Interview — Product Specialist

Session 1: Product Specialist

We had a walkthrough of the Translator VOD workflows and goals by Amelia Amphonphong, product specialist of TL VOD. She went over the current workflow/pain-points in Anvato MCP, user groups, and the proposed system diagram for short form and long form content.

Script

For each interview, we prepare separate scripts to ask more contextual questions per participant.

For the interview with the Product Specialist for Translator VOD, we focused on who the users are, what their goals are, pain points, workflows, and questions about the current UI.

Our Script for the Product Specialist for Translator VOD Interview

Recording

We screen recorded the entire session with the Product Specialist for Translator VOD while she demonstrated various workflows and talked about the mission of Translator VOD.

Interview walkthrough with Amelia, Product Specialist for Translator VOD.

Summarized Notes

Role

GCO - Global Client Operations

  • Makes sure work orders get completed properly and on time

Brands

  • Will use TL VOD to edit and approve metadata
  • They also assign promos air spots

Content Distribution

  • Business group that creates deals to send content out
  • They initially create the work orders

Goals

  • Distribute high quality VOD content on-time for..
    • Set top boxes i.e. Dish
    • TV Everywhere: Internal online streaming services i.e. Bravo, NBC
    • OVD i.e. Sling, DirectTV Now, Youtube Live, Hulu Live
  • Transfer the workflow from MCP/Anvato to Translator-Mediator World

Day-to-Day

Current MCP Workflow

  1. On weekly basis Content Distribution will pull schedules from various sources...
    • Brands
    • Master Grid
    • Other excel spreadsheets
  2. Embargo report gets sent out to partners so they are informed on what the embargo schedule looks like for the week
    • To the partners: Hulu, Fumo
    • To On Demand Parties: Comcast, Fox
    • To dNoc team (Elliott’s Team)
  3. Content Distribution creates a Traffic Report
  4. On weekly basis GCO team will…
    • Download the “Traffic Report” doc
    • Delete anything that isn’t related to their assigned network
    • Upload catered spreadsheet to OTTO
  5. OTTO will ingest the spreadsheet and…
    • Add other metadata like the Material ID
    • Create specific renditions for each order in the spreadsheet
    • Send orders to MCP
  6. Orders arrive in MCP from OTTO and GCO users match the records…
    • Create a program/series (if not created already)
    • If new videos from OTTO match the program name record in MCP, work orders will be visible
  7. After filenames match and metadata is approved, work orders process will start...
    • OTTO does one transcode
    • An additional transcode is done in MCP
  8. Brands/Clients receive content ready for VOD


Day-to-Day (cont.)

Proposed Long Form Workflow in TL VOD

  1. Brands register video content in Mediator
    • Mediator processes file into workflow states
    • Media surfaces into Translator
  2. Content distribution creates Long Form work order in Translator VOD
    • Assigns due date
    • Selects all licensees if sending everywhere

      • *Pulls in metadata from Compass and GTM

  3. Translator will create a work order line item for each asset delivery. The order contains the whole package delivery
  4. Brands go into TL asset dashboard to edit metadata…
    • Apply series level metadata
    • Apply episode level metadata
    • Metadata approval process
      • First by normal Brand user
      • Second by Brand Manager
    • Metadata gets saved and displayed in the system
  5. Once metadata is approved, shell records in TL get matched to ones in Mediator
  6. GCO assigns themselves as owner of specific work orders
  7. GCO applies MAT ID from compass to a work order
  8. If necessary, Media Tech monitors and QCs the Media Files
    • Once approved, Mediator moves content into a ready state
  9. Once steps 1-8 are done, Translator VOD sends order to Servicing Pipeline for processing. The new cloud/servicing pipeline built in AWS will…
    • Receive work order instructions
    • Identifies media file(s) required for order
    • Calls Mediator systems to receive materials
    • Pipeline sends instructions for processing
    • Media gets transcoded after identifying what is required in the packaged and checking off a list of required files
  10. Media gets delivered to VOD Clients

Day-to-Day (cont.)

Proposed Short Form Workflow in TL VOD

  1. Brands register video content in Mediator
    • Mediator processes file into workflow states
    • Media surfaces into Translator
  2. Brands register new content from Mediator in TL VOD
    • Assigns if material is Promo or Short Form

      • *Pulls in metadata from Compass and GTM

  3. If material is…
    • Short Form
      • Brands apply Metadata and link content to a series or episode
      • Brand manager reviews & publishes metadata
      • Translator saves & displays linked metadata
      • Translator sends content to mediator for processing
      • Clients like Youtube recieve content
    • Promo
      • Translator surfaces content into branding management tab
      • Brand applies rules - assigns promo type
      • TL saves and applies rules to work order
      • Data instructions are applied to work order servicing pipeline for processing. Promos are stitched in assigned spot in short or long form content.
      • Clients like Youtube recieve content

Tools Used

  • Mediator
  • Anvato/MCP (Current workflow moving away from)
  • Translator VOD
  • Excel

Pain Points

  • There are a lot of limitations in the MCP software for VOD workflow
    • Difficult to see where the content is going out to
    • Limited filters
    • No saved searches
    • Lots of load time
    • Various syndication records fall under the same parent record of the asset rather than a record for each
    • Series are manually inputted because no upstream system feeding it; a lot of mis-match with the program
    • When want to customize metadata of single content, have to do in each syndication record. No way to do in bulk
    • Sometimes need to wait until syndication is completed to edit metadata
  • Fitting the VOD workflow into Translator. There are lots of moving parts

Wants

  • Saved searches
  • Visibility of where content is being sent out to
  • Separate records for different deliveries i.e. two records if sending the same content to Sling and Bravo
  • Ability to bulk edit metadata at any moment of the workflow; no waiting for data

Work Rules & Behavior

  • In MCP
    1. There is no work order concept; all ordered are tracked in external spreadsheets
  • GCO teams are divided based off of networks
  • Most of the time Content Distribution says that an order should be sent to everywhere
  • If delivery a whole season to 5 clients and the season has 10 episodes, the work order will create 50 line items in Translator VOD
  • The orders are really packaged deliveries with...
    • Video
    • XML
    • Images
    • CSV - holds add timing
  • There are multiple types of branded content with different time amounts...
    • Pre-roll
    • Post Roll
    • Images
    • Overlay
  • There are various Mediator systems that get leveraged in the new workflow
    • Production MAM Mediator - for short form and branding pieces
    • Domestic Broadcast - new one
  • In the new TL VOD we will give users the power to place promos in certain spots; in old workflows the promos were randomly inserted

Miscellaneous

  • Mediator is the system holding all the content; Translator is the CMS to manage it
  • Eventually want to build an asset dashboard for Admin to view and manage things across all Mediators
  • The MAT ID is the original broadcast record of a video