Inside Out : Richard Gianattasio

Behind the Scenes: Unified Licensing and Activating Sibelius 7.1

Richard Gianattasio — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Less than a month ago we talked about Avid Media Composer 6.0 and the our Unified Licensing scheme. As promised, we are revisiting this discussion with our newest release of Sibelius 7.1, which is offered as a free upgrade from Sibelius 7 and includes the move to the Avid Unified Licensing platform.

As a refresher from our last blog, the move to a common licensing platform will provide the following benefits:

1. Offers our customers a simplified activation experience across all of our Avid products

2. Provides our Customer Success support personnel with an improved set of tools to help assist our customers with software activation related issues

3. Offers our customers new use case opportunities with regards to how they activate our software

Being the second product in the Avid portfolio to utilize our new licensing technology, Sibelius 7.1 leverages much of the same functionality as Media Composer. If you are one of those devoted Avid customers that uses both Sibelius and Media Composer, you will instantly notice the common activation experience utilized in both products.

Sibelius License Types

The Sibelius 7.1 product utilizes the Node Lock license type, which ties the activation to a specific device (Sibelius allows you to activate on 2 separate devices). In addition, Sibelius introduces two license types that we have not yet seen on the Unified Licensing platform, Site License and Network License.

The Sibelius Site License allows our customers the opportunity to use a single Activation ID to activate multiple devices. This is important for customers who have large numbers of Sibelius machines running and don’t want to have to manage large numbers of Activation IDs. With this license type, you only have to remember one number.

The Sibelius Network License allows our customers to attach multiple Sibelius licenses to their existing Sibelius license server, which offers a multitude of license management functions and is ideal for classrooms.

Activating Sibelius

Along with the move to the Unified Licensing scheme, Sibelius 7.1 now uses a common 11 digit System ID and a common 16 digit Activation ID for the initial software activation. The Sibelius Activation IDs are coded, with the first two digits representing the product (e.g. SB = Sibelius). Here is a snapshot of the Avid License Control activation UI using the new Sibelius Activation and System IDs.

You will also note that we’ve added a new convenience button called “Paste from Clipboard”. For those customers who have obtained their activation information electronically, you can simply cut and paste these annoyingly long numbers directly into the UI from the clipboard. They don’t even have to be in the right order, Avid License Control will look for the proper formats and auto-populate the correct fields for you.

Sibelius Network License

Activation of the Sibelius Network License is similar to the Node Lock example above, but in this use case multiple licenses are activated on the Sibelius License Server, which then distributes these licenses to the Sibelius client machines. Avid License Control keeps track of the network licenses, even if you add additional license seats later. The example below shows an initial activation of 10 seats, followed by an additional activation of 4 seats. Note the Activation ID starts with “SW” for the Sibelius Network License.

Here they are in the Sibelius License Server UI.

Indirect Activation

For those users who are not connected to the internet. Sibelius can also be activated using our Offline Activation web site. We’ve added a “Copy to Clipboard” feature in Avid License Control to help in capturing the necessary data for Offline Activation. Instead of writing down your System ID, Activation ID, and Device ID (a painful task). Simply copy this information to the clipboard, save it onto a USB thumb drive, and carry it over to the internet connected device you will be using for your Offline Activation.

We believe that you are going to really enjoy this new licensing experience. I recommend you get your Sibelius 7.1 update, check out the new activation process, and let us know what you think.

Happy Activations and we look forward to telling you more when our next Avid product releases.

Rich

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Cutting Out the Middleman

Richard Gianattasio — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Vintage TVs by Derek Thomas, available under a Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0.

A recent article by Andrew Wallenstein published on Variety’s On The Air web site talks about the comedian Louis C.K.’s decision to offer his next show strictly behind an internet pay wall, instead of selling the rights to traditional cable broadcasters for distribution. There has been much chatter suggesting that this is the first step in the elimination of the middleman from the broadcast distribution chain, impacting the broadcaster’s ability to capture critical distribution revenues. With the internet offering the content creator direct access to the consumer, content creators/owners (in this case, Louis C.K.) have the ability to sell direct to the viewer without having to go through the hassle of rights contracting or the burden of sharing revenues with cable/satellite providers. Clearly this signifies the end of broadcast as we know it!

Let’s flash back to the summer of 2003, when Pearl Jam decided to bypass their record label and sell music directly to their fan base on PearlJam.com. Did this not mark the beginning of the end of the music industry as we knew it? There was another major industry event that also occurred in 2003, just two months ahead of the Pearl Jam announcement, when Apple announced the launch of its iTunes Music Store. You remember iTunes? This was Apple’s attempt at aggregating and then selling music over the internet, a strategy that clearly went against two dominant industry trends, (1) free music sharing, and (2) artists selling direct to consumers over the internet. Clearly Apple didn’t see the “writing on the wall”. So why did iTunes report record breaking revenues of $1.4 billion in Q2 2011?

One argument is that perhaps Louis C.K. or Pearl Jam, although having a strong dedicated fan base, may not have strong enough brands to profit from selling directly to viewers. The pundits suggest that direct distribution is a viable business model for only strong media brands leaving distribution through traditional broadcasters as the place for only smaller players. For example, there has been much talk about the NFL selling the Super Bowl directly to viewers over the web. If the NFL can’t profit from a direct sales model with the Super Bowl, then who can? Well, just last week, the NFL renewed its broadcast rights with CBS, Fox and NBC, contracting the distribution of their content through 2022, including broadcasting the Super Bowl.

At Avid, we have been having these same conversations with our major broadcast partners in an attempt to understand the implications of internet direct-to-consumer distribution, and the impact of the tablets/smart phones and pay-per-content apps. All the broadcasters seem to agree on the idea that having an easy direct to consumer distribution process does not equate to eyeballs (or ears for music). So, simply having a web site, or an iPAD app, does not guarantee success (revenues). In the industry we talk about creating “content destinations”, brands that are strong enough that you immediately go there to source your media. For example, when you want breaking news, you might go to CNN. Or, if you want to watch catch-up TV, perhaps you go to Hulu. Or if you want to listen to a new song, you go to iTunes. Because these brands have established themselves as content destinations.

Broadcasters are really good at positioning themselves as content destinations, they not only have the reach, but they also have access to the content. More importantly, they have the marketing power to drive people to their brands, something Louis C.K. may not be able to do for his site. Broadcasters also agree that content aggregation still plays a major role in the market. Think of a world where every production house, every music artist, every independent film maker, and every major broadcaster relied on a direct to consumer model. Cutting through all the media noise would be a painful experience for everyone, especially the consumer. There would be no quality standard, perhaps no delivery standard, and no pay model standard. So, by going it alone, are Louis C.K. and Pearl Jam actually doing themselves, and the industry, a disservice, perhaps reducing the overall ability of the industry to capture revenue? It may be that content aggregators, broadcasters, and distribution middleman in general still serve an important function in making sure that the distribution pipeline is filled with well-regulated, high quality content. If so, perhaps they are here to stay.

“Where there is a large amount of traffic, there will always be the need for traffic cops.”

Special thanks to Johann Lau and Christopher Payne-Taylor for their insights on this issue.

Rich

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Behind the Scenes: Unified Licensing and Activating Media Composer 6

Richard Gianattasio — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

For those of you who couldn’t wait to get your hands on the next version of Avid Media Composer (MC 6.0) you may have noticed the new UI, or perhaps the new in-app stock footage marketplace, or the improved color correction capabilities. But before you even got that far into the product, did any of you notice the new software activation process? Media Composer 6.0 is the first Avid product to release under our new Unified Licensing platform, and we are excited about the possibilities that this new licensing technology provides.

A little more than one year ago, Avid embarked on the journey to develop a unified licensing platform that would help us to achieve a number of key objectives:

1. Offer our customers a simplified activation experience across all of our Avid products

2. Provide our Customer Success support personnel with an improved set of tools to help assist our customers with software activation related issues

3. Offer our customers new use case opportunities with regards to how they activate our software

The Avid team that worked on the licensing project was made up of product owners, IT personnel, web designers and software developers from across the company. The objective was to design and build a platform that could address the requirements across all of our products and support all the various use cases that our customers demand, whether they were using Media Composer or ISIS storage. The platform that was developed is based on a service oriented architecture (SOA), with dozens of web services providing the necessary capabilities for authorizing activation keys, associating System IDs, validating upgrades, and delivering optional features. Each software application can now simply plug into the infrastructure and call the necessary services for activation.

There were some major changes that we implemented as part of the new Media Composer, but there were also some things that we left alone. Let’s start with what we didn’t touch.

Dongles: Some of our customers wish to activate Media Composer using a dongle. Dongles provide our customers with the portability they may need, while also giving them a sense of tangible ownership (you can actually physically touch your license). Avid still offers a dongle activation for Media Composer, so for those of you who love your dongle, there is no need to worry. We did however make a small change in how the dongle gets activated. With Media Composer 6.0, your purchase provides you with a standard software Activation ID (more about this later), but in order to activate your dongle, you now simply go to the Avid dongle redemption page, where you “trade-in” your software activation for a dongle activation. It’s that easy.

Offline Activation: If your Media Composer is not connected to the internet, not to worry. The new licensing platform allows for Offline Activations (more on this later as well).

So what is new with Media Composer licensing, and why do I care?

New Nomenclature: Remember “Serial Number” and “System ID”? Serial Numbers were used to activate your software, but we are now calling them “Activation IDs”. System IDs are still System IDs, and your old System ID can still be used as part of your upgrade to Media Composer 6.0.

Updated Avid License Control: When activating Media Composer you were able to launch Avid License Control (ALC) to manage the activation process. ALC now has a new look and feel and some new features (see screen shot). ALC will show you all the Avid editor products loaded on your system, provide you with state information (Trial, Activated, Not Activated) and allow you to perform actions on that software (Activate, Deactivate).

There is also a new tab in ALC, called the License Profile tab, which provides you with a snapshot of the entitlement state of your machine. It gives you a single place to go to check your Device ID, Activation IDs, and System ID. It also gives you information regarding the number of days left should you be running on a trial or temporary license.

Offline Activation Process: We’ve also modified our offline activation process to a method that uses a secure license file. You can go to www.avid.com/license, type in your activation credentials, and copy the license file onto your machine (using a thumb drive) without having to connect that machine directly to the internet.

Volume Licensing: If you are an Educational Institution, we are now also offering a new volume license option. This allows the administrator to deploy a volume license server on their internal network to allow for Media Composer clients to activate without typing in any Activation Keys. Just simply provide the location of the volume license server in the ALC dialog box and *POOF*, you’re activated.

There are so many other things to discuss, but we really don’t have the time. I recommend you try Media Composer 6.0, and spend some time during the activation process….on second thought…move through the activation process as quickly as possible….if you don’t even notice it, then we’ve done our job. However, do take the time to tell us what you think.

Happy Activations and we look forward to telling you more when our next Avid product releases.

Rich

Synchronous TV Viewing will Demand a New Creative Process

Richard Gianattasio — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 05:00:00 GMT

56% of us are surfing the web

while we watch TV

This summer Harris Interactive posted the results of a survey of US adults stating that 56% of us are surfing the web while we watch TV, and 40% of us are on social media sites while we watch our favorite programs. Some recent surveys suggest that for GenY viewers (13 – 31) the percentage is as high as 70%. For those of you, like me, who have a teen age daughter, you probably experience this phenomenon every day.

The broadcast industry is clearly aware of this trend. When we talk to our broadcast customers, they tell us that the fact that a viewer can be distracted by their laptop, smart phone, or tablet poses a series risk to their ability to retain their attention. In an industry where its all about the brand, and more dollars flow to the brand that attracts and keeps the most eyeballs, keeping the viewer within your property, whether it is your channel, website, or Facebook page, is essential.

We are seeing many new attempts at capitalizing not only on the second screen, but on the viewer’s desire to have the second screen experience link directly to the primary program. Take a look at ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy iPad app, which relies on the Nielsen Media-Synch technology to monitor where the viewer is in the primary program and present them with time sensitive secondary content relevant to the storyline. Or Disney’s second screen project to provide viewers of Bambi with the ability to explore related art work, paint a character, answer trivia questions, or play “spot what’s different” within a certain scene.

Advertisers are also paying close attention to the synchronous viewing trend, realizing that people are more inclined to purchase something as they experience it on the screen, such as when your favorite actress sports a new style of shoe, or your favorite actor speeds away in a new sports car (my apologies for the gender references).

Recently, Discovery Channel announced that it’s new series, Penn & Teller Tell a Lie, will use a real time second screen interactive application, stating that synchronous programming “opens up a whole set of new creative opportunities”. So how does synchronous viewing affect the creative process, the place where Avid has a key role?

Today, many of these synchronous experiences are developed after the fact. The program is completed and sent to the web team to create supplemental content and then tag that content to the existing show, matching content to the timeline. In this scenario, the primary program has no knowledge of the secondary content, and worse, the creative team for the primary show has no idea, and typically no input, into the secondary content creative experience.

In the future, this creative process has to change. Viewers don’t want trivia and chat rooms, but multi-dimensional stories with sub-plots and story branches…experiences that require changes to the creative process:

(1) Story Centric Creative Process: The synchronous secondary experience needs to be developed as part of the initial storyboarding process – with the secondary experience created by the same creative team that produces the primary content, at the same time. The timeline of the primary content will drive the secondary experience. It will not be an after thought.

(2) Creative teams will require universal access to all the same media assets that were used to create the primary content (and more). The stuff on the cutting room floor now becomes a valuable asset. The broadcaster’s infrastructure must include asset management solutions that allow for shared access to media elements during post-production.

(3) Creation tools must allow the creative teams to develop content independent of the platform on which it is displayed, creating a short video for the iPAD at the same time they create a scene for the TV episode. This also means that the tools must allow for the easy transition from a timeline centric world (On-Air TV) to a layout centric world (smart phone / tablet) without any disruption to the creative process.

The broadcasters that we talk to every day continue to struggle with addressing the Multi-Platform Distribution (MPD) opportunity. How to get content repurposed, reformatted, re-edited, to display on your smart phone, iPAD, or laptop. Many of them are still struggling with the necessary infrastructure to enable a seamless MPD process. The market is now adding to this complexity by asking that these other platforms link to the primary experience, thus adding another level of complexity. The future of the creative process, the area where Avid spends all of its cycles, will also have to change, with new tools that allow the story-teller the ability to tell a deeper tale, supported with infrastructure that allows for fast and easy access to multiple media elements.

The convergence of web and on-air is just around the corner. Who is ready?

Rich