divided into two main categories: direct and indirect.

Let’s delve deeper.

Indirect Monetization – The Building Blocks

Indirect monetization means leveraging your existing content to enhance or even produce new content. This converts your archives into financial assets, saving or even eliminating content acquisition costs. Although you may not directly see this manifested as immediate revenue, this equates to true monetary value as it eliminates the need to purchase stock footage or shoot new content.

Consider a sports half-time show: incorporating clips and highlights from your archives to match ongoing discussions significantly enhances the viewing experience. In news production, it enables producers to create powerful stories that leverage archive stock on specific topics, such as a city’s evolution over time.

Direct Monetization – Generate New Revenue Streams

Direct monetization is the process of licensing or selling your content. One way can be by distributing finished content to consumers in a traditional TV, OTT or VOD format. A second, highly lucrative, revenue option is by licensing finished or raw content to other businesses through a digital storefront. This is the type of monetization that we will focus on for the rest of this blog.

The rise of digital storefronts allows businesses to create branded shopping experiences, with their content available for direct purchase. Customers can easily search to locate what they need, thanks to robust metadata, narrowing their searches to the exact section they require.

An additional use case is where portals provide licensees with access to the content they have purchased the rights to. A broadcaster, for example, may have paid for the rights to all of a league’s game replays and highlights for the year. So they leverage the storefront to access all the content they’re entitled to, without the need to pay for any specific clips.

Whereas storefronts present great revenue potential, they are only as good as the quality of their published content. Enter Dalet’s partnership with Veritone, which allows you to curate your most valuable assets through Dalet Flex’s powerful media management and Veritone’s AI-powered Digital Media Hub (“DMH”), featuring its commerce and monetization capabilities.

The joint offering enables a seamless workflow from content delivery through production, curation, packaging and distribution, empowering media, sports and entertainment organizations to monetize their digital media archives, while remaining in control of their content catalog.

By harnessing Dalet Flex’s versatile workflow engine and comprehensive metadata capabilities, media-rich organizations can decide exactly what is published to their store, and when. Business-driven automation monitors your entire archive, identifies suitable content and publishes it instantly, maximizing your store’s potential. This is key to monetizing content of all types and sizes, but particularly for sports and historical video archives.

Sports Content: the Need for Speed

Content monetization forms a crucial element of sports media workflows. In a world where sports rights are paramount, speed is the name of the game, with fans expecting swift delivery from the license holder. The faster your content reaches the storefront, the greater the revenue for you and your customers.

However, efficiency needs to go hand in hand with speed to stay ahead of the competition. The combination of Dalet Flex and Veritone’s DMH enables rapid delivery of proxies and metadata to your storefront, with your high-resolution content safely housed within your Dalet asset management environment.

Your customers can search, preview, and order their content through DMH, triggering the Dalet Flex workflow engine to automatically handle the request backstage which prepares and delivers the content based on the buyer’s requirements.

Uncover Hidden Treasures in Your Archives

The benefits of a storefront transcend sports distribution. Any company interested in licensing their content can now implement an effective direct monetization strategy. Be it a news organization or broadcaster licensing archives, or a studio leasing their shows to other businesses, a robust MAM and a modern storefront can unlock fresh revenue streams.

Our joint technology solution eliminates the need to duplicate data across siloed systems and brings increased value to any content owner. Dalet and Veritone share a common vision, committed to a long-term shared roadmap and outstanding customer service.

Whether you’re an existing Dalet Flex customer eyeing new revenue opportunities, or you’re in the market for a comprehensive solution that helps you manage and monetize your archives, the Dalet Flex and Veritone DMH integration is the answer.

The post Unlocking Revenue Streams: Monetizing Your Media Assets with Dalet and Veritone  appeared first on Dalet.

Media-focused businesses large and small are already reaping serious rewards from the integration of video archive systems with the cloud. These benefits go beyond simple cost savings and increased efficiency.

However, moving to the cloud is no easy feat. Whether you’re implementing a hybrid approach or looking to shift to a fully cloud-native solution, it’s important to follow a robust methodology. Enlisting the help of a partner who knows your business inside out and can provide the services you require is integral.

In this post, we explore the benefits of migrating your MAM to the cloud and outline how we as a business successfully implement such systems. But before that, let’s define what a cloud based Media Asset Management actually is.

What is a Cloud based Media Asset Management?

At its core, a cloud based Media Asset Management solution uses cloud services to store and serve content from media libraries as part of the production and distribution process.

However, in reality, “cloud-based” can have multiple meanings. It could refer to fully hosted solutions where every aspect of MAM is managed by a cloud provider. It may also refer to hybrid models, where certain elements remain on-premises while others are moved to the cloud.

It’s important to recognize that cloud based media asset management does not mean cloud-native MAM. At Dalet, we define a true cloud Media Asset Management system as an enterprise solution built with cloud-native architecture, made up of microservices and modular capabilities.

Key features of a cloud-native MAM include:

• Unified Content Catalog: where disparate media libraries are brought together into easy-to-access cloud storage.
• Workflow Orchestration and Automation: where standard and custom workflows are leveraged alongside AI technology to transcode, approve, publish, and more.
• Application Ecosystem: where a suite of cloud-native tools is curated to address the specific technical and editorial needs of an individual media business.

Are you overwhelmed by your extensive media library ? Our customers experience unmatched scalability with our Cloud-native MAM, designed to grow with your business seamlessly. Request Your Personalised MAM Demo Today!

Can a Cloud based Media Asset Management Coexist with an On-premises Solution?

Regardless of your architecture, a cloud based Media Asset Management does not have to exclusively use cloud storage. It can integrate with multiple cloud providers and on-premise storage to operate in a hybrid model.

Traditionally, the moving of a MAM to the cloud may have been contextualized as a classic “lift and shift.” In other words, the moving of on-premises, physical server-based storage to a virtual cloud-based archive.

While lift and shift options bring the accessibility of the cloud and remove on-premise infrastructure needs, they do not take full advantage of the cloud in the same way cloud-native architecture does.

What Services and Workflows Does a Cloud-Native MAM Impact?

While many lightweight web-based solutions exist, they lack the power of a cloud-native MAM capable of improving access, collaboration, and efficiency on an industrial scale, based on user needs.

While all features might not all be used across every implementation, an enterprise cloud-native MAM system will be comprised of several key technical components:

1. Cloud Storage: This is the backbone of a cloud-native MAM, providing scalable, secure, and cost-effective storage solutions for media assets across multiple storage tiers.
2. Intelligent Ingest – Ingest any media with relevant and enhanced technical and editorial metadata at scale regardless of where the media originates from, for example, watch folders, camera cards, live feeds (SDI, SMPTE IP, compressed IP), or file uploads.
3. Metadata Management: Essential for organizing, searching, and managing video files effectively. Cloud facilitates metadata capabilities through advanced tagging and indexing.
4. Workflow Engine & Automation – In-house ability to quickly create workflows that efficiently distribute content at every stage of the media supply chain ensuring secure, reliable access to assets 
5. Transcoding and Encoding Services: Cloud services can automatically convert media files into various formats and resolutions, making them suitable for different distribution channels and devices.
6. Integration APIs – These allow for seamless integration with other tools and systems such as NLEs, file transfer systems, AQCs, playout, monetization, analytics platforms, and more.

What are the Benefits of Implementing a Cloud-Native MAM System?

Following a successful migration, the benefits of implementing a cloud-native MAM system are numerous:

• Scalability: The cloud allows you to easily dynamically scale your storage and processing needs up or down without significant upfront investment.
• Accessibility: Users can access media assets from anywhere, at any time. Previously, clunky VPNs and high-speed internet connections may have been required to access media assets. With cloud a standard wi-fi connection is all that’s needed.
• Improved Workflows: Automation makes it easy to orchestrate your media supply chain and manage your storage costs. You can control where files are and when they are accessible. Metadata can also be used to determine when files are moved to and from cold storage, based on the specific needs of your operation.
• Cost Efficiency: Cloud reduces the total cost of ownership by removing the need for physical infrastructure and the associated maintenance costs, while improving your content security.
• Security: Cloud-native MAM systems leverage cloud provider security measures, including data encryption and secure multi-factor access controls.
• Content Monetization: Return on investment extends beyond financial savings. Cloud-native systems allow you to generate new revenue streams by licensing selected inventory to clients, partners and affiliates through integrations with modern digital storefronts.
• Innovation: Cloud-native architecture allows you to quickly adopt new features and technologies as they become available in the cloud ecosystem.
• Reliability: Cloud systems can take advantage of providers’ immense scale. No matter where you are in the world, you’ll always be near to a server location for quick, reliable access to archives. Cloud also removes barriers to high availability – AWS operates a “five nines” principle of 99.999% year-round availability and uptime.
• Energy Savings: Cloud data centers are up to 5x more energy-efficient than traditional data centers, reducing energy costs for companies that migrate to the cloud.

How Long Does It Take to See Benefits from Cloud-Native MAM?

The timeline to realize these benefits can vary. Typically, organizations begin to see improvements in operational efficiency and cost savings within the first few months after implementation. However, the full scope of benefits, especially those related to strategic advantages like improved content distribution and market responsiveness, may take longer to materialize.

But an uptick in performance can come quickly. When our customer France Télévisions was faced with a nationwide lockdown in March 2020, staff had no direct access to the company’s systems. We were able to rapidly implement remote cloud workflow solutions and restore operational strength in just 4 weeks.

Preparing to Move to The Cloud

Whether you’ve decided to move all or part of your MAM system to the cloud, there are several things to consider. Moving to the cloud is a big task — one that nobody wants to have to do twice — so it’s important to make the right choices.

Before any implementation, it’s important that your MAM provider has a holistic understanding of your business. This involves understanding your business’ current MAM setup and workflows, exploring how you operate with other vendors, and determining your needs and ambitions moving forward.

Moving to the cloud isn’t about having the latest and greatest, it’s about bringing real value to your operation and enabling you to achieve sustainable growth.

While all media-focused businesses are likely to benefit from the features we’ve already listed, your organization will have specific pain points that a cloud MAM can ease. It’s important to state clear aims and objectives.

If you’re a broadcaster, the aim may be to drastically improve the speed and efficiency of content delivery to meet tight deadlines. In the film industry, the focus might be on collaboration among geographically dispersed post-production teams. Setting the precise specifications for the cloud features you want to exploit is key.

Over the past 33 years, we’ve built significant experience in managing large-scale, multi-million-dollar projects. Over this time, we’ve created a set of standardized tools and methodologies to ensure the successful delivery of our projects.

Key Milestones for Successful Cloud-Native MAM Implementation

Though this varies depending on the nature of the project, our phased implementation approach typically includes:

• Project Initialization & Scope: working with you to define the scope of the project by setting high-level goals and objectives.
• Business Analysis Requirements: performing a study to determine the functional requirements of the desired system. This study includes an in-depth analysis of workflow, infrastructure, interoperability with third-party systems, and data migration from legacy systems.
• Project Planning & Design: writing a plan with detailed descriptions of key milestones throughout the project to ensure delivery is on time and within budget.
• Risk Management: anticipating risks and developing workarounds as needed.
  Integration & Customization Engineering: providing customization for integration with third-party applications, databases, legacy systems, or equipment – in other words, connecting to the tools your business already uses.
• Implementation & Configuration: working with you and third parties to implement and configure the system in accordance with the requirements.
• Acceptance Testing: planning and conducting acceptance test scenarios to verify that the implemented solution meets the desired system requirements.
• Training and Coaching: providing custom training sessions to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Roll out: working with your organization to develop a proper support strategy, organize post-project evolution, and evaluate any future needs.

Initialization in Practice

So, what does this actually look like in practice?

Following kick-off, our Professional Services team will engage with relevant stakeholders in your business on an agile basis, working across a series of project sprints that typically last for 3 weeks at a time.

This outlines a simplified migration from on-premises to the cloud. In reality, businesses often deploy a hybrid approach or gradually move to the cloud in iterations over time.

Dalet’s distributed architecture means files can reside anywhere at any time, with the benefits of cloud felt even when some files remain in on-premises storage.

The Key to a Successful Setup Process

Whether implementing a hybrid or full cloud-native solution, some areas of the initialization are particularly important to get right.

Defining accurate technical specifications, including infrastructure, security, and storage requirements, is crucial. A consultant or cloud services operations specialist will take extra care in pulling together requirements. This person then becomes ultimately responsible for successful deployment on the appropriate cloud account.

We support integration with many providers, including AWS, Azure, Google, Alibaba, OVH and more. This is important to us, not only in terms of increasing consumer choice but also from a data recovery standpoint. Some customers house their entire media library with one provider. Dalet Flex mirrors this data with another provider as well, for extra security.

Security measures are integral. We provide recommendations for ports, services, anti-virus measures, and more. This may involve discussions about VPNs and secure data transfers, especially between cloud and on-premise locations, ensuring a secure environment.

When it comes to migration, specifications cover the movement of data from existing systems, possibly involving third-party solutions. The approach will vary depending on the media business in question. A move to the cloud might require the use of technologies like AWS Snowball for data transfer. It’s also common to deal with specific requests for data context preservation. This stage is one of the most complex and crucial, as it involves ensuring that existing data is accurately and efficiently migrated to the new system, considering all technical and functional requirements.

In the Long Term: How MAM Is Set to Evolve

Looking ahead, cloud-native MAM is set to become even more integral to media production and distribution workflows. Advances in AI and machine learning will further enhance metadata management and content personalization. Cloud providers will continue to improve security, compliance, and global reach, making cloud-native MAM an even more attractive option for media-focused businesses.

The evolution of cloud-native MAM is tied to the broader trends in cloud technology and media consumption habits such as a prevalence of mobile video and streaming. As the media landscape evolves, cloud-native MAM systems will become more sophisticated, enabling media companies to not only manage their assets more effectively but also to innovate and adapt to the change.

In order to make the most of these advancements, many businesses will need to update their approach towards collaboration. At Dalet, we believe that organizations should reimagine and reorganize how they work to maximize impact on operations and productivity. Our co-founder Stephane Guez provides more context in his post Media Trends of 2024: Big Events and Big Changes.

Ready to Realize the Benefits of The Cloud?

Implementing a cloud-native MAM successfully requires careful planning, a clear understanding of your organization’s needs, and a strategic approach to integration. The benefits of making the transition are clear, offering significant advantages in terms of cost, efficiency, and scalability, but it’s difficult to achieve all of this without the right partner.

If you’re keen to hear more information about Dalet’s cloud-native MAM services or are looking for help with your business own migration to the cloud, get in touch with a Dalet representative today.

The post Implementing Cloud Based Media Asset Management Successfully appeared first on Dalet.

Changes ultimately bring more challenges. Today’s challenge is to come up with a content strategy and a solid sports content management system that grows an audience (local, national and internationally, across distributed platforms…), continues to add value to your brand and affiliates and tracks, measures and converts content engagement to a purchasing customer. All while navigating around complex rights.

The good thing is that change paves way to a flurry of new opportunities: to get closer to your fans, to build a direct audience, to gather data to make smarter decisions. With change you can introduce personalized experiences, additional rights, stronger brand identity and dynamic sponsor packages – all geared towards growing revenues and all through one sports content management tool.

This sounds like a dream – how can this be achieved with limited resources?

The best defense is a good offense

Content enables these opportunities: it provides the primary communication, promotion and interaction with an audience. Having an audience provides a platform for you to maximize monetization opportunities.

Dalet Flex is the perfect sports content management tool to help deliver your multimedia content strategy and scale your operations with your existing team. The might of broadcast level operations at the click of a button.

Let’s talk about the key functions of the platform: Import, Manage, Create, Review, Deliver and Engage

Import: Capture that key moment

• Simple web-based upload portal to centrally capture all content produced by everyone.
• Automatically receive content from partners.
• Capture live streams, ready to use without delay.
• Having access-controlled, rich metadata can greatly enhance your content value, making it more discoverable while driving rule-based automation. Many sources of metadata can enrich your content including AI analysis, professional data feeds, commentary, shared databases and manually-added data.

Manage: Metadata and search

• Dalet Flex offers the most comprehensive metadata capabilities on the market for sports content management and comes with controlled access to enable easy content discoverability, so the content is available exactly when you need it.
• Drag and drop content organization in collections which can be shared to speed up the edit.
• Manage hierarchical metadata structure, content and imagery that feeds your front-end D2C experience.
• All the hard work is automatically happening in the background.

Create: Clips and stitch

• Create clips and publish to all your digital properties (and partners) in just a few clicks, even when live.
• Easily stitch content together to tell a new story and produce highlights.
• Auto-brand content by sponsor, platform, contributor, team or any other rule for customization on delivery.
• Integrated with your favorite tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro to add that additional editorial flare. Search, preview import, edit and export back to Flex distribute to your digital properties. All while working in Adobe Premiere.

Review and Approval

• There is no I in team – get more out of working together with collaborative functions and target feedback to accurate timecoded commentary.
• Provide secured access to partners, sponsors and affiliates to content for feedback.

Deliver

• Keep your social channels active with instant or scheduled delivery.
• Integrated with best-of-breed partners to instantly publish items from your sports content management library to your audience on all devices.

Engage

• Feed your audience and see where they can take you.
• Opportunities are endless; you need to be in the game to win it, take risks, learn from your mistakes. “Champions keep playing until they get it right” (Billie Jean King).

Don’t take your eye off the ball, more changes will come, more platforms will appear, your audience consumption habits will change. Will you be ready?

GAME, SET, MATCH – give us a whistle

For more details on how Dalet Flex can help you win, check out this video. To discuss your sports distribution and sports content management needs, contact us or book a demo.

The post 6 Solutions to Supercharge Sports Television Content appeared first on Dalet.

The news industry has been through significant changes over the past century. The dominance of television news has been undeniable in the last 65 years; no other mass communication medium has effectively challenged the power of watching news on a TV screen… until recently.

In 2020, a study indicated that, for the first time in history, people were consuming more content on the internet through laptops, tablets, and phones than on a TV screen. This was reiterated in a 2023 study which concluded that people spend almost double the time on digital media compared with traditional media.

A massive shift

The shifts in consumption and hybrid work dramatically affected how news content needs to be produced. Traditionally, storytelling revolved around the rundown for the TV newscast. Digital teams would have to wait until the TV packages were assembled before preparing the stories slated for social media and digital platforms.

This can no longer be.

Digital and specifically social media is typically where audiences go first for their news update. Storytelling for digital platforms demands its own style, format and tone, with an immediacy that will not wait for the TV newscast. Tying the newsroom to the rundown is not a viable strategy. Digital news workflows need to be story-centric and require modern, digital-native tools that empower journalists to deliver impactful stories quickly across all platforms.

Let’s get digital!

Using the right tools for digital-first thinking has become essential for any news organization to not only survive, but to thrive.

With decades of experience serving the needs of the news production industry, we designed Dalet Pyramid which combines the power of story dashboards, assignments, production and distribution tools in a single environment. This highly collaborative platform allows journalists to produce digital-native content for their specific audiences. Digital teams can access source content, plan, produce and publish stories specifically for each digital and social media platform, never having to wait for the TV newscast.

The Dalet Pyramid Planner brings deep collaboration between digital and broadcast teams: digital producers and social media specialists can access stories, rundowns and assets across all the teams and locations. This level of visibility allows digital teams to maximize resources, avoid duplications and increase productivity. You can learn more about Dalet Pyramid’s Centralized Planning in this Quick Cuts episode.

Bring your story to life

After planning and enriching the future story, news creators will use Dalet Cut, our cloud-native, web-based video editing tool, seamlessly integrated within Dalet Pyramid. It provides all the capabilities reporters, producers and editors need to create content-rich video stories, fast!

In addition to transitions, effects, digital graphics, text-on-screen, automatic caption generation, and multiplatform delivery features, Dalet Cut enables users to access scripts, story angles, and media directly from within, making the editing workflow highly efficient. Dalet Cut also offers seamless third-party integrations, for example with the live graphics platform Singular.live.

The tool leverages the rest of the Dalet newsroom ecosystem, including AI service platform Dalet Media Cortex which delivers automatic metadata indexing, speech-to-text transcription, object recognition, and more. This makes Dalet Cut a unique media editor for collaboration, quick turnaround, and compelling video creation for all audiences on all platforms.

Newsrooms using Adobe® Premiere® Pro will benefit from Dalet Xtend, which enables editors to access all of the same content in Dalet Cut within Premiere Pro, including proxy editing and rendering in the cloud.

Find out more about Dalet Cut in this blog post, and how it won Product of the Year Award at NAB 2023.

Release your story!

So your story is produced, edited and ready to hit the (digital) press… Dalet Pyramid provides out-of-the-box, intuitive integration with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and more. Content Management Systems (CMS) can also be integrated via the API, so you can package and publish to every platform natively.

Easy!

Ready?

The pressure is on to deliver news stories to digital outlets first, while still looking after your TV audiences. You now need to deliver that same story in different formats and flavors to meet the needs of each consumption platform. With Dalet Pyramid, you can empower digital teams to produce their content from the moment the story breaks while collaborating with the broadcast team.

Request a demo and learn more about how Dalet Pyramid can transform your newsroom production workflows.

The post News production in the digital era appeared first on Dalet.