Digital Media

The phrase “digital media” can be applied to a wide range of seemingly disparate parts of modern technology. “Digital Media” also has over-arching impacts to a wide range of client interests: IT/internet, computing, broadcast systems, audiovisual technology, digital signage, business workflow optimization, and how clients want to present themselves to the world.

To Vantage, the essence of “digital media”, and successful digital media environments, is in understanding the needs of each application, the range of features and systems that apply, and then the right planning and design to create the most usable solution for each individual client.

Our expertise encompasses:

  • Broadcast audio and video
  • Multimedia production systems
  • Media asset management and distribution

Broadcast Audio and Video Systems

Getting Your Message Out There

Traditionally associated with established commercial Television and Radio media outlets, broadcast audio and video studios typically represent the highest level of performance. The business of these institutions is monetizing the media created and distributed by the broadcast studios they own. As such, commercial broadcast systems and equipment are often considered the exclusive domain of the most elite institutions, and part of a large corporate enterprise.

However, with the emergence of the digital age and the internet as a medium for “broadcasting”, a new market of digital media is emerging with as much sophistication and potential. This blend of all-in-one digital media workstations and non-traditional distribution (including web-streaming, IP video, YouTube, social media, and even text messaging) has brought innovative technologies available to any level and need.

Our experience with the entire range of solutions, from large commercial broadcast studios to in-house content streaming and single multimedia workstations, informs every application where our clients are looking to get their message out.

Multimedia Production Systems

Content is King

In addition to distributing audio and/or video content “live” (as it is happening in real time) often clients capture that content as a recording to make it available for review at a later date (typically as “on-demand” media). Once content is recorded and stored, it can also be retrieved and edited or used as a portion of a more polished multimedia project. This processed is known as production, and results in produced content – a final polished multimedia collage ready for an interested audience.

How content makes its way from a live event to stored recording and, finally, to produced content is often very different and unique to each client and application. Some applications require sophisticated data-center based central systems with many professional studio edit suites around the world; others can be as simple as a laptop and an internet connection. Whatever range is right for you, we help our clients find the solution and design the space they need for creative staff to tap into innovative media technologies (servers, digital workstations, and media labs).

Media Asset Management and Distribution

Now that everyone is making all of this media, what do we do with it?

Over the past 10 years our clients have greatly increased the amount of media they record, and more of them are recording it digitally. Originally this was, essentially, recording to physical media (e.g. tape and DVDs) but increasingly media is captured and stored as digital data on hard drives and servers. While this is certainly easier it presents a new problem: with more media than anyone can keep track of or maintain, usability and control is lost in a sea of unmanaged content.

From this need a new technology is emerging: the Digital Media Asset Management System that gathers, organizes, and manages all of your media into one usable tool. Ranging from small all-in-one desktop workstations to large data center enterprise solutions, Vantage has experience working with our clients to develop the right answer to their needs, including:

  • Copyright/Digital Watermarking: to limit unauthorized use or track files as they proliferate and are viewed through the enterprise and beyond.
  • Transcoding and Distribution Management: Automated or managed in-system conversion of different file types into one common format and/or packaging up files and distributing (to local TV channels, YouTube, etc.)
  • Play-out Management and Scheduling: Finding and cueing up material in a playlist and distributing on-air (e.g. separate automated weekly schedules of programs for facility signage and in-house TV channels, keeping track and charging back for advertisements and special messages). Also managing on-demand streaming of content from web or IP-TV clients.
  • Metadata Tracking and Asset Indexing: adding and preserving searchable data about the type and content of files within the system (and when they occur), including gathering up all generations of an asset (e.g. raw, rough/draft, and produced) and aggregating all related content (e.g. video of the event, the PowerPoint file, the .pdf handouts, and the still photographs) into one project file.
  • Character Recognition (OCR): scanning files (e.g. PowerPoint lecture captures or name tags) for lettering and converting into searchable metadata.
  • Workflow Management and Sharing: Tracking the progress of projects as they are scheduled, recorded, and then move from raw recordings into rough drafts and final produced materials. Sharing these processes and assets across multiple departments and interested parties. Streamlining content creation.

With our broad range of skills (from “big picture” to box-by-box engineering) we help our clients discover new and innovative ways to find, manage, and use all of the digital media at their disposal.