FOR-A Corporation of America, a manufacturer of video and audio systems for the broadcast and professional video industries, will introduce MediaConcierge, a comprehensive content management system for use by broadcast television stations and video production houses worldwide at NAB 2008 in Las Vegas from April 14-17, 2008 (Booth #SU5220)

“MediaConcierge acts as a ‘concierge,’ managing content; converting between common file and digital video formats, facilitating search, browse, and file delivery; and interfacing to third party media content databases and archives,” said Susumu Hotta, President, FOR-A Corporation of America. 

“MediaConcierge performs the unified management of different media files, such as media ingest and format conversion, so that each media asset can be repurposed for delivery via a variety of outlets, including broadcast, the Internet, and packaged media,” Hotta continued. “In this way, broadcasters can take advantage of the numerous business opportunities that exists for their valuable media assets.”  

At NAB 2008, FOR-A will unveil the first two MediaConcierge products being marketed in North America -- the MBP-100SX baseband converter and MXF file conversion software.

The MBP-100SX converter converts XDCAM HD MXF files to baseband video and HD-SDI signals, and vice versa, in realtime for applications requiring baseband video.  This converter uses a new MBP video card developed by FOR-A that supports XDCAM HD, DVCPRO HD and AVC-Intra tapeless media files. FOR-A will develop additional converters, including one for H.264 and another for AVC-Intra. Both will utilize an MBP board and will be part of the MediaConcierge product family, depending upon future market needs.

“As customers move through the shooting, editing, and delivery process, there are many points where the file must be converted to baseband signals.  It’s not feasible to use an E-VTR as a convertor at each point for baseband signal conversion,” Hotta explained. “But if a converter can receive video data as a file via the network, convert that data to baseband signals, and then enable the playback, the workflow is significantly improved.”

The MXF conversion software which consists of three software plug-ins MCS-10PD (DVCPRO), MCS-10PA (AVC-Intra) and MCS-10SX (XDCAM) enables the conversion of MXF (Media Exchange Format) data files between the P2 HD and XDCAM HD formats.  Converting directly between P2 HD and XDCAM HD is more efficient than first converting them to baseband.

With MediaConcierge, once data has been managed, high-speed search based on metadata and proxy data can immediately locate stored scenes. The high compatibility of the MediaConcierge database structure means it can be linked with nearly all existing databases. Therefore, operators can create a unified management environment without replacing their existing system configuration.

The MBP-MXF baseband converter and P2-XDCAM format converter will begin shipping this summer.