Category: Metadata

The Value of Metadata: an anecdote.

Post author By Philip
Post date November 23, 2016
2 Comments on The Value of Metadata: an anecdote.

I guess it won’t be any surprise that I have a lot of metadata entered in my Aperture photo library. In fact the lack of metadata support in Photos is the reason I can’t migrate there.

The real value of metadata is to help find photos, but sometimes the right piece of metadata is beyond value. For some paperwork related to my current husband’s ‘green card’ I needed the date of birth of my former wife. I could not remember it, but looking in my photo library, I found one taken on her 23rd birthday.

Of course I have the original date set on my photos, even those that I scanned from prints or slides. Because I had added the metadata when I knew it, I now had the all-important date I needed, and was able to file the paperwork.

Never underestimate the value of metadata!

STV Klaassen: Special Thanks to Lumberjack and Sync-N-Link X

Post author By Philip
Post date October 11, 2016

As you probably all know, I have two day jobs heading Intelligent Assistance Software and Lumberjack System. We’re very proud of the work we’ve done through both companies. We make a decent income from them for sure, but what makes us particularly happy when our tools get people’s work done faster. They get to go home to their families earlier and production has less drudgery.

So it pleases us greatly when that gets recognized, as it did this trip.

Item of Interest Metadata

The Terence and Philip Show Episode 73: Mostly about Metadata

Post author By Philip
Post date September 22, 2016

In this latest episode of The Terence and Philip Show Terry and I discuss metadata, my citizenship, smart APIs, Artificial Intelligence and more.

Interesting Technology Machine Learning Metadata

AI and Machine Learning in Apple’s World – Updated 10/20

Post author By Philip
Post date August 28, 2016

The extensive article by Steven Levy – The iBrain is Here – is a fascinating read on how Apple are using Machine Learning, neural networks and Artificial Intelligences across product lines. It’s well worth the time to read through, but this quote from Phil Schiller stood out:

â€œWe use these techniques to do the things we have always wanted to do, better than weâ€™ve been able to do,â€ says Schiller. â€œAnd on new things we havenâ€™t be able to do. Itâ€™s a technique that will ultimately be a very Apple way of doing things as it evolves inside Apple and in the ways we make products.â€

The ways this could all be aligned with editing? Speech-to-text; keyword extraction (just like Magic Keywords in Lumberjack System); sentiment extraction; image recognition; facial detection and recognition; speech controlled editing (if anyone really wants that), and the list goes on.

I’d like to believe the Pro Apps Team are working on this.

UPDATE:Â Ruslan Salakhutdinov is Apple’s first Director of AI.

Business & Marketing Metadata

Metadata drives Audience Growth for Niche Channels

Post author By Philip
Post date August 9, 2016

I recently commented on the importance of metadata for rights management during distribution.Â While cleaning my email inbox I revisited a story from late last year, on how over-the-top content providers (generally niche) can use metadata from social media and other sources to help grow their audiences.

Metadata The Business of Production

Spanish Broadcaster for Rio Olympics Relies on Metadata

Post author By Philip
Post date July 26, 2016

Avid Media Composer has always been great at tracking metadata. Without accurate timecode, Media Composer would have never become established. Over the years Avid have continued to add metadata support to the app.

Reading an Avid blog on Spanish Broadcaster RTVE’s technical deployment in Rio, I was struck by this:

All of the cataloging and indexing process will be carried out by means of an autometadata software developed by the CorporaciÃ³n itself, which will enable the use of metadata provided by OBS and those selected by TVEâ€™s documentary makers.

I’d love to know more about what the “Corporation” has done. Maybe we can set up a meeting for October when we’ll be back in Barcelona!

Spoiler alert: they use a lot of Avid technology!

Distribution Metadata

Metadata for Distribution: Case Studies from Metadata Madness

Post author By Philip
Post date July 22, 2016

A few days ago I wrote about metadata’s application to distribution. A recent panel discussion at the Rights and Metadata Madness conferenceÂ outlined some of the challenges and case studies from Rovi, MLB and Viacom outlining their metadata needs and the practices they’ve developed to deal with them.

The article is worth a read, but I’ll highlight the challenge outlined by Michael Jeffrey, VP of market solutions at Rovi:

A feature-length movie with a sports theme and containing content that includes music from other properties can have assets from 20-50 separate entities.

And each of those entities can have restrictions on what the maker of that movie can show, he said, adding that itâ€™s possible you canâ€™t show any beer cans or canâ€™t use an actor in any promotions.

Now let’s add the formatting, duration, and other issues from my earlier post!

Assisted Editing Interesting Technology Metadata The Business of Production

Google adds to smart APIs

Post author By Philip
Post date July 20, 2016

Google today launched a new API to help parse natural language. An API is anÂ Application Programming Interface, that developers can use to send data to, and get a response back. Natural Language Parsing is used to understand language that is available in computer-readable form (text). Google’s API joins an increasingly long list of very smart APIs that will understand language, recognize images and much more.

A lot has changed since I last wrote about Advances in Content Recognition late last year.

Apple Pro Apps Assisted Editing Lumberjack Metadata

Final Cut Pro X Creative Summit 2016 Discount

Post author By Philip
Post date July 19, 2016

The Final Cut Pro X Creative SummitÂ is on again in October this year.

Three days of cutting-edge training on the latest FCPX and Motion.
Hear directly from Apple Product Managers. Learn from top industry experts.

Apparently I slip in as an ‘industry expert’ with these sessions

10:30am SaturdayÂ Using Transcripts in FCPX
10:30am Sunday Â Â Production Kit in a Bag

Greg and I will also be showing the Intelligent Assistance Software apps, and will have some amazing things to show with Lumberjack System.

Metadata

Production in the Cloud

Post author By Philip
Post date July 18, 2016

Metadata is one of the most useful tools we have, if we have the tools to use it! Aside from the obvious problems when no metadata is gathered during the shoot, or insufficient metadata is gathered, other issues arise because there are not always tools in the production chain that use the metadata that has been gathered!

A recent student film was used as a template by the Entertainment Technology Center at USC with the purpose of realizingÂ the long-hoped for promise of production metadata, with some fairly ambitious goals.

The results are interesting and important, particularly considering that this is what I would categorize as Technical metadata, rather than Content metadata.