What are the Benefits of an Asset Manager?

By   Dana Healy, VP Sales | Cablecast Community Media

At Cablecast, it is our mission to help our customers quickly and efficiently get their video content across platforms. We will be highlighting the benefits of Asset Management, and introducing Cablecast’s new Smart Asset Manager.

We’ll also talk about security best practices of a CDN, and introduce REFLECT+, Cablecast’s cloud-based content delivery network.

What is an Asset Manager?

An asset manager is a system that helps organize, store, find, and retrieve digital assets like video files.

What are the Benefits of an Asset Manager?

Quick and Easy File Access

By having all assets centralized in one location, people can find what they need faster and focus on more important tasks.

Cut Operational Costs

Time is the only non-renewable resource! Every minute not spent on searching for a file is time saved for your team to work on more valuable projects, like creating important video content for the community. I remember the days where I would pull the DVDs stored in a three ring binder, ingest the file, and drop it into the system for playback. All that time is saved when you have a centralized asset manager.

Maintain Important Assets

We’ve all had those important community videos like the 100th anniversary of a city. An asset manager keeps those files safe, so you can easily call them up when needed.

Seamless Integration with your Playback

For community media centers, your video playback is the nervous system of your station. Content enters the system, it is programmed, and then distributed out to viewers. With an asset manager, media can easily be pulled up and played without any additional work.

Smart Asset Manager

SAM is Cablecast’s new personal assistant for video automation workflows. SAM becomes a member of your team when you have the Cablecast 7.5 software.

SAM handles the busy work. He can’t bring you coffee, but SAM can automate those predictable parts of your file management workflows. Not only does SAM eliminate human error when moving content, but he frees you up from those time-consuming tasks.

SAM is obedient and reliable. You set the rules and SAM follows them. He doesn’t change the process, and he doesn’t take weekends off.

SAM is multi-talented. So, what exactly can SAM do? He can move video files between your network and the cloud automatically.

Here are some examples of the rules you can set for SAM:

  • ‍Copy and move assets from one location to another, such as from your playback server to a NAS or SAN.
  • Automate file backups off premise or in the cloud.
  • Archive shows, such as city commission meetings, after a specified period of time.
  • Restores files from the archives when they return to the program schedule.

What’s a CDN?

A CDN is a content distribution network. Think of it as a group of servers geographically placed around the country, or world, to accelerate delivery of content.

There is a lot of traffic coming to a CDN, what are the ways in which can you make sure your content delivery network is safe?

SSL Certificate

The first thing to look for is a SSL certificate. This is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection. Make sure your CDN has one of those!

Password Protection

Use complex pass-phrases to ensure the back end of your CDN is secure. Always update your passwords!

REFLECT+

REFLECT+ is the Cablecast cloud-based CDN where live streams and VOD content are pushed to the cloud. This service has an added security feature by pushing content to the cloud, eliminating the needed to port through firewalls.

REFLECT+ is ideal for cities and media centers closely tied to their municipalities.

An additional benefit of REFLECT+ is the Adaptive bitrate and live streams are pushed 24/7. If viewers are calling up different VOD files, there will be no impact in performance because the files are already in the cloud. Cablecast is very excited to support community media by saving time with playback scheduling. The more time we can save you, the more content and programming you can make for the community.