Media asset management: managing complex data as a re-engineering exercise

Building a media asset management application involves the storing, searching, and retrieving of complex data. How this data is managed can be viewed from two perspectives-in terms of the internal representation required to allow for high-speed searching and transferring of these items between systems, but also from the end-user perspective. This paper focuses on the perspective that media asset management is a re-engineering exercise whose fundamental goal is to eliminate the file system and its underlying classification model. The paper discusses the following topics: folder/director classification schemes; file system security; cross platform file transfers; traditional searching techniques and constraints; the data characteristics of a media asset management solution; an architectural mapping of elements required to manage complex data, including source, proxy, and metadata; a media asset management approach to classification including business semantics; content based search algorithms; and the feasibility of a database replacing the file system