DSMCi Signs National Geographic Television As Client For Digitization Of Film Library

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For Immediate Release

DSMCi Signs National Geographic Television As Client For Digitization Of Film Library

MARYLAND, BELTSVILLE, May. 24 -/E-Wire/-- DSMCi, a leader in implementing media asset management solutions for media-rich organizations, today announced the signing of

National Geographic Television (NGT) as a recipient of its Media Center Outsourcing

Services for the digitization of its award-winning stock footage.

Under the terms of the agreement, DSMCi has contracted to digitize and create a searchable database for National Geographic's extensive film archive, allowing NGT to

fully utilize its vast amount of media assets.

"The introduction of our new U.S.-based National Geographic Channel and the increasing expansion of our international Channels have made it necessary for us to

realize the full capabilities of our stock footage and resources within the film

library,' said Matthew White, Vice President, Film Library at NGT. "DSMCi's Media

Center has the technological and practical means to help us achieve this goal and will

allow us to work more effectively with our producers here and with our clients in the

As a means to satisfy the demands of National Geographic's Film Library, DSMCi has

developed several customized applications to ensure the expedited digital encoding of

its high volume of assets. Currently, DSMCi's Media Center has the capability to

digitally encode 1,000 hours of video per month in multiple file formats and bit

While being a fully-automated system, the proprietary index and encoding process used

in these applications are equipped with a number of quality assurance checks, which

are necessary to maintain the integrity of National Geographic's stock footage

throughout the digitization process.

"Our partnership with National Geographic Television clearly demonstrated that our

outsourcing services can reduce the risks for our clients when entering the world of

media asset management while helping them reap the benefits of a MAM system now,'

said Duane Shugars, CEO of DSMCi.

The customized process, developed by DSMCi in consultation with National Geographic

Television, begins with a bar-coded videotape and associated metadata, which are

supplied by the film library to DSMCi. The videotape is scanned using a DSMCi

application called MediaTracker(TM) and merged with the tape-level metadata in DSMCi's

Media Center system.

The system then automatically ingests and digitizes the media, creating thumbnail

images representing scene changes, decoding the voice track, when available, to create

corresponding metadata, and encoding the media in several resolutions, including

multiple proxies in low resolutions. The system then dubs a broadcast-quality DVC Pro

copy of the source material and copies the MPEG-2 version to a DLT.

Using LabelSync(TM), a DSMCi software program developed for tracking and retrieval

purposes, DSMCi automatically integrates video proxies and associates each segment of

information with the appropriate bar-coded, physical videotape.

As portions of the video hours contain logged descriptions of the video content, DSMCi developed custom applications to fuse the descriptions with the corresponding

thumbnail and metadata derived from the logging process. Each of the merged files and

video proxies undergo additional quality assurance checks by DSMCi Media Center

technicians and are then stored in DSMCi Media Archive System (MAS(TM)) for National

Geographic Television.

Videotapes lacking shot-level metadata are exported to a third-party cataloging firm

where the ingested data files are edited, using DSMCi's VDF Editor(TM), to include

scene descriptions and manipulate key frames. Subsequently, the edited files or

enhanced videos are electronically transferred to DSMCi for quality assurance and then

imported into the production database.

Over 150,000 different media objects are managed by the system, which provides access

to NGT, or its affiliates, from anywhere in the world through a secure extranet

DSMCi is a leading end-to-end solutions provider of media asset management technology

for organizations with large media libraries including broadcasters, cablecasters,

motion picture studios, educational institutions and government agencies. Our

reputable list of consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing clients include

ABC, Inc., CBS Online, Discovery Communications, Inc., E! Entertainment Network,

National Geographic Television, NBC Olympics, South Carolina Educational Television

Network, Turner Entertainment Networks, and Viacom.

For more information, visit the company's website at www.dsmci.com, or call 301/572-5122.

About National Geographic Television

Building on its reputation for remarkable visual and compelling stories, National

Geographic Television (NGT) augments its award-winning documentary production (winner

of 109 Emmys and more than 800 other industry awards) with feature films,

large-format, and long-form television drama programming, as well as international

broadcast and video distribution.

At present, NGT's programming can be seen in the U.S. on the National Geographic Channel, CNBC, and PBS as well as on home video & DVD, and internationally through

video distribution and broadcast syndication in more than 100 different outlets in

some 90 territories.

The National Geographic Channel in the U.S. is a business enterprise of National Geographic Television and Fox Cable Networks Group. Abroad, those partners are joined

by NBC, and the Channel reaches 129 countries and over 100 million households in 18

languages. More information about NGT is available on www.nationalgeographic.com.

http://www.dsmci.com

http://www.nationalgeographic.com

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