MediaDRAIN - you name it, we archive it!

The transition of analogue to digital media imposes many challenges on the different players in the media landscape. Replacing the traditional tape archive with a reliable digital alternative is definitely one of these challenges. In particular, the lifetime, openess and cost of digital storage solutions require an expert-approach in this matter.

MediaDRAIN has been developed from scratch as a longterm, open and cost-effective multimedia archiving solution. All kinds of files -multimedia, graphic or office files- can be archived together with metadata describing those files. MediaDRAIN is envisioned as a fast and handy management tool for a deep file-based multimedia archive. It was built from the start with scalability, robustness and future extensibility as its main drivers. And because it is completely developed in-house, all expertise is available to fully customise the solution to your needs.

A reliable all-in solution for archiving audiovisual files

Comsof and Videohouse have joined forces to create a unique partnership, allowing to offer a state-of-the-art solution for archiving all types of digital audiovisual files.

Videohouse is an international provider of television facilities. It offers solutions for all possible television and audio-visual projects. The key strength of the company lies in the fact that it integrates the most diverse audiovisual services, making it a unique player in the multimedia market.

Being such an experienced media production house for several decades, Videohouse also became a real pioneer in the transition from analogue to digital media. In the field of archiving, the challenges to replace the traditional tape archive by a solid and user-friendly digital solution were numereous. To take up these challenges a partnership with Comsof was established. Combining the practical experience of Videohouse with the software development skills and technical background of Comsof, we managed to develop the ultimate solution for your digital archiving challenges: the MediaDRAIN platform. Today, together with Videohouse, we can integrate this archiving solution based on the MediaDRAIN platform in your new or existing audiovisual environment and modify the interface according to your preferences.

MediaDRAIN - Behind the scenes

The figure below shows the general MediaDRAIN architecture. As a deep archive management solution, it interfaces with existing (post)production and playout environments. The basic goal of MediaDRAIN is to store files in an archive and to make it possible to retrieve them again unchanged. No transcoding or format change is involved. The file types don’t matter. For video files, MediaDRAIN generates a low resolution browse format and keyframes based on a scene detection algorithm. Known formats include DV25, DV50, IMX MPEG2. Along the files, metadata based on the EBU P/META model can be stored and used for retrieval.

Key strengths:

• ingest of video, photos, documents, projects, ... with the required metadata
• automated ingest of media objects (from Avid, MXF with XML defined metadata or from a OAI-based framework)
• export to Avid, VOD servers, local disks/clients, ...
• Windows client software and webclient available
• generate key frames and browse format from videos (faster than realtime)
• anotate fragments in video files and define extra keywords, descriptions, ... at timecodes
• partial restore of a video file
• search by using keywords, title(s), other metadata...
• browsing through videos on the fly
• export files in the same format as they were archived (no video transcoding)
• metadata model based on EBU P/Meta

By using open standards for metadata and filenames/directory structure (based on unique UMIDs), the archive is future proof and may be accessible also without support of Comsof or Videohouse after ending an agreement. This is crucial for the owner of the material who will be able to always access his content.

More information about MediaDRAIN? See our MediaDRAIN folder (pdf) or contact us.

MediaDRAIN and Comsof within the BOM-VL project

In December 2007, the Flemish Government approved support for the research and development project BOM-Vl (in Dutch: "Bewaring en Ontsluiting van Multimedia in Vlaanderen" or in English: "Archiving and Distribution of Multimedia in Flanders"). This project is defined over a period of 18 months, starting from Januari 1st.
BOM-Vl aims at digitising and disclosing valuable audiovisual assets and cultural heritage in Flanders.

The cabinet of Economy, Innovation and Sciences of the Flemish Government will support a consortium of partners of the Flemish audiovisual and cultural sector and several IBBT research groups.

For the first time in Flanders there will be a large scale cross sectoral and multidisciplinary project which will analyse the problems of preservation and distribution of audiovisual and cultural media and which will propose sustainable solutions. The combination of a multidisciplinary research team and a large representation of the cultural and audiovisual sector can guarantee the relevance and applicability of the project outcomes.
Comsof will participate in almost all the work packages and MediaDRAIN will be used as a demonstrator for this project.

Broadcast partners	Regional broadcast partners	Cultural partners
Kanaal Z SBS Belgium Vitaya VMMa VRT	ATV AVS Concentra (TVL & TVOost) Ring-TV ROB-TV RTV TV-Brussel WTV/Focus	Boekentoren BAM FARO Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen VTi
Media partners	Test facility	Research groups
Videohouse Comsof	IBBT-iLab	IBBT-UGent-MMLab IBBT-VUB-SMIT K.U.Leuven-ICRI VRT-medialab

MediaDRAIN and Comsof within the GEISHA project

GEISHA stands for Grid Enabled Infrastructure for Service Oriented High Definition Media Applications. High Definition (HD) television is expected to become the standard video format within a few years. After taking the leap to file based video production, it is hard to imagine that broadcasters will step back to tape-based production in the coming High Definition environment.
However, these new HD formats introduce some formidable challenges concerning the media infrastructure, requiring the introduction of different technological components into the architectural model to cope with the increased bandwidth and capacity requirements in a cost-effective way.

This project aims at:

• Designing and building Proof of Concepts (POCs) of a High Definition media production and storage environment, based on an optimal choice of mostly IP based components. The project will cover research in the area of low end iSCSI storage, IP based SANs and disk connection networks, TCP/IP and iSCSI offload engines (TOE’s), IPoIB (IP over InfiniBand) and iSER as a possible alternative to TOE’s, different CPU technologies (AMD vs Intel), GPFS, GRID computing, cell-processors, alternative secondary storage concepts and new backup/restore paradigms.
• Studying new media formats, follow-up of standardization and evolution of MXF and AAF, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).
• Investigating the relevance of generic GRID computing concepts for the GPFS cluster based media infrastructure models.

Industrial partners	IBBT research groups
VRT IBM NextiraOne Comsof Porthus	UGent-INTEC-IBCN IBBT-UGent-MMLab UA PATS VUB ETRO

GEISHA leaflet (pdf) - English.
GEISHA leaflet (pdf) - Dutch.

MediaDRAIN and Comsof within the PokuMOn project

PokuMOn tackles the problems of online distribution and archiving of multimedia of performing arts and (classical) music. Recent scientific knowledge about copyrights, metadata and audio and video compression are linked to find pragmatic solutions for producers and receptive houses. PokuMOn wants to establish a durable cooperation between different cultural partners to distribute the multimedia of one production or concert through multiple organizations to the general public.

Industrial partners	Cultural partners	IBBT research groups
Comsof Telenet Videohouse	Koninklijk Ballet van Vlaanderen De Bijloke Muziekcentrum Gent De Singel Vlaamse Opera deFilharmonie Troubleyn - Jan Fabre Rosas Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen Vlaams Centrum voor Volkscultuur VTi	IBBT-UGent-MMLab UGent MICT VUB ETRO VUB SMIT KUL ICRI

PokuMOn leaflet (pdf) - English.
PokuMOn leaflet (pdf) - Dutch.

More information about MediaDRAIN?

See our MediaDRAIN folder (pdf) or contact us.