inStudio Media Library System

History

The idea of developing the inStudio system was born in the middle of 2005 when SAD sp. z o.o. (Apple IMC Poland), with whom we have been cooperating for a few year now, informed us of the need to create a system for archiving video files for its client, the television station TVN24. TVN24 required tools to sort and easily search archives of tapes and files containing film material. The key elements of the new system were to be the modules used to archive the material and search the archives efficiently according to numerous criteria.

Due to the popularity of Apple solutions at TVN24, the video files archiver was to be based on the Mac OS X operating system and other Apple technologies. It was agreed that the archiving and administration modules would be desktop applications, whereas the search engine for archived files would operate on the basis of internet browsers.

The first stage of the project covered the preparation and provision of TVN24 with the archiving module prototype. At the end of August and the beginning of September 2005 we received from TVN24 a document with the analysis of the functionalities of the entire system. In September we began the implementation of the system on the basis of that specification. After designing the database and the common basis of the whole system, the parallel development of modules for archiving, archive searching and module administration began. This stage did not even take three months and at the beginning of December 2005 the system was implemented at the Warsaw headquarters of TVN24.

In April 2006, after adaptation to requirements, the system of video file archiving was installed at the Warsaw headquarters of the Superstacja television station. Soon afterwards it was named inStudio.

A few months later the TVN holding company decided on another installation of the inStudio system, this time for the needs of its new sports station – nSport HD.Since its first commercial installation the inStudio system has been upgraded a number of times, which has extended its functionalities. At present one of the inStudio installations is being used in an archive containing over 70,000 video files.

Technology

The inStudio multimedia files archiver is built on the basis of several technologies:

• The archiving and administration tools, inStudio Archivist and inStudio Admin, are desktop applications working in the Mac OS X operating system which were developed in Apple’s Cocoa technology and written in the Objective-C language.
• The archive search tool, inStudio Searcher, is an internet application based on the Apple WebObjects platform and written in the Java language.
• The system uses the PostgreSQL database.
• Additional administration tools on the inStudio server side were written in the Ruby language.

Many solutions facilitating the use of a video files archive were implemented as part of the inStudio system, for instance:

• An archive search mechanism providing both an easy search and the use of advanced criteria in selecting files.
• An algorithm to search for similar words, those written without the use of Polish diacritics and regardless of spelling mistakes.
• The option of archiving both digital material and material stored on analog tapes.
• A multimedia player built into the archiving application enabling material to be described during viewing.
• The option of generating, describing and viewing key frames from video material.
• Viewing of copies of video files in low-resolution presented in search results in the internet application searching the archive.
• An application operating on the server side for input generation of low-resolution copies of newly archived files, displaying them at night for instance.
• Export of selected archived files to the FinalCut Pro application.
• The option for the system to use intermediary disks, separating the users from the archive and increasing the data security and system efficiency.

Optimal Wellness Center

History

The cooperation between Power Media and Optimal Wellness Center (OWC) began at the beginning of 2001. Jonathan Rentzsch, an IT consultant from Chicago, asked our company for help in developing IT infrastructure for the OWC portal.

The OWC website then existing, which promoted health food and natural healing forms, was in severe need of extension by:

• the creation of an efficient newsletter providing information about developments in the market and the products offered on the site,
• construction of an e-commerce system which would meet the strict requirements of numerous suppliers and clients from all over the world.

The software developers from Power Media, after conducting the analysis of requirements, chose WebObjects technology and began working on the IT infrastructure extension project.

Within only two months it was possible to launch the client registration system and efficient newsletter dispatch system, followed a month later by the first version of the online store, which encouraged the client to continue cooperation with Power Media.

Over the next few months, due to the proven management of requirements and experience of our consultants, an extensive system of applications supporting the operations of the portal and the store was developed.

The ideas of OWC combined with the experience of Power Media specialists were the source of a great commercial success which, after three years of cooperation, lifted OWC to top among American portals dealing with natural health (February 2004) and raised monthly revenues from sales at the store to the level of several million dollars.

Apart from business infrastructure, Power Media developed a system guaranteeing portal reliability through constant monitoring, notification and replication of data on back-up servers.

Elements of IT infrastructure

The key element of the IT infrastructure developed during cooperation with OWC is the online store, which at the peak of its operations recorded:

• up to 3000 sales transactions per hour,
• monthly revenues of several million dollars.

The main features of the application include the following:

• integration with the webservices of several transport companies, e.g. for automatic ordering of transport and calculation of shipment costs,
• automatic verification of a client’s details on the basis of frequently updated webservices,
• an extensive panel for processing orders adjusted to an individual supplier’s needs, providing for invoicing in a number of countries, data export and import in various formats and an advanced reporting system,
• an administration panel for management of advanced promotions, discounts and transport options,
• a panel for affiliated companies for building a commissions and promotions system, as well as for reporting profits and costs arising from contracts,
• high optimization of efficiency in the processing such a large number of orders.

Drawing upon the experience gained during work on the OWC online store, which proved successful in the American market, we are now constructing PowerCommerce.

The efficient newsletter distribution system mentioned earlier, also a unique Power Media solution, contributed to the great success of OWC too. Its main characteristics include the following:

• high efficiency in performance (50,000 e-mails per hour and half a million subscribers),
• bounced e-mails service,
• an advanced panel for creating e-mail lists according to any complex criteria,
• a clear reporting system.

We are currently working on the successor to this system – the Pulsar project.

The OWC IT system is supplemented by a number of auxiliary applications such as newsletter subscription, collection and analysis of patients’ demographic and health data and publication of articles by use of such solutions as Knowledge Filter and Wiki.

Foolproof system operation is guaranteed by Nagios monitoring tools, programs of the 'watchdog' type and replication of databases on back-up servers.