Microsoft



Overview

Country: Global

Industry: Media & Entertainment

Customer Profile

As a leading creator of entertainment content, MTV Networks’ brands engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds, and consumer products. The MTVN brands include MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin, The N, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, SPIKE, TV Land, Atom, GameTrailers, and Xfire.

Business Situation

To help better serve its cable, satellite and telco partners, the company sought to transform ALIAS, its asset management system, from a static application that supported only videotape-based assets to a dynamic tool that supports both digital and tape assets.

Solution

MTV Networks worked with Microsoft and Microsoft partner Vertigo to redesign the ALIAS Web front end using Microsoft Silverlight.

Benefits

0. Increases efficiencies and streamlines workflow

0. Improves ease of use

0. Reduces costs

Web Technologies Help MTV Networks Create Dynamic Website and Improve Global Workflow

“With our Microsoft® Silverlight® solution, the risk is minimal and the upside is huge.”

— Stewart Frey, Vice President, Production and Operations Systems, MTV Networks

MTV Networks (MTVN), a division of Viacom, is one of the world’s leading creators of entertainment content. In 2000, the company created ALIAS (Archive Library Information Access System), an enterprise asset management system used by MTVN personnel to search and request assets from the company’s videotape archives. MTV Networks sought to enhance ALIAS to support DVDs, digital files, still photography, and video. MTV Networks worked with Microsoft and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Vertigo to redesign ALIAS utilizing the extensive Rich Internet Application (RIA) capabilities of Microsoft® SilverlightTM, powered by the .NET Framework. The redesigned system delivers vast improvements in performance—providing an enhanced user experience and significantly streamlining the workflow for ALIAS users.

“MTV Networks is a creative, dynamic company….To work here, you have to be open to this dynamic environment, and Silverlight fits right in.”

— Stewart Frey, Vice President,

Production and Operations Systems,

MTV Networks

Situation

MTV Networks’ portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 400 digital media properties worldwide.

In 2000, the company launched ALIAS (Archive Library Information Access System), an enterprise asset management system that is accessible to all employees under the MTV Networks umbrella.

ALIAS consists of two components: a client application and a Web application. The client component is used and managed by MTVN Library Services, while the Web component is used by creative and marketing teams across MTV Networks’ brands to search and access company archives.

Designed and built internally using PowerBuilder, an application development tool, ALIAS was developed to support archive assets that were recorded on videotape. The company decided to upgrade the system and, in June of 2008, rewrote the client using the Microsoft .NET Framework, an integral component of the Microsoft Windows® operating system that provides a programming model and runtime for Web services, Web applications, and smart client applications.

But the Web front end of ALIAS had not been touched. “Here we had a site that hadn’t had any major upgrades since the initial launch and needed a new look as we transition into a digital workflow,” explains Stewart Frey, Vice President, Production and Operations Systems of MTV Networks. “We needed to enhance ALIAS to include Digital Asset Management (DAM) functionality and take it from tape-based to tape-and-digital, so we needed to recode the Web product.”

Solution

Frey and his development team wanted the updated Web site to deliver a rich user experience, including a drag-and-drop feature for previewing asset contents online.

“We wanted a solution that would deliver a really nice looking UI and a rich client experience—and one that could handle the complexities of many different browsers. Silverlight addressed those needs for us,” says Frey.

Supporting Multiple Platforms

Because MTV Networks had a mixed user base of Windows and Macintosh desktops, the company needed a cross-platform technology —one that could deal with the individual quirks of the different browsers.

After exploring several technologies, MTV Networks chose Microsoft Silverlight, the next-generation cross-browser platform for delivering rich media through the Web. MTV Networks already had .NET developers on staff, so Silverlight was a natural extension of what they were already doing with .NET and the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Silverlight also makes use of Microsoft PlayReadyTM to enable the protected delivery of rich content experiences over an Internet connection, which made it easy for MTV Networks and its Silverlight design and development partners at San Francisco-based Vertigo to create a Web site that could meet the needs of both Windows-based PC and Mac users.

Frey notes that one of the key advantages of Silverlight is that it supports a cross-platform user base. “Half of our users are on Macs and half are on PCs, but with Silverlight our developers don’t have to worry about whether the application will work across platforms—whether it’s Internet Explorer on a PC, Safari on a Mac, or Firefox. They no longer have to write all those little Java scripts to make it work with the different browsers or Mac versus PC.”

“Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft Expression enabled Vertigo to combine our design and engineering capabilities to meet MTV Network’s desire to have a functional, well-engineered solution and a compelling user experience with a modern look and feel,” adds Scott Stanfield, CEO of Vertigo.

Ready in four months

“We had a very aggressive timetable,” comments Frey, who wanted the site to be ready for customers within four months, “but the good story is that the developers were able to leverage their .NET skills and jump right in. My team was able to ramp up very quickly and work within their familiar Microsoft Visual Studio® development environment. The learning curve was decreased because they didn’t have to learn a whole new development UI.

“Silverlight uses Web services to interact with the database,” Frey goes on to say. “So we created a set of Windows Communication Foundation-based Web services to do this. These Web services have proven very versatile and made it possible to build a very thin client. Much of the business logic is inside the WCF Web services. Additionally, those Web services are reusable and will be a resource for other applications going forward. Working with WCF Web services has been highly successful.”

In the future, the MTV Networks development team is looking forward to the H.264 support in Silverlight. “Silverlight with H.264 support is going to simplify a lot of what we’re trying to do, as it will provide a player that can sit within our whole stack of front-end tools,” says Frey.

Benefits

The impetus for MTV Networks to evolve ALIAS into a digital solution was to increase efficiency and streamline workflow, make the site easier to use, and reduce costs.

Increasing efficiencies and improving workflow

"Our goal is to enhance the overall experience of accessing and distributing content", explains Ron Meglio, Vice President, MTVN Library & Media Services. “Now, the user community will have improved visibility into the company's archives and its associated metadata, pushing the archives further upstream in the production process. With improved discoverability and access, we will begin to see real efficiencies."

“The Silverlight solution will allow us to move from a static physical process to a dynamic one, maximizing the production resources that access the libraries and archives.” Meglio continues. “I think it will truly redefine how user groups will arrange their workflows. For example, a new functionality allows users to create pull lists or mini-collections from their research and share them with their groups. Before engaging Silverlight, this process would have been very manual and time-consuming.

Improving ease of use

Microsoft Silverlight is bringing a very modern user interface to the ALIAS solution, and that has helped to create a solution that is much more user-friendly.

“The old UI was a little clunky,” says Frey. “It didn’t provide the kind of user experience that is needed to support the new workflows.”

Under Silverlight, the new user interface has simple drag-and-drop navigation, allows users to clip videos and mark ‘ins

“We will be able to spend less time and resources on the operational aspects and spend more time on creative aspects—which will benefit all of the MTV Networks brands.”

— Ron Meglio, Vice President,

Library and Media Services,

MTV Networks

“We wanted a solution that would deliver a really nice looking UI and a rich client experience— and one that could handle the complexities of many different browsers. Silverlight addressed those needs for us.”

— Stewart Frey, Vice President,

Production and Operations Systems,

MTV Networks

“Microsoft Silverlight and Microsoft Expression enabled Vertigo to combine our design and engineering capabilities to meet MTV Network’s desire to have a functional, well-engineered solution and a compelling user experience with a modern look and feel.”

—Scott Stanfield, CEO, Vertigo

and outs’ to simplify the editing process, and its black screen makes it much easier to view videos. The new Web site also allows users to communicate, share content and collaborate with each other directly through the Silverlight-based application.

Reducing costs

All this increased efficiency translates into reduced costs. For example, MTV Networks previously made and circulated multiple copies of an asset to meet the demands of different departments within the organization.

“There are substantial savings that will occur around tape stock and dubbing, as we no longer have to make as many duplicates,” says Meglio. “We can distribute assets digitally. In other words, encode once, use many times.”

Meglio believes that in addition to reducing costs, digital distribution will also improve the quality of work MTV Networks Library & Media Services produces.

“Our Silverlight solution will free librarians up from the time-intensive manual processes of pulling and circulating assets and will enable them to do other value added tasks, such as building the collection, cataloging content, enhancing metadata, and other curation tasks,” says Meglio. “We will be able to spend less time and resources on the physical operational aspects and spend more time on improving the company's archive—which will benefit all of the MTV Networks brands."

MTV Networks is looking forward to maximizing the benefits of the enhanced ALIAS system.

“MTV Networks is a creative, dynamic company that’s constantly changing because its customers and their needs are constantly changing,” says Frey. “To work here, you have to be open to this dynamic environment, and Silverlight fits right in.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:



For more information about MTV Networks products and services, visit the Web site at: . For more information about Vertigo products and services, visit the Web site at: .

Microsoft Media and Entertainment Practice

Microsoft Communications Sector Media and Entertainment practice provides media vertical services and supply chain companies with business and people-ready software and services to optimize their business process management throughout the media lifecycle, from advertiser/partner relationship and business management to the consumer experience and action. Microsoft’s enterprise software platforms and solutions enable media supply chain players to be seamlessly, dynamically, and securely connected to any point in the media business value chain, driving agility, accuracy, and efficiency.

For more information about Microsoft Communications Sector Media and Entertainment practice, go to: .

-----------------------

© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Solution Overview

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

Technologies

Microsoft Silverlight 2

Microsoft PlayReady

Development Tools

Microsoft Visual Studio

Partners

Vertigo

-----------------------

Case Study: MTV Networks

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download