DSMCi Assists Sekani In Developing Media Asset Management "Blueprint" for NBC Olympics

Beltsville, MD- March 22, 2001- DSMCi, a leader in implementing asset management technology for media-rich organizations, announced the completion of a project in which it assisted Sekani, Inc., a provider of advanced media asset management services for businesses worldwide, in the development of media asset management initiatives for the NBC Olympics (NBC Olympics, Inc.).
In conjunction with Sekani, Inc., DSMCi designed and delivered a comprehensive blueprint for moving NBC Olympics media assets from analog to digital. The project provides a roadmap that will enable NBC to securely store, search, deliver and share rich media, with the goal of implementation beginning this spring [2001].
In 2000, a team of producers, media consultants and broadband engineers from DSMCi and Sekani worked closely with the NBC Olympics group in Sydney, Australia, and successfully demonstrated a prototype system for streaming, encoding, cataloging, searching and retrieving content from the NBC Olympics broadcast material.
For the Sydney Olympics Games, DSMCi co-designed a new archiving workflow architecture including a "proof of concept" rack mounted media management solution for the International Broadcast Center. The prototype demonstrated how NBC could digitize and marry" live venue feeds with low-resolution streaming video assets and associated thumbnails from NBC's OPIS system logs. The combined data was placed in a searchable database accessed through a secure custom-built web interface enabling clips to be quickly found and streamed to a personal PC.
This easily deployable, integrated rack-mounted system enabled DSMCis consulting team to identify gaps between the analog and digital logging processes, which was one component of the Blueprint" document.
Following its successful implementation in Sydney, DSMCi plans to market this self-contained, rack-mounted, media management solution as a commercial product starting in the first quarter of 2001.
"We viewed this as a tremendous opportunity for us to demonstrate our core competencies for NBC Olympics, Inc., which has a highly complex workflow and technology portfolio," said Duane Shugars, CEO of DSMCi. "With our proficiency in developing the life-cycle of media asset management projects, the synergy between the organizations ultimately ensures the success of the project. We look forward to working with NBC and Sekani on this as well as future ventures."

About DSMCi
DSMCi is a leading end-to-end solutions provider of asset management technology for organizations with large media libraries including broadcasters, cablecasters, motion picture studios and other corporations; educational institutions and government agencies. DSMCi provides consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing services for companies including ABC, Inc., CBS Online, Discovery Communications, Inc., E! Entertainment Network, National Geographic Television, NBC Olympics, South Carolina Educational Television Network, and Turner Entertainment Networks. For more information, visit the companys website at www.dsmci.com, or call (301) 572-5122.

About Sekani, Inc.
Sekani, Inc. provides advanced media asset management services to businesses around the world. Combining broadband and Internet technologies with the world's largest rights, clearance, and licensing resource, Sekani is transforming the way rich media is stored, searched, purchased, delivered and applied. Sekanis world-class media licensing brands include Action Sports Adventure, Film Bank, Hot Shots Cool Cuts and Second Line Search. A privately held company, Sekani's investors include Corbis, the leading provider of photography and fine art on the Internet, founded by Bill Gates; iXL, a leading strategic services company that provides Internet strategy consulting and solutions to Fortune 1000 companies, founded by Bert Ellis; RRE Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurial information technology companies; ComVentures; Bessemer Venture Partners; Infinity Capital; WaterView Advisors and the Wakefield Group. Sekani has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Germany.

Written by: Skip Ferderber, Skip Ferderber & Associates
      
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