Building 4 Media

www.b4m.com

FORK Production is Building4Media's production automation system. Its offers everything from machine control and resource allocation to media management and studio production.

FORK is a flexible platform that supports a wide variety of automated production workflows through customization of metadata fields, rules, triggers and scripts. The system provides the ability to add custom fields; define layouts for forms that use these fields; define 'smart bins' that automatically populate based on metadata associated with assets; and create scripts, triggered by metadata, which in turn can add new data, manipulate existing data, and initiate operations like archiving, transcoding, replication and registration to external systems.

FORK integrates with ENPS via the NewsGateway, a product by NewsMaker Technologies Inc., and developed in cooperation with Building4Media. Through this interface FORK registers media objects and their associated media status to ENPS for use in Running Orders and stories, receives those Running Orders and stories, keeps track of changes made in ENPS during production and returns control status.

Running Orders received from ENPS can be opened in the Live Assist interface for live production, pushed on to external Master Control systems, VDCP control surfaces or even published to the Web as an RSS feed. The stories inside those Running Orders can be directly opened as projects in either the FORK Editor or Final Cut Pro.

Supported ENPS Workflow

Running Order Control

This device allows ENPS to dynamically build and control a playlist within the media server. Changes to the Running Order in ENPS result in immediate changes to the sequence of media objects queued for playout by the media server.

Item Status

This vendor sends real-time status information during playback and other functions which is displayed through ENPS writers and producers in real-time. This includes the use of a minimum set of standard status messages which enable color coding and the automated movement of the ENPS timing bar.

Media Thumbnails and Preview Video

This vendor provides thumbnail images and proxy video which are closely integrated within the ENPS Story display and editing windows.

Wide Media Awareness

This builds on Media Awareness to include exposing rushes/newly ingested material in addition to produced/approved material to ENPS users and workflow.

Ingest Placeholder Creation

ENPS users can create and name placeholders within this vendor's server into which media can later be ingested or recorded. The vendor then updates ENPS with duration and other information as the placeholder is replaced with the actual media. Placeholders can be used to create "reservations" for material rushes, rough cuts or edits - arriving via ingest applications.

NLE Placeholder Creation

ENPS users can create and name placeholders within this vendor's media server into which edited content from an NLE can be saved.

Automatic Placeholder Creation

ENPS can automatically create and name placeholders within this vendor's server into which finished clips ready for play out can later be edited, saved, or recorded. The name and other metadata used to automatically create this placeholder is drawn from the related ENPS Story and Running Order. The vendor then updates ENPS with duration and other information as the placeholder is replaced with the actual media.

Channel Assignment

This product enables ENPS users to directly assign media play-out channels from the ENPS Running Order.

Story Send

This product uses the full body of text within ENPS documents, including all media pointers and custom metadata. This product also dynamically tracks the sequence of Stories and Assignments within active ENPS Running Orders and Assignment grids.

Media Awareness

This device sends ENPS a description of the media it stores. The description contains structured metadata and a pointer to the media object. This information is used by ENPS to return media in search results. Pointers are used to link media to ENPS documents, including Stories, Running Orders and Assignments using simple drag and drop workflow.

Building4Media ActiveX Plug-in

This vendor provides an ActiveX plug-in for ENPS which allows users to view metadata and a low-resolution version of the video from within the ENPS user interface.

© 2009, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. AP\'s reviews were limited to a test environment, and products may perform differently within your own production environment and workflow. Performance may also vary with other factors, including periodic ENPS and partner software releases. Only you can determine if a specific product or combination of products will meet your needs. AP MAKES NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY REGARDING THE PRODUCTS DESCRIBED HEREIN, INCLUDING WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PRODUCTS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH ENPS OR THE MOS PROTOCOL.