Demystifying Media Supply Chain
The term “Media Supply Chain” has been growing in popularity in recent years, driven by its importance in media enterprise business transformations. In their 2022 Media Supply Chain Manifesto The DPP stated,
“Software-defined content supply chains, built on modern software architectures, are perhaps the most important area of technical focus in today’s media industry.”
We know Media Supply Chain is important for our media businesses and we hear the term on a daily basis, but what exactly does it mean?
Media Supply Chain Defined
Let’s start with the definition as it applies to industries outside of Media and Entertainment. A supply chain is a logistics system that includes conversion of raw materials into finished products that are then distributed to customers. So what then is a Media Supply Chain?
In media, the product is a finished media asset - typically a movie or a TV show, but also images used in print media, audio assets for music and podcasting, and more. The raw materials are everything that goes into creating that asset - raw camera and audio material, music, sound effects, visual effects, graphics, etc.
The processes required to convert raw media materials to finished media assets span many stages including development, production, post-production, marketing, sales, fulfillment, distribution, and archival. With so much activity described by a single phrase, it can be difficult to determine exactly what is being referred to when you hear the term “Media Supply Chain”. Is it development through preproduction? Production and post-production? Does it include distribution?
Breaking it down
To begin to decompose the complexity, we like to break Media Supply Chain down into two distinct segments:
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Production Media Supply Chain includes all functions, departments, processes, and other “raw materials” required to produce a finished asset. By finished asset we are referring to the final original version of the creative work; not derivative versions.
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Distribution Media Supply Chain starts with a finished asset and includes all processes required to distribute versions of that asset to consumers through a variety of channels - broadcast on TV, in movie theaters, on streaming platforms, via TikTok, etc.
Workflows
Within each of our two Media Supply Chain types there are many sub-segment supply chains - we like to call these Workflows.
Workflows are sequences of steps (or tasks) involved in moving from the beginning to the end of a process
Take finishing through distribution as an example. Media assets are ingested, checked for quality (“Quality Control” or “QC”), registered with an asset management system, transformed into the distribution format, and transferred to the distribution entity.
Workflow Automation
Workflow Automation provides businesses with the supply chain efficiencies that allow them to decrease time to market, costs to produce finished assets, or both.
Some workflows can be fully automated, but often they involve a combination of manual human tasks and automated tasks. If we return to the example workflow above, ingest might be a human operated process where someone navigates a user interface to upload files or could be automated with a watch folder that uploads files on a scheduled basis. Similarly, two types of QC exist: automated QC (e.g. a technical validation check utilizing tools like MediaInfo, Quasar, or Baton) and manual QC where a human operator watches and listens to media content to check for anomalies using playback tools like QC Player, Iris, or Glim.
At Flomenco, we aim to automate as much as possible and to provide human operators with the data and tools they need to perform their jobs most effectively, thereby improving the overall efficiency of these hybrid workflows.
Common Components
While there are many workflows involved with Production and Distribution Media Supply Chains, there are some common components (also referred to as “domains”) that are critical in many of them. Here is a list of components we see repeated across media workflows in different industry segments (publishing, radio, film, TV) and in Production and Distribution areas of Media Supply Chain.
Title and Metadata Management
Rights and Contracts Management
Asset Management and Storage (Media Asset Management - MAM, Digital Asset Management - DAM, Production Asset Management - PAM)
High Speed Media Asset Transfer
Media Processing Capabilities (e.g. transcode, encode)
Review and Approval (including Quality Control)
Scheduling
Business Intelligence
Finance
Media Supply Chain can be a complex and ambiguous topic. With this article, you should now be armed with the knowledge to break down your Media Supply Chains into manageable workflows and their components so that you can begin to take action on modernizing them to improve efficiency.
At Flomenco, we make media workflows easy.
Contact Us today to accelerate your Media Supply Chain modernization!