Medway

Medway is a sophisticated software tool kit delivering a seamless and cost-effective integration between leading broadcast content applications.

Medway unifies multi-vendor systems by providing technical and operational workflows that optimise and integrate:

• Media clip and sequence transfers
• Media format conversion and transcoding
• Metadata capture and integration

Typical Use Cases

Designed specifically to meet the demands of the most challenging of broadcast environments, Medway is suitable for all digital applications, including Production, Post Production, Newsrooms and Playout suites.

In some installations Medway provides simple media transfer and conversion services between Avid edit environments and broadcast servers.

In large scale installations Medway acts as the central hub, providing multiple, simultaneous, and high-volume media and metadata integration services across best-of-breed systems from multiple vendors.

The Solution

Complex digital workflows are hampered by expensive and repetitive operations brought on by file incompatibilities. Medway, the company’s flagship product, uses an intuitive drag and drop interface which allows for the exchange of media between a wide range of 'Best of Breed' broadcast systems in a transparent and user friendly way.

Medway can be described as an "interoperability engine" that enables a complete digital workflow, ensuring products such as Edit Platforms, either standalone or using Shared storage and third-party Video Servers can work seamlessly together.

However, Medway offers much more power and flexibility and can be connected to Media Asset Management systems. It can source reference edits from Browse Systems, integrate with Archive Management systems and can supply file registration to, or be directly controlled by, Automation Systems. All of these features can be customised to suit the requirements for specific workflow or business solutions.

Metadata Capture and Integration

With the move to complete file based production workflows, Metadata is key to ensuring that you never lose your media. If you do not know what you have got, where it is and if you have the right to use it, then it is of no value to you whatsoever. To this end Medway has been designed with extensive metadata capture, editing and handling capabilities, covering basic, advanced or customised implementations, to ensure that metadata is created and utilised at every stage of the creative production process.

How Medway Works

Medway transfers both Media and Metadata enabling the whole production process to be maintained in a digital environment. Media is re-wrapped and streamed during transfer wherever possible to ensure minimal production delay. The need to produce interim files, or go out to tape, is totally removed minimising operational errors and significantly improving output quality. Medway creates a unified working environment for broadcast ingest, post-production editing and transmission playout. Acting as a central hub for the facility, Medway transfers media and associated metadata at faster than real-time speeds over standard data networks. Where the workflow involves a mixture of media formats Medway automatically transcodes. By allowing Metadata to be managed and moved with its associated media, Medway enhances media tracking ensuring media can never be lost and so maximising the return on expensively produced assets.