International. When American Public Television staff, like many media companies, were faced with the prospect of working abruptly from home due to coronavirus measures, they were prepared.
APT is a union; a leading non-profit organization whose mission is to find, curate, license, and distribute content to public television stations. Operating with a modest staff, they have amassed a current and legacy catalog of hundreds of series and single-event programs spanning documentaries, education, travel, shows, news and current affairs programs ranging from Lydia's Kitchen to Rick Steves' Europe to the Murders of Doc Martin and Midsomer.
A few years ago, APT workflows were tied to physical media such as tapes and hard drives. By implementing AXLE AIi, they were able to make an economical transition to a browser-based shared media workflow. So, when they recently faced COVID-19 work restrictions, they were able to quickly navigate to a distributed approach almost overnight.
"AXLE AI, as well as some of the other key network technologies we've deployed, such as VPN and cloud storage, were the difference between being totally disconnected from our business due to COVID-19, and being able to operate at near-regular capacity," says APT Vice President of Technology Gerry Field.
A better way to filter
APT began transitioning to digital distribution and file-based workflows, with the goal of "turning our screening rooms into intake rooms, and moving our projection functions to the desktop around the world." Baffled by the cost and complexity of the MAM systems they researched, Field and his team opted for AXLE AI's cost-effective software, which leverages industry standards and cost-effective storage to simplify network video workflows.
If the content comes in the form of files, great; if it comes in tape form, we ingest, and in any case we create proxies for projection through AXLE," Gerry continued. Now, he added, "Everything that is sent to us arrives as a file in an emission format. We've broken away with the limited on-prem 'silos' we had before, and we extend access to more content on the desktop no matter the location. Of course, this same capability has allowed us to handle the shift to a fully remote workforce, which would have been unthinkable before."
Designed for easy adoption
"More than anything, AXLE made it possible to get a system properly scaled for what we need, and for the resources we have. The two equal parts are cost and complexity. There are many asset management products on the market that, particularly for my needs, are tremendously overbuilt. We needed something that could be easily installed and give us access, quickly, to the content we need to see." I was able to get it up and running in three days and get axis AI into the adoption cycle. From there, the biggest challenge was getting some people used to going to a screening room for the screening in their browser, and building their trust."
The fact that Axis AI is not technically demanding was very important: "APT has a good talented and technically conscious staff, but we are not the kind of company that has a deep engineering department, or a group of editors," Gerry added. "I could do deeper, more interesting things with a more expensive system, but my experience with things like that is that sound good, but they end up being the anchor of a ship."
Expansion and growth
As APT moves to a new member public television station interconnection system, AXLE AI has integrated with APT's back-end business systems, so licensing information and media access rights are tied to AXLE AI. "That's important because APT has very little programming; almost all of it is licensed for distribution under contracts. Under the new system, "material enters our cloud, is synchronized from our cloud to local storage, and AXLE AI makes proxy copies for selection and tracking."
Gerry has seen APT's use of AXLE AI grow, especially for reviewing subscription spots and to assist providers in negotiating with subscribers. "In addition to the long-running programs, we now include promos, spark reels, clips and other promotional material related to the show." Gerry said staff are now using AXLE AI to make programming notes, "extending desktop screen access to collaboration and sharing feedback on content as well."
