Parent company SBS Broadcasting uses Axon equipment in the broadcast chains of their Dutch national broadcasting channels Net5, SBS6 and Veronica. AA Media Group developed and implemented an application based on Axon Cortex to give SBS Broadcasting insight in the status of the equipment, The application has the functionality of monitoring which enables SBS to detect any malfunctions and issues throughout the system and take direct action. The operator is able to view the status of the full chain and receives notifications in case of incidents. More information can be find on the Cortex Implementation page.

The Dutch department of Viacom International Media Networks currently maintains about 65 different distribution channels. In order to control this complex structure in the right way, AA Media Group has designed and implemented a control and monitoring application, based on the Axon Cortex platform. The main goal of this application is two-fold: Control & Monitoring. Via one general overview, the operator has the ability to control all logo-inserters of the individual channels. All inserters or keyers can be switched on and off using the generic user interface. Using the same interface,  the operator gets information about the status of the complete channel, and will alarm the users/operators in the event of an incident in one or more parts of the broadcast-chain. Read more on the Cortex Implementation page.

With the procurement of the new Avid Interplay environment, there was a need at the Dutch regional broadcaster Omrop Fryslân for the possibility to use the content that has been stored within the archive system within the Interplay assets. It was their requirement to be able to send assets to interplay, both from the online and offline archive storage. Furthermore it should be possible to send edits or Interplay assets to the archive system. AA Media Group has specified this interface and, in close co-operation with Vidispine, implemented it on-site, resulting in a metadata-loss-less exchange of assets to and from Interplay, based on the Avid Interplay Web services.

AA Media Group finalised the metadata model, commissioned by the ROOS foundation, after which this was adopted by RTL, SBS and the Dutch public broadcasters, to form the overall metadata model in the Netherlands. This NL metadata model ensures a flexible and clear exchange of media. The flexible character of the NL Metadata model enables organisations and broadcasters to exchange media, along with the necessary set of metadata, not bound to a minimum or maximum. All individual fields of the model are registered by the SMPTE institute, which makes this a formal standard. See press release for details.

Dutch regional broadcaster RTV Rijnmond asked AA Media Group to analyse all current use of metadata for the optimisation and automation of internal and external exchange between systems. In addition, AA Media Group provided recommendations about flexible integration of several business systems and archiving in the future. The recommendation report was focussed on technical aspects, keeping in mind the dependency and impact on work processes and the organisation.

During the refurbishment of the characteristic building of regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland, they defined a need for a new gallery which should be usable for news and other studio productions. AA Media Group executed the project management on behalf of Omroep Gelderland and managed the whole implementation project. The news gallery had to be operated with the ability of full automation and also connected to the newsroom system and media asset management environment. The gallery for studio production is the replacement of the old gallery. The solution led to increased efficiency, decreased duplication of work en less manual operations.

AA Media Group realised the connection between the Annova OpenMedia news room system, the Vidispine media asset management system and news gallery at Dutch regional broadcaster Omroep Gelderland. According to their vision, a newsroom system should be centralised in the production of news: both writing, choosing images, choosing graphics and placing in the run order. AA Media Group was standing at the roots of the new workflow implementation and new work processes, and also realised the interface between OpenMedia and the Vidispine MAM system with a MOS connection. Please contact us if you require more information about this interface.

The recently implemented archive at Om­rop Fryslân was specified for standard definition (SD) quality and needed an upgrade to high definition (HD), since Om­rop Fryslân bought new HD camera’s. To store HD material in native format, they asked AA Media Group to realise the HD upgrade. Due to the flexible infrastructure of the MAM and archive system, the user work with SD or HD in exactly the same way and the archive system is able to export SD or HD itself, depending on the required format.

AA Media Group deployed an extension of the recently implemented archive at the regional Dutch broadcaster Om­rop Fryslân. With the extension journalists are able to search on metadata in the archive, view clips directly and choose files to export to the production environment. In this way, the use of archive materials has strongly been simplified.

Om­rop Fryslân asked AA Media Group to deliver a project manager for their Avid environment upgrade to Interplay. AA Media Group managed the project on behalf of Om­rop Fryslân and also defined new workflows, managed moving the organisation to the new production environment and also provided training within Om­rop Fryslân.

The Dutch Guild of multi-media engineers initiated the definition of a national metadata model in The Netherlands. The ROOS Foundation choose this model to encourage the exchange of media between the Dutch regional broadcasters. During the implementation a need for development occurred for translating the theoretical model into practical use. AA Media Group repaired and enhanced the original model and developed tools to enhance the flexibility and clearness of the model in the deployment. AA Media Group was also asked to maintain the metadata model and add new requirements when requested.

Omroep Gelderland assigned AA Media Group to implement a new Media Asset Management system based on Vidispine and Cantemo. This system was necessary as a first step to realise the new vision and workflow of the regional broadcaster. AA Media Group was involved at the very beginning by translating workflows to the new required infrastructure, including; ingest, editing, to archive and to play-out.  The pragmatic realisation delivered a working environment which is still maintained and supported by AA Media Group. See press release for more detailed information.

AA Media Group deployed a digital archive solution at Om­rop Fryslân. This gives Om­rop Fryslân the ability to store their tape archive digitally, enrich it with metadata and easily use and re-use their historic material. Together, AA Media Group and Om­rop Fryslân designed the exact workflows after which AA Media Group delivered the whole archive turnkey, including hardware and software.

AA Media Group, in association with Arbor Media, implemented a video on-demand application at the Dutch House of Parliament. Recorded debates will be online at the parliament’s website within 24 hours. AA Media Group acted as implementation partner and took care of all complicated procedures and processes, which gave Arbor Media the opportunity to focus on the technical solution. The debate on-demand application provides information wider and faster to the press and public in the Netherlands.

AA Media Group delivered a whole new audio video (AV) infrastructure at the new Cito building in Arnhem, acting as project manager on behalf of a large AV company in The Netherlands. The AV infrastructure contains digital signage trough the building, public address in all public areas and background music in the restaurant. There was also a new video wall installed at the restaurant with extensive presentation possibilitiess and more than ten meeting rooms facilitated with presentation and smart boards.

To determine the specific needs of Omroep Gelderland for their new infrastructure and translate these to a practical solution, AA Media Group facilitated by organizing a brown paper session. The requirements of Omroep Gelderland were specified and then translated to the necessary workflows. Secondly, the requirements were used for market analysis to determine which products would match these needs. AA Media Group managed the process of Omroep Gelderland selecting the products for their solution.

The 2009 season was a special one for Norwegian Premier League team Stabæk Fotball. The reigning champion had access to the brand new indoor Telenor Arena and in addition: a full HD system consisting of close to 100 HD screens to inform, attract and retain the audience in ways that were not possible before. AA Media Group was responsible for the implementation of the advanced system, ready in time for the Norwegian 2009 Premier League season.

The German largest regional broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) defined a project for its daily morning magazine that included a wide range of vendors that needed to work together, including Omnibus for automation and Annova for a decentralised newsroom system. The result: less resources needed for playout, the ability to make last minute changes and the ability to reuse between radio, television and internet. AA Media Group was asked, halfway during the project, to set and manage the expectations between the vendors and the customer and to make sure no items would fall between the cracks. This was achieved by properly defining procedures, planning and testing.

Dutch regional broadcaster RTV Rijnmond recently moved to a new facility and with a limited budget their objective was to move to a tapeless -HD-ready- way of working. AA Media Group designed and implemented an environment that makes it easy for external and freelance resources to produce and edit. The combined XDCAM and Avid based workflows increased efficiency and reduced cost.

In 2004 and 2005 the founders of the AA Media Group had their first collaboration as a team in the DDV project (“De Digitale Voorziening” – The Digital Facility) for Dutch public television broadcasting. The project objective for DDV was the digitalisation of the production process. The team had full responsibility for the fixed time / fixed price project, including management of an international consortium with subcontractors such as HP, LogicaCMG, Thomson/GVG, Omnibus and Blue Order. The DDV system was successfully delivered to the Dutch broadcasters in December 2005.