Solution highlights

  • Distributed microservices-based architecture
  • Reliable AWS-supported scalability
  • Manual and automated orchestration of content workflows
  • Custom blocks for easy workflow configuration
  • Advanced internal ticketing system
  • An easy-to-use front office for progress tracking
Delivery Model
Scope-driven milestone-based development
Domain
Online Video, DAM/MAM, Content management, Business Intelligence, BPM/BPA, Big Data
Effort and Duration
15 months, 150 man-months
Technologies
.NET, Front-End, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core, RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Quartz, Docker, Serilog, ELK, Linux, REST API, SPA, Angular, GoJS

Setting the scene

The client, a media solutions provider with globe-spanning infrastructure hubs, empowers top-tier broadcasters and telecoms to easily manage complex workflows across the entire media lifecycle.

Content processing tasks include everything from transcoding raw media files into various formats to assuring quality and applying the necessary content regulations. The delivery pipeline ensures that every piece of content is broadcast or streamed strictly on schedule with appropriate dubbing and subtitles for the region.

Business challenge: Drive digital transformation

Before the client turned to Oxagile, most content tasks were coordinated via emails or calls, which increased the risk of human error and created an overall lack of transparency.

The company started looking into opportunities to:

  • Automate media asset management processes
  • Gain visibility into complex workflows
  • Decrease operational costs

Delivered solution

The client received a unique, feature-rich media asset management solution capable of adapting to the needs of multiple international offices and their customers. The new orchestration media solution allows media producers to precisely track all content events and create highly customized, clear-cut, automation-ready workflows.

Manual customization

Manual orchestration gives workflow managers the ability to easily set up and configure sophisticated custom workflows that support unique business needs of every end client, no matter how complex.

  • Flexible visual tools
  • A rich library of pre-programmed tasks
  • Easily configurable templates
  • Sub-workflows and variables to enable quick customization with minimal changes

Automated workflows orchestration

The automated orchestration module integrates with the infrastructure of local data centers to quickly pull content metadata and statuses necessary for unsupervised execution of pre-designed workflows.

  • Key tasks standardisation and optimisation
  • Automated trigger-based workflow initiation
  • Granular reporting to identify bottlenecks early on

Customer portal

An easy-to-use front office that enables content owners to transparently track the progress of tasks performed on their content.

  • Cloud-based dashboards instantly available to all stakeholders
  • Real-time view of task statuses for effective prioritization 
  • Advanced ticket system that saves time through processes coordination

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Under the hood

Architecturally, the solution comprises event-driven microservices that each cover a certain type of task and communicate via a message bus. The cloud service is built with ASP.NET Core 2.1 and runs on Amazon ECS.

Media assets unit

While the entire volume of the customers’ media content is physically located in the client’s media hubs around the world, the media assets unit stores up-to-date information about every piece of content in the cloud. This arrangement allows content workflows to run faster and cuts operational and storage costs.

Watcher module

The watcher module oversees synchronized data storage across all connected data centers and helps configure triggers upon a new media file upload. Depending on the folder and file format, the watcher can trigger the execution of various workflows with different input variable configurations.

Reducing cognitive overload for a better user experience

In our UX/UI design efforts, we aimed to strike a balance between information richness and usability. Our goal was to ensure that users representing various content processing roles could effortlessly navigate the streaming platform.

Complex scenarios converted to clear user interfaces

With abundant metadata beyond video content, we simplified the user’s journey, making it intuitive to understand where they are navigating. Our focus was on improving interface accessibility while maintaining information value. We carefully curated the user’s path, ensuring that every element served a purpose and contributed to a smooth UX.

Personalized user experiences for different team roles

Personalization was key, and we found a middle ground between customization and informational clutter. By prioritizing essential features and tailoring the interface to the specific needs of each user role, we ensured that users could access the information relevant to them without unnecessary distractions.

QA automation: Ensuring top quality while saving $300,000+

Given the project’s complex business logic and a large number of integrations, Oxagile’s team pushed for introducing robust test automation early on for a superior level of quality, faster time-to-market, and lower costs.

By leveraging Oxagile’s custom Java-based test automation framework, the dedicated AQA team significantly accelerated release velocity and improved test coverage.

  • Cross-platform GUI testing to provide a flawless user experience
  • Fast and effective video content pre-processing and delivery
  • Completing 1,114 regression tests in under 70 minutes
  • Over 30% regression issues found with automation
  • Covered 88% of critical test cases
  • Test automation enabled the client to save over $303,000 in project costs

Business value

Since the solution went live, it enabled the client to cut operational overhead, improve quality of service, enhance communication between distributed units, and increase customer acquisition and retention.

Now the go-to solution for 200+ leading broadcasters and media companies, the system allows end clients to automate complex MAM processes while providing granular configuration and customization opportunities to support unique business needs.

In numbers

48.5%
Efficiency boost

1200 times
Faster task handover

6000000
Events synchronized

355 hours
Saved on master preparation workflow

2-3 sec
Reporting time

$303000
Saved in project costs