"…the most complete work in this area…I recommend this book to students, engineers, and managers involved or interested in the handling and management of multimedia content." (Computing Reviews.com, September 16, 2005)

Although content has been around for a long time, the problem of managing and finding it has grown substantially over the last decade. This is a clue to the increase in number of output channels and the amount of content being produced. With the pressure to produce more faster whilst retaining quality, considerable improvements in efficiency are required. Emerging digital formats and digital production tools make fully digital media production without using physical carriers possible. Based on that, file-based production, archive and delivery workflows are established. Besides achieving the required efficiency improvements, fully digital environments also enable new ways of collaboration, communication and commercial exploitation of content. Content management plays a key role in this process since it provides the platform for handling digital media.

Professional Content Management Systems: Handling Digital Media Assets:

• Deals with several aspects related to content management in professional media production, handling and delivery.

• Focuses on the broadcast industry but also considers requirements of other content rich organisations. Covers the entire workflow from the introduction of the media into the system, through the production stages to archiving.

• Introduces the main media formats and encoding principles and the way content is represented in the system - including metadata standards and frameworks.

• Studies the framework architecture and a matching infrastructure for content management systems, recognising the fact that such a system has to integrate seamlessly into existing environments and established business processes.

With an accessible and thorough approach, Professional Content Management Systems: Handling Digital Media Assets offers an overview of this complex topic to students, engineers and technical managers, in the area of data, storage management and multimedia.