GrayMeta – Video QC in the media supply chain goes beyond pass/fail
Dan Daube, VP Customer Success, GrayMeta
Traditionally, Quality Control (QC) processes required substantial hardware setups and dedicated physical spaces within studios or production facilities to determine if a program could be broadcast. The prevailing methods used in these suites were relatively simple measurements. An asset was measured and could be over or under specific video or audio values. If the values fell into range it was thumbs up, if the limits were exceeded then it was thumbs down.
It airs or it doesn’t.
Fast-forward through a flurry of technology advances, a veritable tsunami of new regulations and requirements, a real tsunami, later a pandemic, and along the way an emergence of new distribution methods. Each new method required more checks, measurements and validations to be done.
Media companies need innovative solutions for all these changes. In fact, all content creators want to streamline their operations, reduce costs, and ensure the quality of what they distribute via any of the distribution methods that exist, FAST (Free Ad Supported Streaming TV) channels, VOD, Streaming, Web, Mobile, Cable, Satellite and yes there’s still over the air broadcast.
Meet the family
GrayMeta’s Iris QC family of applications are advanced solutions that integrate both media playback, validation, and quality control capabilities. These applications accurately verify and measure audio and video content against industry standards, making each a trusted tool across well-known networks, studios and post houses.
Iris QC Pro is the flagship desktop-based application providing complete measurement, validation and quality control for all global standards.
Iris Anywhere QC provides a browser-based experience with virtually all the desktop features to enable cloud-based workflows or on premises workflows that rely on S3 compliant storage.
Iris Play is the newest application that provides a low-cost, timecode accurate player and basic QC workflow tool for asset validation and approvals.
Level with me
The cornerstone of asset QC is still the measurement and verification of video levels, that proper color reproduction is present, and that audio isn’t distorted or out-of-phase. On that foundation, though, there are many variations as standards and requirements vary around the globe and even within regions or as dictated by platforms. Loudness measurements, closed-caption sync, Dolby audio and video encoding, frame rates, frame sizes, codecs, formats, and language use all require measurements, validations, checks, and review.
Whether it’s Iris QC Pro or Iris Anywhere QC, each provides detailed analytics, review and reporting features regarding virtually any video, audio, caption, metadata or compliance issue. Iris will playback virtually any video codec, wrapper, audio format and supports over 20 closed caption/subtitle types. (In fact, Iris supports 2 caption types only used for in-flight or shipboard entertainment assets)
Metadata matters
Technical and asset metadata are read directly from the file in Iris and these values or measurements can be templated to provide an indication of Pass / Fail upon opening the asset just to get started. If you already have an automated QC report, Iris enables the import of all the data from these vendors: Interra Baton, Venera Pulsar, Tektronix Aurora, Telestream Vidchecker, and Telestream Cloud. Now each point can be reviewed with “eyes-on-glass”.
Beyond the traditional QC metadata, temporal or time-based metadata is just as important to check prior to distribution. Everything from credit placement, commercial breaks, show opens, recaps, narrative subtitles to color bars, slates and total running time are all necessary for airing on most platforms and all must be checked.
For quick checks of existing temporal metadata, the Iris Document Viewer can import a CSV, JSON, XML or basic EDL with an asset and all timecodes can be checked with the touch of a mouse to jump to the corresponding point right in the player. For creating or checking more comprehensive temporal metadata, the Iris Annotation tools and Segment data can be harnessed to create, correct, edit or delete any temporal or compliance metadata for an asset.
You’ll never work alone
The Iris applications include Iris Admin Server for ease in management of licenses, users and environments, ensuring flexibility as no user is restricted to a single machine. Additionally, the Iris Admin Server promotes collaborative work through features like annotations, project sharing and API integrations to your media workflow infrastructure. Projects can be shared between groups or users, assigned programmatically and are a key element in automating your Media Supply Chain workflows. Plus, users can create quick review frames to share, make comments or updates to help others in any part of the QC process.
It’s not easy being green
Adopting comprehensive software QC solutions like Iris QC Pro and Iris Anywhere QC contributes significantly to energy savings and sustainability goals. By eliminating the need for hardware-intensive setups and the real estate to house such equipment, media companies can easily reduce their energy consumption. This not only aids in compliance with global environmental standards but also aligns with the corporate responsibility goals of many organizations.
One more thing
Both Iris QC Pro and Iris Anywhere QC are now equipped with ultramodern AI (Artificial Intelligence) that performs language detection on all audio tracks reducing manual workload and minimizing human error. Language detection for captions is coming very soon.
Iris QC Pro and Iris Anywhere QC are at the forefront of transforming the media supply chain into a more flexible, efficient, and environmentally friendly industry. These platforms not only ensure high-quality media content but also support the scaling needs of a global market. By reducing the dependency on physical assets and using cloud capabilities, these tools offer a sustainable alternative that aligns with the future of media production and distribution. As the industry continues to evolve, embracing such innovations will be key to staying competitive and responsible in an evolving video-driven world.
