Make More with Metadata

Nick Smith explains how the powerful metadata handling functions of Sony’s C3 Portal cloud-based collaborative platform make it quicker and easier for news teams to plan, shoot and edit stories.

On the surface of it, metadata – ‘data about data’ – simply describes tags that are uniquely associated with a particular piece of content.

These tags might indicate the duration of a clip, where it was recorded, descriptive keywords and a brief explanation of what’s happening, video format and resolution, or maybe the camera it was shot on.

However the real attraction of metadata for broadcasters and content creators lies in its ability to drive and enhance workflow.

Whether they’ve been created by a newsroom computer, generated in the camera while shooting or added manually to a piece of content, these tags are the key to automating a whole load of different processes.

Anything that's been automated means it costs a lot less!

Linking cameras, content and crews

This power to exploit the value of metadata in clever ways is one of the big attractions of Sony’s C3 Portal.

Seamlessly linking compatible Sony cameras and camcorders with the cloud, our productivity-focused collaboration platform lets journalists and camera operators – these days often the same person – send pictures and associated metadata for each story wirelessly from anywhere back to the studio.

Bypassing the slow, clunky handling of physical media cards is great news for time-pressed editorial teams in a hurry to get bulletins to air.

Go with the workflow

Live streaming and near-real time over-the-air file transfers are the most obvious party tricks of C3 Portal, but they’re only part of the picture.

It’s better to think of C3 Portal as a powerful workflow engine that supports news teams through all phases of creating a story, with metadata taking centre stage at every step of the process.

This extends from initial planning and preparation to curating camera resources in the field and managing the smooth delivery of content assets – together with their associated metadata – through to a broadcaster’s editing platform, Newsroom Computer System (NRCS), Content Delivery Network (CDN) or Media Asset Management (MAM) system.

It all starts with a plan

The genesis of every news bulletin is some sort of planned editorial list that exists in the newsroom computer. Descriptive metadata about a particular story that’s been created by editorial teams is uploaded automatically from the NRCS gateway via an API to C3 Portal.

From the cloud, this story-specific planning metadata – in XML format – is then pushed to the C3 Portal app running on a smartphone that’s tethered to a journalist’s camera in the field.

Pre-defined rules ensure that each slug of information sent over the air is directed automatically to the camera it’s intended for. And this makes C3 Portal a particularly appealing solution for news teams who are using several cameras to cover a big story.

Ready for action

When a journalist grabs their designated camera from the pool and heads to the scene of the story, everything’s already there in the camera when they switch on: a shopping list of clips plus associated planning metadata and even camera settings for each shot.

While they’re still in the field, journalists and camera operators have total control over reviewing, managing and augmenting the basic metadata created by the NRCS that’s already sitting in the camera.

Using the C3 Portal app on their phone it’s easy to marry up planning metadata with clips, add essence marks, descriptive notes and even file attachments such as call sheets to recorded clips.

Sony’s powerful AI saves even more time by automatically transcribing the journalist’s spoken comments into text. It can also help create folders intelligently, and even correct mislabelled file names by reading their metadata.

Craft stories quicker

Here’s the big payoff. When clips in the camera are securely uploaded to the cloud via FTP – over 4G/5G or Wi-Fi from the journalist’s phone or even from the camera itself – much of the fiddly preparatory work is already done.

As content is ingested automatically back at base, everything’s neatly tagged and dropped into appropriate folders to make life simple for news teams working on multiple stories.

Low resolution proxies appear automatically on the editor’s timeline, allowing them to start crafting a story before their high-res counterparts are delivered, either by physical media card or over-the-air transfer. Camera- and clip-specific metadata added by journalists in the field – maybe a memo like watch out for background noise at 3’42” – gives valuable guidance to editors as they build the story.

When editing’s done, high-res material is relinked with the edited proxies... and the completed story’s ready for air. If you’re really in a hurry, we know from several of our broadcast customers that those proxies are often more than good enough for broadcast.

Stay in control of your cameras

I’ve already hinted how C3 Portal also makes it possible to directly control all your connected Sony cameras over the air.

You can start or stop recording remotely, adjust focus, iris, zoom and more – all without needing the presence of a physical camera operator. You imagine just how useful this can be for conducting down-the-line interviews and vox pops from a remote location, with huge savings on crew travel costs.

The fleet management possibilities of C3 Portal don’t stop there, either. Let’s say there’s an inexperienced or unwitting journalist who’s been messing around with their camera menus, and has managed to ruin their pictures in the process. With C3 Portal you can literally reconfigure camera settings over the air –saving even more precious time, and preventing a major story from turning into a potential disaster.

Written by Nick Smith, Account Manager, Sony Professional Europe.

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