SVG’s Sports Content Management Forum Returns to In-Person Format in NYC With 175+ Media-Management Pros

Exploding content growth, cloud-based workflows, and sustainable storage were among the topics

For the first time since 2019, SVG’s Sports Content Management Forum was in-person on Wednesday, attracting more than 175 media-management leaders to the Westin Times Square in New York City. The event was headlined by a deep dive into NBC Olympics’ digital workflows for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022, along with a full day of sessions addressing the current state of the media-asset–management/storage business and how sports-media organizations can future-proof their content in an ever-changing world.

Developed by the SCM Advisory Committee and its new Chair Anne Graham, Manager Sports Media Services, Warner Bros. Discovery, this year’s agenda addressed the current state of the industry and how sports-media organizations can future-proof their content in an ever-changing world.

Graham joined top media-management execs from Fox Sports, MLB, and Riot Games for the opening “State of the Industry” panel, which discussed how they are rethinking their internal workflows because of the pandemic, embracing the cloud in order to innovate and finding new ways to monetize their existing content.

The State of the Industry panel was followed by a presentation by Jim Miles, director, digital workflow systems, NBC Olympics, examining the broadcaster’s groundbreaking digital workflows for the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympic Games and the ultra-quick six-month turnaround from one Games to the next.

Although sports-media organizations had been exploring remote and cloud-based technologies for several years, the pandemic drastically accelerated development. The next panel discussed how these workflows have become integral to the media-asset–management (MAM) and postproduction ecosystem. Leaders from CBS Sports, NHL, PGA TOUR, EditShare, and LucidLink discussed how cloud and SaaS offerings are changing their MAM philosophies and how these technologies enable remote collaboration and innovative multi-site postproduction ecosystems.

Sports leagues, broadcasters, and content producers of all sizes are challenged by The Big Archive Question: Where do I store my stuff? And, with more content created every year and file sizes continuing to grow thanks to the arrival of 4K and HDR, answering this question has never been more important. Technology leaders from MLB, NBA, NHL, DataCore, and Imagen discussed finding a balance between on-premises and the cloud, file-format and codec considerations, retention policies and the question of keeping/discarding physical tapes, and much more.

With media workloads growing exponentially, sustainable data storage has become an increasing concern throughout the M&E industry. IT and media-management leaders are being asked to implement workflows and technologies engineered to reduce power, cooling, and waste in order to build a sustainable model for the future. In an afternoon session, representatives of Fujifilm Recording Media USA, Kibo121, and Spectra Logic provided an update on how vendors and users are working together to create a more sustainable ecosystem.

What metadata schema are you using to describe your content: a home-grown one or an established schema as a backbone? What taxonomy/ontology do you use to populate it? Are there any emerging industry standards? Technology leaders from MLB, University of Notre Dame, Warner Bros. Discovery, and IMT took the stage to discuss best practices in metadata assignment.

The day closed with a panel focused on MAM and orchestration systems featuring CBS Sports, WWE, Dalet, Quantum, and Telestream and addressing the way MAM and orchestration systems deal with rights, archive, logging plus data feeds, and taxonomy/ontology management.

The day also featured a pair of case studies: Zixi examined Amazon Prime Video’s next-generation live-event management and distribution, and Signiant addressed the content explosion for sports teams and how they can meet the challenge.

The 2022 Sports Content Management Forum was made possible by Diamond Sponsors DataCore and Signiant and Gold Sponsors Dalet, EditShare, IMT, Quantum, Ross Video, Seagate, SoDA, Imagen, LucidLink, NEP, Telestream, and Zixi.