SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 131, Issue: 7, August 2022)
[ACTIVE]
Advancements in Information Technology Applied to Professional Media
Metadata
- Publisher
- SMPTE — White Plains, NY, USA
- Doc Type
- Journal Article
- Content Type
- Original Research
- Abbreviated Title
- SMPTE Mot. Imag. J
- Volume
- 131, No. 7, pp. 44–52
- Abstract
- Media companies are under ever-increasing pressure to create and monetize content efficiently by delivering it to viewers wherever they are and on whatever device they wish to use. To meet this challenge, media companies need flexible, composable systems that may be quickly adapted to shifting workflows and a rapidly changing business environment. This article introduces fundamental concepts from the IT domain and describes a way of thinking about a media system that enables flexibility and unlocks a powerful world of composable, dynamic media systems and workflows.
- Publication Date
- 2022-08-01
- DOI
10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825- ISSN
- Print:
1545-0279| Electronic:2160-2492 - Link
- https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
- Author(s)
- Brad Gilmer
bio
Brad Gilmer is the president of Gilmer & Associates, Inc., and the executive director of the Video Services Forum (VSF) and the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA). Both the VSF and the AMWA received Emmy Awards during Gilmer’s tenure. He is a SMPTE Fellow and a first recipient of the SMPTE Workflow Systems Medal. He was previously employed at Turner Broadcasting System, Atlanta, GA, where he and his staff were responsible for engineering and operations for the Entertainment Division Worldwide. He is an author and an editor and has written many articles on computers and networking for media industry publications. - Keyword(s)
- Dynamic Media Systems, Immutability, IP Systems, User Requirements, Workflow
- Copyright
- © 2022 SMPTE
Bibliographic Reference(s)
- Infrastructure as Code at CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media-Over-IP Data Center [Active]
- Single Source of the Truth in Media Data Centers [Active]
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- G. Castle, “Eurosport Technology Transformation.” Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC-649Z6hsI EXTERNAL
- J. Bloch, “How to Design a Good API and Why it Matters.” Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: http://www.cs.bc.edu/~muller/teaching/cs102/s06/lib/pdf/api-design EXTERNAL
- Information Technology (Noun), “The Technology Involving the Development, Maintenance, and Use of Computer Systems, Software and Networks for the Processing and Distribution of Data.” Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/information%20technology EXTERNAL
- Representational State Transfer (REST) Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm EXTERNAL
- R. T. Fielding, “Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-Based Software Architectures,” 2000. Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm EXTERNAL
- “Balancing Strong and Eventual Consistency With Datastore.” Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://cloud.google.com/datastore/docs/articles/balancing-strong-and-eventual-consistency-with-google-cloud-datastorearticle highlights the potential of a content API as proposed by Dr. Cartwright.) Some APIs such as the Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS) APIs for registration, discovery, and connection management have been successful. Other efforts, perhaps less so. And while the idea of a common set of APIs for media seems interesting, a number of factors may keep this out of reach. It is likely that bespoke APIs will always be a part of media infrastructures. Given this, are there best practices from the IT world we can adopt with regard to media APIs. The definitive answer is “yes.” A survey by programmableweb.com22 found that “developers want clearly documented APIs that are reliably available.” In fact, the desire for “Complete and accurate documentation” was rated even higher than service availability or service responsiveness! Well-documented code is clearly a priority. The IT industry has been stressing the benefits of well-written, self-describing APIs for years. And in fact, there has been a robust discussion of what makes a good API versus a bad one for many years as well.23 As we move to a more IT-centric media world, it would behoove us to learn from the IT world’s mistakes with regard to the documentation of APIs. Well-written self-describing APIs have several characteristics. They do one thing well, they are simple to understand and use, they do not require special knowledge of what is going on behind the interface to implement the API, and they contain information and documentation, and sometimes even tests, that aid developers in creating successful implementations. For a pretty exhaustive discussion of what it takes to make a good API, see “How to Design a Good API and Why it Matters,” written by Joshua Bloch, principal software engineer at Google.24 Technologies such as Swagger25 and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as the Eclipse IDE26 help enforce good behaviors in API development and support “code first” environments where, once the user requirements are understood, developers immediately start writing code to address those requirements. The documentation is essentially developed alongside the code. Conclusion This article has introduced a number of key concepts that have helped the IT industry deliver the “ilities” that their users demand (flexibility, scalability, reusability, and so on). We now find ourselves in a position where media consumers are requesting those same “ilities.” A potential way forward would be to carefully consider how we can adopt the bedrock principles in this article that have enabled modern IT and computing. Where possible, we should employ systems that follow these principles, and when we are forced to deploy elements of our systems that exhibit behaviors that are IT antipatterns, we should seek to either encapsulate those behaviors, or accept the behaviors but be keenly aware EXTERNAL
- Computer Science, [Online] Available: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/computer%20science EXTERNAL
- “How to Thrive in Today’s Disrupted Media Markets,” Forbes, Sep. 2019. Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/awsmediaandentertainment/2019/09/12/how-to-thrive-in-todays-disrupted-media-markets EXTERNAL
- Eclipse IDE. Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.eclipse.org/eclipseide/ EXTERNAL
- R. T. Fielding, “Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures.” Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dis-sertation/rest_arch_style.htm EXTERNAL
- R. Cartwright and B. Gilmer, “Agile Media Blueprint— Creating and Monetizing Content Using the Internet Technology Platform,” 2018. Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://static.amwa.tv/agile-media-blueprint.pdf EXTERNAL
- “How do you define a good or bad API? Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/469161/how-do-you-define-a-good-or-bad-api EXTERNAL
- A. DuVlander, “API Consumers Want Reliability, Documentation and Community,” Jan. 2013. Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.programmableweb.com/news/api-consumers-want-reliability-documentation-and-com-munity/2013/01/07 EXTERNAL
- T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, and L. Masinter, IETF STD 66, “Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): General Syntax,” 2005. EXTERNAL
- “Joint Task Force on Networked Media (JT-NM) Phase 2 Report—Reference Architecture v1.0,” Sep. 2015. Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://jt-nm.org/reference-architecture/ EXTERNAL
- European Broadcasting Union (EBU) R 148, “Cybersecurity Recommendation on Minimum Security Tests for Network Media Equipment, Apr. 2018.” Accessed: Apr. 2022. [Online]. Available: https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/r/r148.pdf EXTERNAL
- SSCID.36305224 — T. Berners-Lee, L. Masinter, and M. McCahill, IETF RFC 1738, “Uniform Resource Locators (URL),” 1994. [Online]. Available: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt. EXTERNAL
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Brad Gilmer; Advancements in Information Technology Applied to Professional Media, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 131, Issue: 7, August 2022); SMPTE, 2022. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
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Brad Gilmer; Advancements in Information Technology Applied to Professional Media, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 131, Issue: 7, August 2022); SMPTE, 2022. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
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Brad Gilmer; Advancements in Information Technology Applied to Professional Media, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 131, Issue: 7, August 2022); SMPTE, 2022. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
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<span class="citation">Brad Gilmer; <cite>Advancements in Information Technology Applied to Professional Media</cite>, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 131, Issue: 7, August 2022); SMPTE, 2022. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825</a></span>
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Brad Gilmer; Advancements in Information Technology Applied to Professional Media, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 131, Issue: 7, August 2022); SMPTE, 2022
doi: 10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
doi: 10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825
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<li> Brad Gilmer; <cite id="bib-10-5594-jmi-2022-3180825">Advancements in Information Technology Applied to Professional Media</cite>, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal ( Volume: 131, Issue: 7, August 2022); SMPTE, 2022 <span class="doi">10.5594/JMI.2022.3180825</span> </li>