Distributed Metadata Management for Post-production Environments Werner Bailer 1 , Konstantin Schinas 2 , Georg Thallinger 1 , Wolfgang Schmidt 2 , Werner Haas 1 1 JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH Institute of Information Systems & Information Management Steyrergasse 17, 8010 Graz, Austria 2 DVS Digital Video Systems GmbH Krepenstraße 8, 30165 Hannover, Germany Abstract: Efficient and flexible management of digital essence and associated metadata is of critical relevance in post-production. We describe a distributed content management system, which uses a peer-to-peer architecture in order to support the dynamic nature of post-production setups. Each peer indexes content on storage under its control by extracting relevant metadata from the headers of essence files as well as by performing automatic content analysis in a background process. The extracted metadata are indexed in a lightweight database at each peer and stored on disk in MPEG-7 XML format in order to provide a standard compliant interface for metadata exchange. The client tool running on a peer allows to edit the metadata in the data base, in the MPEG-7 file and in the file headers (e.g. to adjust timecodes). Moreover, the software provides tools for essence management (copying, moving, defragmentation). The system allows searching for content across all peers in the network. A visual keyframe-based browsing interface allows exploring the indexed content based on the extracted metadata. 1 Introduction Digital media technology resulted in a lasting change in post-production workflows. In digital post-production physical “storage media” such as film rolls and video tapes recede in importance. Instead, uncompressed image sequences in high resolution (e.g. in 2K or 4K) can be found as huge amounts of data stored on various storage solutions, and it is not uncommon that a blockbuster movie requires about 100 terabytes of storage. During post- production a lot of different files exist, mostly distributed on several storages. In data management in such environments is a big issue when relying only on standard “tools” like notes, filing cards, labels, and hierarchical file structures with in-house directory naming conventions. Metadata can most simply be defined as "information about content". Images and sounds are the content in the film business. Metadata in the digital production workflow means the information about the images and sounds, their composition, their sources, their owner rights and what else is needed for a detailed description of a fully digital film project. In the old days of film production all images were captured on celluloid film, the editing tool was not much more than a pair of scissors, and special effects were applied by optical or chemical methods. The metadata, the knowledge about the existing film material, the editing decisions and intended special effects, existed either in the brains of the people, working on the film or as written notes. Whether it's Post-it notes stuck on film canisters, a cinematographer's diary or scribbling in the margins of a script, filmmakers have always found ways to convey information about the artistic intent of the captured images and sounds. The adoption of digital processes and the advent of a hybrid analog-digital workflow, called the digital intermediate process, have introduced digital storage of metadata accompanying the images and sounds processed in the digital domain, as the digital process depends on the interoperability between adjacent nodes in the system. However, most of this metadata consist just of the mandatory technical parameters for describing the digital format of the image and sound essence.