I had the pleasure of hosting my colleagues, Jason Perr, CTO of M&E Solutions, and George Maddox, Solutions Architect, on a webinar to discuss smart strategies to enhance media storage and workflows with AI. Watch the webinar on-demand now. With a background in video on demand and cloud-based video editing as well as the digital supply chain, George now works as a Solution Architect on Perifery storage solutions. As part of his mission, he consults with both existing and potential clients to ensure they find the right solutions to fit their specific use case and environment.
Our other guest, Jason Perr, summarized his unique journey. As a media technologist and AI production expert, Jason has been at the forefront of digital asset management and workflow automation for over a dozen years. Jason leads the development of AI solutions to help media-focused companies of all sizes handle assets more efficiently and effectively with the specific goal of making it simple for people to find those hidden gems of content that they might not even know they have. Having founded two companies in the industry, Jason has extensive experience working with developers, integrators, and consultants to empower media-driven organizations with cutting-edge AI recognition and automation utilities. His commitment to ethically leveraging natural language processing and machine learning for AI training ensures that clients receive the best end-to-end solutions for their media management needs.
I shareda bit about my career that started in technical writing and led to Product Marketing, primarily for storage solutions including Perifery Swarm for six years. I provided a brief overview of Perifery, a division of DataCore focused on media and entertainment solutions—highlighting our global presence and commitment to solving media workflow and preservation challenges with our smart storage and AI-powered workflow solutions.
Advantages of Perifery Object-Based Storage Solutions
George spoke to Perifery’s two storage solutions—Swarm and Object Matrix, “The common thread technically through those two companies [products] is that this is object storage located on-premises but then connected to by a common connector, which is the S3 connector.” George went on to emphasize the many benefits of using object-based storage, including:
- Scalability, you can start small and scale as you grow or implement at massive scale
- Automatic integration of metadata with video storage
- Ease of finding and accessing assets for re-use and monetization
- Robust security for data preservation and business continuity
- Highly performant as a nearline or active archive for media workflows
While I mentioned that the acquisition of what I refer to as “field-hardened” solutions brings decades of proven technology to Perifery; I failed to mention that it also brings the experience of some of the best and brightest engineering talent in the industry. While our storage products retain their original names, we have unified the portfolio with both the Vision asset management software (acquired with Object Matrix) and the AI+ portfolio (acquired with WIN).
Why Not Just Use an LTO Solution?
George and I discussed the benefits of object-based storage over traditional LTO solutions, and I emphasized the cost-effectiveness of running storage software on any x86 server (yes, we offer hardware-agnostic solutions, even allowing for reuse of servers you already own). The Perifery storage software provides what I like to call “the magic.” While LTO solutions may be cheaper, they prohibit the formation of what I think of as a more holistic solution—an endless pool of content and the ability to easily find and access assets.
Metadata Integration and Storage Solutions
George elaborated on the integration of metadata with objects in Object Matrix and Swarm, explaining that this approach ensures that crucial metadata is stored alongside the actual video assets. When used in conjunction with Perifery AI+, customers can add functionality such as:
- Transcription & Summarization
- MetaGen (highly specific metadata generation that goes beyond what the storage produces)
- Object recognition
- Facial recognition
- Translation
The granular knowledge made available by using the functionality of Perifery AI+ allows for the addition of application layers to automate and optimize workflows as well as the generation of meaningful metadata.
AI-Driven Media Solutions
Jason Perr talked about how AI can drive media transformation, detailing the challenges of manually entering metadata (no one wants to do it, nor is it a job most humans can do thoroughly or well without spending incredible amounts of time reviewing footage). Jason emphasized that “being able to get these tools in place so that your creatives can actually be freed up and focused on those muscles instead of their technical muscles is going to really evolve how quickly we get to quality content and how much of this every worker is able to create.” Jason talked about how AI can be used to automate the process, generating rich metadata for various fields, enhancing searchability and usability. Jason elaborated about the integration of facial recognition and object recognition technologies, which allow for efficient content search and identification. It all comes down to this: AI, trained and used properly, can significantly increase organizational productivity and asset findability.
Practical Applications and Use Cases for AI
Sarah and Jason discuss the practical applications of AI-driven media solutions in various industries, particularly those that need precise and efficient media workflows, such as sports and professional gaming. Jason explained the importance of recognizing specific objects and individuals in media content. Returning to the topic of the Vision interface and how it combines with existing industry applications (e.g., MAMs such as iconix, CatDV, Avid, etc) allows for metadata enrichment, simplified sub-clipping, and efficient content management.
Develop Your Smart Strategy to Enhance Media Storage and Workflows with AI
If you are ready to start your own journey to using smarter storage and AI capabilities for your media assets and workflow, I suggest you contact us today. Our experts want to hear your challenges, goals, and long-term plans and are available to help you determine if Perifery is the right solution for your organization.
