The easiest rock to turn over and find $1,000,000

Written By TJ Daly

Creating video content at scale presents a set of unique and complex challenges.  Visual storytelling is built upon team, technology, and process fundamentals required to bring your story to life.  In my 17 years of experience the most often overlooked core element is Asset Management - undervalued, partially implemented, or missing altogether.

Entire consultancies, firms, and careers are devoted to this challenge.  I have experience as follows:

  • Manager - multiple scopes of work developed with large and boutique consultancies related specifically to asset management for the team I was leading at the time

  • Implementation - Media Asset Management system (MAM) across a team on which I had a leadership role

  • Development - DIY MAM using cloud database software, implementation 

  • Video Editor - asked to follow a defined workflow, engage with a MAM for the purpose of ingesting and/or retrieving assets, editing, proofing and review, delivery

Our Denver Video Consultants process involves rapid (2 hrs) strategic assessment of video creation fundamentals:  Teams, Tools, Technique.  During an engagement the following basic information can create a framework for moving forward with Asset Management:

Hardware / data storage

  • Servers

  • Encoders

  • Off-site backup

  • Cloud services

  • High speed collaborative storage

  • High speed local workstation storage

  • External hard drives (SATA, SSD)

  • On premises storage locations

  • Mystery data challenges

    • “There are drives in this closet and we don’t know what they are.”

Software

  • MAM / DAM

  • Encryption

  • Operating systems

  • Creative applications

  • Proofing and review tools

Process

  • Alignment - internal resources and vendors

  • Production and post-production workflows

  • House codec

  • Proxy workflow

  • Metadata 

    • In use at all?

    • Origin of its design and use

    • Team adoption rate

The absence of Asset Management is what clearly reveals its true value - deliverables or source media lost and misplaced, brand standards adopted a la carte, users unable to work effectively.  The value of each asset degrades in direct correlation to the organization’s inability to access and repurpose that asset.  Assuming we find there are significant gaps present, here are potential solutions:

Team size:  1 to 7

  • DIY - start with an online search “DAM vs MAM” to understand the essentials such as:

    • Asset search

    • Metadata

    • Secure storage

    • Rights management

    • Version, access, user control

  • Team members develop process, build basic solution in something like AirTable (cloud database software)

  • Timeline - 3 to 6 months

  • ROI - reduced risk, time savings, ability to scale

Team size:  8 to 50

Team size:  larger than 50

Identifying fundamentals that may be missing or dormant is a way to unlock value very quickly.  Almost every team I’ve led or been a part of could benefit from an objective 3rd party glance at the essentials and how they’re working.  

Book a call with Denver Video Consultants and we’ll help immediately if you’re able to work that quickly.  Rather than spend hours developing scopes we’ll jump right in (no scope in place) then at the 2 hr mark ask “How’s it going?”.  Not helpful, no invoice.  Helpful?  We’ll bill the time or write a basic scope for a “bucket of hours” to achieve the next agreed upon milestones.  

Thank you,

TJ Daly

TJ Daly
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