Recently, we introduced Rally Connect, a simple way to exchange and deliver trusted content and metadata quickly and accurately. At its core, simplified, standardized content and metadata exchange is achieved through supply chain templates, which are easily imported or integrated into an existing Rally system, to deliver content to any supported platform. With these templates, engineers no longer need to manually configure metadata and media transformations. Rather, they simply start using a Rally Connect supply chain after mapping their metadata against the Connect schema.
While this simplification greatly improves agility, removing the initial configuration time for a new destination platform, it’s also a step on the path of supply chain efficiency. Certifying metadata and content specifications with a new delivery partner is often iterative and time-consuming. Duplicate media processing often takes place at the destination because they do not know (or trust) what has been done upstream. Eliminating this duplication of work and improving speed and efficiency of adding a new content destination requires an approach that involves the broader media supply chain.
This is where trusted relationships play a big role. When two content partners – the sender and the receiver – both use the Rally media supply chain platform, they can trust any content delivered using their specifications templated in Rally Connect. Now that the content is “trusted”, the recipient saves time and money because they eliminate the need to QC the content: they know it was already QC’ed using the same tools they use, with the same presets, only in a different Rally system. The content supplier also improves time and cost efficiency because they no longer have to go through expensive verification and certification efforts to onboard their content with the delivery partner.
These trusted relationships enable fast content exchange not only to the big VOD platforms in the market, but for any exchange of content between broadcasters, content owners, and platform operators. The broadcast community can exchange content through templates built together, with the tools and presets they choose, instead of duplicating their efforts. With a cloud-based supply chain, they can easily select a custom combination of QC or transform applications to deliver to an endpoint when the delivery partner requires it, without having to first create a commercial relationship with the application vendor, learn their software, and build appropriate presets. Because all presets and software settings are included in Rally Connect templates, and separate software licenses are not needed with Rally-enabled consumption-based application services, simply pay for the content that actually gets delivered. You have full visibility of costs before even signing the contract, with no surprises that the technical delivery of the content turns out to be more expensive than planned.
The community aspect is important here. With Rally Connect, smaller providers benefit from the same ease of use and process efficiencies as the larger multi-national VOD platforms. A smaller regional broadcaster, for example, can design and build their own Connect templates, offering them to any Rally users delivering content to them, and instantly be sure that all arriving content is safe and meets their standards. These templates can even be open-sourced, including metadata transformation instructions, which will help other content providers, suppliers, and platforms benefit from being part of this community.
At SDVI, our mission is to help media companies become more agile and efficient by removing waste, duplication, and rigid physical infrastructure. We’ve helped some of the world’s largest media companies streamline and modernize the media supply chains running in their “factories”. In the dynamic media market, with new content deals happening almost daily, the need for easy and accurate content transfers is higher than ever. Now with Rally Connect, we’re extending the media supply chain to connect these factories together and adding another mechanism to further optimize how partners receive and distribute content. For media operations departments, it’s a game-changer.
For a deeper dive into Rally Connect, here’s a recording of a recent webinar.
