File delivery automation: The final frontier?

Abstract

This paper examines one of the final areas desperately in need of automation – the delivery of content files by those who produce and distribute them, to media organisations. This paper addresses developing solutions to current problems and issues that impact interoperability in file-based workflows, issues coming to the industry that are driving a need for scale and automation, as well as future needs that will increasingly introduce complexity and threaten interoperability in existing workflows. It also describes work currently being undertaken by a technical committee consisting of members of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the North American Broadcasters Association, the Digital Production Partnership and other industry partner organisations to resolve them.