Next week at NAB, Ascent Media Creative Services–the Santa Monica-headquartered parent of such companies as R!OT, Company 3 and Method–will introduce an asset management service called Hub, aimed at helping advertisers, advertising agencies, production companies, and other content owners produce, store, manage, repurpose and distribute video, audio, interactive and print media.
Hub is a hosted service that clients can access 24/7 through a secure Web site from any Internet-enabled computer; it is compatible with PC, Mac and Linux-based systems. Robert Solomon, president of the Ascent Media Creative Services Group, explained that Hub was developed at Ascent Media’s Burbank media facility, with Ascent’s Creative Services unit providing the product roadmap. Hub joins a family of related client services offered by Ascent, which includes the UP Satellite collaborative system. (It should also be noted that Ascent previously offered an Internet-based service called Gateway; Hub includes those services, but has extended and added capabilities.)
“Hub is not simply an asset management product, rather Hub is a portal to a suite of workflow, collaboration, asset management and distribution tools,” Solomon said. Media assets may be ingested into Hub at Ascent Media facilities worldwide, at the Hub user’s own site, or at an alternate site specified by the client. Hub includes real time collaboration tools, as well as store and forward capabilities to allow users to access dailies, shots in progress or completed work for review and approval.
Ascent also offers storage of the physical assets. To aid asset retrieval, Hub offers customizable search capabilities. Users can save customized search lists and personalized project bins so that frequently used assets are immediately accessible.
Hub also provides users with direct control over the reformatting and distribution of media assets; it spans the range of deliverables, including HD, PAL, NTSC, MPEG, QuickTime, Windows Media and RealMedia.
Distribution capabilities include a range of digital, satellite and physical delivery options. The service can monitor a project’s status and generate reports and email reminders to facilitate approvals. It also can also be used for digital rights management, work order processing and billing functions.