Wazee Digital Archiving Endangered Formats For HBO

Wazee Digital has announced that HBO has begun using Wazee Digital Core to digitize and archive sports content currently stored in endangered videotape formats. In doing so, HBO can preserve its deteriorating content while providing access to the archive for stakeholders that need that content.

HBO Vice President Michael Castro, said: "Many of HBO Sports' assets are on legacy tape formats that need to be migrated to digital because the physical formats are deteriorating, and the videotape machines that play them back are quickly becoming extinct.

"HBO Sports now has access to its rich history of sports content digitally, unearthing what has long been dormant, sitting on a shelf. Through Wazee Digital, we are rediscovering these historic moments and making them available for future use."

Core is Wazee Digital's enterprise software-as-a-service platform built specifically for the cloud. The center of the Wazee Digital content management system, Core manages the complex tasks of video acquisition, effective workflow, universal access, metadata management, and automated delivery to any authorized user on any screen. Core provides powerful metadata management and workflow intelligence to give content owners maximum operational efficiencies and control. Furthermore, Core provides secure cloud storage that scales with the size of HBO's digital library.

Core ensures digital preservation of HBO's analog and digital videotape formats using AS-02 MXF versioning. HBO's MXF-wrapped assets serve as master files that can accommodate many input and output formats, while flexible metadata support — including controlled vocabulary, keyword assist, and integration with thesauri vendors such as Synaptica — aids in search and discovery.

Credentialed internal HBO users and other stakeholders can now log in to Core to search and explore the archive and download assets that were previously inaccessible by digital means. The initial deployment covers aging HBO Sports archives, enabling producers at HBO Sports to download those video assets for editing in sports programs.

Harris Morris, chairman and CEO of Wazee Digital added: "Core gives HBO a market-leading cloud asset management platform that provides HBO complete control of their precious content — both endangered and recently produced. With Core, HBO now has a progressive solution that allows them to archive, manage, research, view, download, and share sports content that otherwise may have languished on shelves in tape format.

"The support of AS-02 archive format using JPEG 2000 is the first of its kind for a cloud-native asset management platform. This strategy will help HBO Sports bring its rich history of sports content back to life, while making it searchable, discoverable, and monetizable once again."

wazeedigital.com

(MH)