WHITE PAPER

Unlocking the Value of

Your Archives with an
Intelligent Content Library

dalet.com
© 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
Succeeding in today’s highly
competitive media landscape relies on
efficient production and distribution,
including the ability to manage and
monetize content libraries and long-
term archives.

Traditional archive solutions, often

disconnected from the media supply
chain, cannot meet the agility and
velocity that content owners require
today. On-premises, expensive
equipment and outdated user tools
make it difficult to find and retrieve
content, rendering thousands of
hours of stored content unproductive
and expensive.

There is a much better way!

A well-implemented Intelligent Content

Library introduces business, technology
and operational benefits, helping
content owners maximize the value of
their archived assets. Implementing
it in the cloud can add even more
advantages. This paper will outline the
value of having a library in the cloud,
how it feeds your media supply chain
and ultimately enables you to unlock
your content’s value and enable new
business opportunities!

Contents
Unlocking Your Content’s Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What Is An Intelligent Content Library? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Use Case 1 – Search X Manage X Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Use Case 2 – Monetize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Implementation & Change Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

(Re)Discover the Gold in Your Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

What Should You Do Next? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved. 2

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

UNLOCKING YOUR CONTENT’S VALUE

Audiences today cannot get enough content. Whether it’s binging on a new series,
watching a childhood favorite film or cruising social platforms for entertainment.
Content, and the ability to deliver it to a range of audiences quickly and efficiently,
drives the media business. The question is… can you
Long-established media organizations that serve up our favorite films and episodic deliver with your current
content are often sitting on an enormous amount of valuable media that could be the archive set-up?
key to unlocking new revenue opportunities, whether it’s repacking existing programs
for new streaming opportunities or enhancing a new program with rich archival
material. However, you need a cost-effective way to rescue and reuse archived content
from the siloed systems and labyrinth of formats and files accumulated over the years.
It has to be an accessible component of your media supply chain.

For broadcasters, studios and content owners, sports leagues and teams, and other
media-centric organizations, taking back control of their digital content is a growing
trend. They want more autonomy and dexterity when it comes to monetizing their
media assets, as they sit on years of valuable archives with the potential of attracting
additional audiences.

Without full control, trying to find a clip of a specific goal or touchdown for a sizzle reel,
or all unused African elephant clips for a new nature documentary is quite literally like
looking for a needle in a haystack - it could take hours, or may just not happen at all.

With full control over their content and historical archives, companies can customize
and deliver viewer experiences that deepen engagement and loyalty with existing
subscribers, fans or customers, while reaching new audiences.

Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved. 3

Is Your Archive Solution Obsolete?
When you consider the capabilities and functionality of your current library
management solution, do you identify with any of these issues?

• Content is hard to find and, when • Content is not well documented

found, difficult to access
• Poor user tools for intelligent
• Expensive on-premises system is indexing, fast search or content
also labor-intensive to maintain recommendation

• Hardware like tape libraries are out
of date and needs to be upgraded
• Ontology and data model are not
meeting business requirements
• Technology is not agile and does
not support new formats or
storage classes
• Retrieval time is long and costly
• Expensive storage needs
constant expansion
• User interface is not web based
and therefore not accessible to
remote users

If so, it’s time to consider implementing an Intelligent Content

Library in the cloud.

Are you achieving your objectives?

Business Objectives

Increase Increased Maximize Lower

Creativity Agility Content Value TCO
Common Pain Points

• Metadata is • Content not • My system doesn’t • Archives are not • I have too
a mess findable support the latest accessible from many systems
formats/standards anywhere

• Maintaining • Overall TCO is

on-premises too high • Storage doesn’t • It’s hard to reuse • I don’t have
equipement scale and repurpose good means to
is expensive my archives monetize content

Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved. 4

THE SOLUTION
WHAT IS AN INTELLIGENT CONTENT LIBRARY?
An Intelligent Content Library is a
solution that provides predefined users
with access to a catalog of rich digital
assets, with tools to index, search and
use all types of content. ​A cloud-native
solution that can be deployed in the
cloud, on premises or hybrid, it features
state-of-the-art workflow orchestration,
advanced metadata management and
intuitive user interfaces. It can manage
petabytes of content of all types - videos,
pictures, audio and office documents -in
any resolution or format including IMF,
Image Sequences, AS-02, ProRes and
camera RAW. The underlying media asset
management integrates archives into
the wider production workflow, ensuring
objects and metadata are connected and
assets can be easily found and retrieved,
regardless of where they are located.
The essential capabilities of an
Intelligent Content Library are:
• Centralized repository, accessible
from anywhere, to organize and
curate assets collaboratively, search
for and update metadata, and
trigger workflows.
• Capability to manage a wide range
of complex assets, not just images
and video, but also projects, camera
cards, image sequences, IMF objects
and more.
• Ability to match its data model
with your business requirements
and editorial search requirements:
are you a production company?
A national archive? Do you have a
large sports or news archive or all of
the above? Whatever the nature of
your business, it will benefit from a
customizable data model with support
for numerous metadata field types,
Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved.
including controlled vocabularies
(tags, taxonomies, thesaurus) and
structured objects likes EDLs (and
its raw material) and rush selections,
to help you build a truly valuable and
discoverable archive.
• It can handle complex migrations:
an intelligent content library
solution can scan metadata and
• Security: a platform that abides by
make workflow decisions based on
the latest security standards and
technical and editorial data points. It
certifications, such as ISO27001,
can match metadata to ontologies
MFA authentication, fine-grained
and taxonomies, process different
permissions management, zero
metadata sources and map content to
trust policies and real time security
the desired data model.
monitoring.
• Orchestration: a solid workflow
• Broadcast and streaming format
engine is an essential part of
awareness: an Intelligent Content
an Intelligent Content Library. It
Library can recognize and manipulate
automates manual tasks and makes
broadcast formats that come with
smart decisions based on technical
complex folder and file structures
and editorial metadata, which is critical
such as IMF, AS02 and data from
for the initial migration process as well
camera cards. Users can automate
as day-to-day workflows. automates
more efficient archive/restore
workflows and minimizes manual
processes.
upkeep, standardizing processes for
library management. • Artificial Intelligent (AI) capabilities:
delivering automated indexing of
• It supports your business-driven
speech, object, facial and logo
storage policies: where is high
recognition to enrich your media
resolution media stored? And its
library and reduce the time and effort
corresponding proxies? Whether
required to locate useful content.
you’re planning to store content on-
premises, in the cloud or a mixture of • Disaster Recovery: with high storage
both, an Intelligent Content Library durability guaranteed by cloud
solution must support all options, and vendors, deploying an archive in
provide you with a clear picture of the cloud is often more secure than
storage and egress costs, as well as on-premises. Intelligent Content
retrieval times. Libraries provide redundancy across
different availability zones and can
• It connects to the wider ecosystem:
be configured to manage two (or
it is likely that the archive needs to
more) instances of an archive, one
be accessed from the production
on-premises and a copy in the cloud,
system, the CMS, playout system or
ensuring business continuity.
even an existing ERP.
5
Make it cloudy: why going cloud-native helps.
An Intelligent Content Library should be designed and built to work both on-premises
or fully in the cloud, or a hybrid of both. However, with the media and entertainment
Dalet Flex
industry going through unprecedented disruption over the last few years, businesses The Intelligent Content Library Solution
need added flexibility and efficiency, with distributed processes that enable virtual that brings optimized TCO* and maximizes
employees to connect across departments and time zones. the value of your content.

A cloud-native architecture is key in making this transition, enabling companies to • The only cloud-native backend that
future-proof their businesses, accelerating time-to-market and reducing total cost can be deployed in any cloud or
of ownership. hybrid infrastructure.

• Optimizes storage costs and

A modern, cloud-native content library introduces: retrieval policies/time.
• Distributed architecture: the solution can manage multiple storage pools, on- • Highly efficient integration
premises and/or in the cloud. Users can search and preview all content, no matter framework for existing archives.
how distributed, from one central library.
• Unparalleled workflow engine
• Content lifecycle control, per storage tier: dynamic, easy-to-deploy decision- facilitates migration by managing
making options that add to the benefits of operating in a cost-effective and storage tiers and media formats.
resource-optimized working environment. Decisions can be automatically driven
• Dalet brings decades of deep
by metadata that pertains specifically to your business, leveraging storage tiers
expertise and best practices in
according to content usage.
data protection, implementation
• Scalability: expand and contract your storage volume per tier, on the fly. Only pay and migration.
for the storage you are currently using, starting at a very low cost level and growing
as you need. No need to pay today for what you may need in the future. *Total Cost of Ownership

• Elasticity: cloud-native architecture means media processing services are elastic

and resources are only expanded when needed. You can run multiple projects
simultaneously with the highest degree of performance as required, and throttle
back when not. Elastic media processing will help meet total cost of ownership
requirements, with a pay-as-you-go model that adjusts based on peaks, and
introduces savings of up to 90% on the average media processing bill.

Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved. 6

Structure and Design: the Cloud and Hybrid Rule
Leveraging cloud infrastructure,
content owners can choose whether
to implement the library on their Case in Point:
private cloud or work with a provider, How a major cable TV network migrated its legacy asset storage system to a highly scalable,
such as Dalet, that can host the automated, archive designed for continual growth in content utility.
solution in a subscription or fully-SaaS
With Dalet Flex, a global cable TV network moved its library operations from a rigid on-
based model.
premises archive to a dynamically manageable, massively scalable library hosted in the
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud.
An Intelligent Content Library can be
configured to fit around your workflows • Fully cloud-based content archive and distribution.
and not the other way around. You can
• Real-time collaboration among teams organized internally or with affiliate participation.
structure and design every step of the
archive process to ensure maximum • Orchestrated archive and restore workflows based on automatic rules, including the
ability to define primary storage days based on asset type.
business benefits.
• Access to content from anywhere, with intuitive browser-based user interfaces.
Unlike a rigid on-premises archive, an
Intelligent Content Library in the cloud • Fast search and discovery capabilities across sophisticated metadata models.

is a dynamically manageable and • Dynamic automatic asset tagging based on content type to drive
massively scalable library, capable of archival policies.
efficiently orchestrating asset aging and
The results: optimized workloads and significant cost and time savings.
exchanges between primary and long-
Read the case study HERE 4
term, cheaper storage. For example, if, at
the beginning of a sports season, media
managers know that producers will want
quick access to all of the content from
last year, they can create tiering rules to 54% of Media businesses have already
cost-effectively meet this need. Ahead
of the new season, previous years’ started to adopt the Cloud
content can be automatically moved
Storage Investment areas in Store
from “cold” to “cool”, or even “hot”
storage, then returned to “cold” storage Cloud Archive
as soon as the season is over. This Cloud Object
maximizes access while minimizing how High Performance Shared
long content resides on more expensive Near-Line
storage tiers. Off-Line
Portable
By combining automation and manual
intervention, you can optimally Removeable

balance workloads and virtualized 0 10 20 30 40 50

infrastructure to achieve significant
savings in costs and time. Source: IABM

An Intelligent Content Library can

import and translate metadata from
different schemas and formats,
centralizing your metadata repository
into a logical database to maximize
search results.

Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved. 7

MAKE YOUR ARCHIVE WORK FOR YOU

USE CASE 1 - SEARCH X MANAGE X USE

• Search: an Intelligent Content
Library enables you to perform
advanced searches which can
return results associated with what
you typed. For example, it could be
the spelling of a city in a different
language (Köln versus Cologne).
Build your thesaurus entries
according to your specific archive.
• Share: centralized access for
authorized users and collaborative
tools such as Dalet FlexXTEND
for Adobe® Premiere® Pro enable
users to freely share content and
collaborate on creative projects.
• Enrich: automatically import
metadata from external systems,
whether existing libraries or new
data sources, so that you never
lose an important piece of content
With an Intelligent Content
again. Through integration with Library, pinpointing the
industry-standard sports data feeds, right content amongst
hundreds of hours of sports content
gets quickly documented for easy
thousands of long-term
search and retrieval. archived material is fast
and intuitive.
• Subtitle: save hours of work by
turning transcribed text into subtitles
that can be delivered as sidecar files
to partners or clients, or syndicated
to digital platforms.

• Package and Syndicate: automate • Insights and Analytics: configurable

the creation of multiple file formats dashboards give users an overall
and associated metadata for view of their operations, status of
specific partners who are buying allocated tasks, production analytics
re-packaged archive content. The and more.
reporting and real-time analytics
ensure confidence that files have
been sent and reached their
destination.

• Review and approval: let authorized

internal or external personnel review,
comment and make decisions
on archived assets before they
advance with a specific workflow.
For instance, teams can confirm
that an asset meets current client
requirements before sending it
to them, saving valuable time and
money in the process.

Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved. 8

USE CASE 2 - MONETIZE
With your entire archive at your fingertips, you can maximize its revenue potential
by directly monetizing assets through new distribution channels or storefronts,
reinvigorating previously inaccessible, decades-old content.
…And Take it One Step Further Through AI
An Intelligent Content Library
integrates with AI/ML solutions, such
as Dalet Media Cortex, to automatically
capture valuable metadata through:
• Facial detection and identification
• Audio transcription
• Speaker diarization and identification
• Object tagging, logo recognition,
OCR
• Multi-language translation
• Subtitle generation and translation
• And a wide range of custom engines
to detect highly specific data
Accuracy and recall are
essential when working
with AI: avoiding metadata
pollution is key.
Along with the time and cost savings
these services provide, they introduce
monetization opportunities such
as international distribution, brand
placement and personalized content
recommendation. For example, if a
sports league or broadcaster is seeking
to monetize historical content, they
may want to transcribe archival footage
such as voice-over from matches and
create subtitles and archive metadata
for easier content discovery.
This unlocks a whole new way of
monetizing old content: before VOD,
years of archived content may have
been gathering dust or used maybe
Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved.
once a year. Now, your viewers
can have your full catalog at their
fingertips via SVOD, AVOD, or
FAST to relive those winning goals,
major news stories and other
unique experiences.
Case in Point:
How the Australian Football League Turned 100 Years of Football History into
a Living Content Library
With Dalet Flex, the AFL managed the cloud-based digitization and workflow modernization
project of its video archives.
• Fully cloud-based implementation • Opening to new revenue streams,
leveraging AWS infrastructure. including on-demand services for AFL
fans and subscribers.
• Large-scale technical uplift, with
automated ingest of rich game • The solution has enabled the AFL
content stored on 22,000 to significantly expand the use of
physical tapes. historical game content and deepen
fan engagement from discovery of
• Media logistics for archival search,
favorite club heroes of the past to the
retrieval, and packaging of content
history of the game.
for on-demand and multi-platform
distribution.
Watch the video HERE and download the full case study HERE.
Dalet Flex provides a single source of truth for our
mammoth archive. You can use Dalet Flex to search the
archives, pull content and package it for monetization
for any type of sales channel. The core design of the
system tracks not only media assets but manages
commercial agreements, compliance requirements and
transactions tied to those assets. This allows us to set
up an on-demand service that radically changes how
we can share with our broadcast customers and fans.
— Spencer Wilson, Operations and Broadcast Manager for the AFL
9
IMPLEMENTATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT
It is not only about the technology, it is
also about the expertise. A centralized
Intelligent Content Library is an
incredibly powerful tool, but only when
efficiently implemented and utilized.
Migrating an entire archive, often
consisting of tens to thousands of
petabytes of data, is a complex task that
requires advanced tools to ensure an
efficient, trouble-free centralization.
A successful archive migration
should include:
• Metadata transformation tools​:
content is useless without metadata
to help locate and identify it. When
implementing a new centralized
library it is crucial to transfer both
assets and associated metadata,
which often comes from a range of
disparate systems.
Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved.
• Workflow-based migration: with
assets potentially being stored
across a range of disconnected
locations, implementing automated
workflows that centralize content
migration is key. With the right
workflow orchestration engine,
different asset types can be
processed through unique
workflows that apply specific
migration rules.
• Complex data modeling: each
business has its own unique, often
complex, data models. A system
that manages and automates such
levels of complexity increases
efficiency and improves user
experience. Data can be correctly
managed and users can easily find
the content they require.
• Setting up smart tiered storage
policies: the most efficient storage
tiering rules are unique to each
business. Defining and implementing
those rules from the outset is
fundamental to a smooth migration
and will reduce costs in the long run.
• Professional services: an
experienced team can ensure
your Intelligent Content Library
is optimally configured before
migration begins. With large data
volumes and the overall value of
your archive, it is important to get
the solution right from the get-go.
• Servicing your archive: SaaS,
managed or running on your own
data center - the choice is yours.
10
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
(RE)DISCOVER THE GOLD IN YOUR ARCHIVE
An Intelligent Content
Library optimizes TCO
and maximizes the value
of your archived content.
Companies gain optimal
control, flexibility and
agility - hello ROI!*
Let’s take a closer look at the
potential gains:
Business Benefits
• An Intelligent Content Library will
help your organization monetize
long-term archives, finding and
repurposing existing content into
highly curated recommendations.
You can launch new VOD and
FAST services, based on content
personalization.
• Gain efficiency by automating time
consuming tasks.
• Reduce costs by leveraging the
cloud’s scalability and automatically
managing content across different
storage tiers. Lower TCO by
consolidating multiple systems and
sites into a centralized environment
that serves distributed workforces.
• Take advantage of cloud elasticity
so that resource usage can be
scaled up and down based on
business needs. Transition your
business model and align costs
with revenues.
*Return on Investment
Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved.
• Clear visibility and automating Operational Benefits
manual processes, such as archiving
and restoring based on business • Flexible deployment: store and
rules increases efficiency, saving manage your content both on-
time and costs. premises or cloud, or in a hybrid
configuration. Deploy on any cloud
• Realize additional revenue streams with fully hosted options available.
by providing a self-service content
storefront to B2B clients, affiliates • Hosted platform: typically
and partners. Deliver a familiar outsourced to a service provider,
shopping experience that maximizes it simplifies administration and
inventory exposure, repurposing infrastructure while benefiting
and retail opportunities, bringing from new features and reduced
value to the overall media operation
and business.
release cycles.
• Faster user adoption: easily
include external contributors and
Content Benefits freelancers, increasing workforce
flexibility.
• With an Intelligent Content Library,
all production, distribution and • Respond quickly to business and
library operations can be centralized operational changes, and develop a
and integrated. All content is connected, distributed, borderless
available to all teams, making it much organization.
easier to monetize long-term assets.
• Painless migration with integrated
• Eliminate “metadata spreadsheet tools that help migrate long-term
hell” by leveraging configurable, libraries to the cloud.
automated, business-driven
metadata models that are
accessible to all and can be
passed to the viewer, for
example through EPG.
• Fast search and discovery
capabilities with frame-accurate
proxy playback and clipping.
• Access content from anywhere,
with intuitive browser-based
user interfaces such as NLE
integration via Dalet FlexXTEND
and mobile applications, such
as Dalet FlexMOBILE.
11
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NEXT?
If you’re evaluating how to transform your business so that you remain competitive in
today’s media & entertainment landscape, defining your business goals first is key to
making the right technology choices.
An Intelligent Content
• Are you looking to monetize existing content or rescue historical archives for Library in the cloud
better discoverability?
enables media-savvy
• Perhaps you want to consolidate or connect existing systems. organizations to enhance
• Is an infrastructure refresh or office move part of your plans? their media strategy and
optimize their high-value
• Are you considering moving some or all of your workflows to the cloud,
increase agility or replace aging asset management systems? content. It empowers
content owners to
At Dalet, we have years of expertise managing content and helping organizations make leverage years of archived
the most of their long-term archive. We can provide content owners with best practices content by offering new
in implementing an Intelligent Content Library in the cloud, including customization,
data migration, security and content protection.
revenue opportunities that
bring clear benefits to
Contact us to discuss how you can unlock your archives’ full potential and increase
the value of your media operations.
their businesses.

Intelligent Content Library © 2023 Dalet. All Rights Reserved. 12

About Dalet

Dalet empowers media-rich organizations to transform their production and distribution

workflows – accelerating media operations, maximizing collaboration and creating higher
value from content. As a leading media technology and service provider with over three
decades of innovation, our software solutions enable greater control, enhanced visibility and
increased productivity for content professionals and storytellers around the globe. Leading
organizations such as Fox Networks Group, Arsenal Football Club, MediaCorp, Peloton,
and the BBC trust Dalet to support their daily content operations. Our team is driven by
a passion for media and committed to empowering a world where compelling stories are
beautifully made, effortlessly told and thoughtfully delivered. Learn more at dalet.com.

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