FOX Implements Dalet Enterprise Edition For Sports Content Management

Dalet Digital Media Systems has announced that FOX Network Engineering & Operations has deployed Dalet Enterprise Edition for its sports content management system.
Networks within the FOX Broadcasting Group, such as FOX Sports will rely on the Dalet Enterprise Edition to produce highlights, packages and program teasers for the US most highly watched sports programs; Major League Baseball (MLB), NASCAR, College Football (NCAA) and the National Football League (NFL).
The new Dalet Enterprise Edition installation centralises and catalogs media assets with detailed information as well as integrates Apple Final Cut Pro editing workgroups through the Dalet Xtend plug-in interface; streamlining the FOX Sports postproduction process.
Tedd Rosenfeld, SVP, Production and Post Production, FOX Network Engineering & Operations, said: "There are several complexities with producing live sporting events. Multiple acquisition points and formats isolate metadata and form disparate pools of media specific information - making a comprehensive search of game material for creating packages a real challenge."
Dana Massey, Director of Sports Post Production and Sports Content Management Project Manager for FOX NE&O added: "The Dalet layer of media management provides a tremendous amount of organisation to the overall production process from the top down."
Benjamin Desbois, General Manager for Dalet Digital Media Systems US, said: "Our core value proposition is that our media asset management technology is developed for editorial production environments as the digital sports content production workflow at FOX.
"We do more than just track the details, we understand that media must be fluid enough to move through the various production systems in a number of formats. Our applications are purpose-built to expertly manage these types of workflows."
Dalet Enterprise Edition enables FOX to mobilise their media assets for a much more efficient postproduction workflow.
The Dalet-driven workflow supports sports footage transferred from EVS, Quantel servers and other file/tape based acquisition methods in standard definition DVCPro50 or high definition DVCPro100 720p formats onto an Apple XSan centralised storage and archived into an IBM LTO 3500 tape library.
Dalet application servers automatically register and catalog incoming material; importing relevant time-coded metadata from a Dixon logging system while automatically generating proxies for quick search and retrieval. Media is centralised in a standard format and also catalogued with comprehensive and consistent metadata tags, including specific fields relevant for each sport.
Apple Final Cut Pro postproduction tools are integrated into the workflow via the Dalet Xtend plug-in.
FOX production editors and assistant editors can easily log information, browse media, access sub-clips for each play as per the logging metadata, make shot selections and output EDLs from any workstation equipped with the Dalet client or through a secure internet connection using Dalet InterWeb.
Via the Dalet Apple Final Cut Pro (FCP) Xtend plug-in, FOX editors have direct access to all media stored in the Dalet content catalogue catalogue; eliminating the search for material across multiple databases and locations for content. Production workflow and production quality are both improved by the tapeless workflow using a single enterprise asset management platform.
Further information is available at: www.FOXSports.com and www.dalet.com.
(KMcA/BMcC)