Integration Partner Highlight: TransMedia Dynamics for Media Asset and Workflow Management
Managing the ever-changing requirements at each stage of the media supply chain is a daunting task, especially considering the mix of physical and digital media formats many businesses deal with. TransMedia Dynamics specializes in designing state-of-the-art media asset and workflow management systems, supporting their client’s content at every stage, from acquisition to delivery, archive and reuse.
TMD was founded in 1998 as the industry was transitioning from tape to file-based workflows, and now has locations and clients around the world. Over the years, they’ve developed a sophisticated platform for managing and digitizing physical media such as film and tape, as well as the plethora of modern digital formats required by both traditional linear and new nonlinear media operations.
TMD’s Mediaflex-UMS (Unified Media Services), is a scalable media services platform, that can be deployed on premise, in the cloud or as a hybrid. The solution is able to track both physical and digital content in one system, and includes a workflow designer that lets customers create and modify workflows in-house without scripting knowledge.
Ben Cousens, Product & Project Manager at TMD
TMD has utilized Signiant APIs to integrate Mediaflex-UMS with two of our large file transfer solutions: Manager+Agents for automated enterprise system-to-system file transfers and Media Shuttle for easy person-initiated transfers.
A natural integration partner for Signiant, TMD not only shares many of our customers but also a commitment to meeting the needs of each unique business we work with. I recently caught up with Ben Cousens, Product & Project Manager at TMD, to hear his thoughts on choosing integration partners and working with customers to address their media workflow challenges.
How do you decide which large file transfer software to integrate with?
We generally let our customers decide what file transfer technology they want to use. If they wanted to use a Signiant competitor, we wouldn’t say no, but I recommend Signiant because someone from Signiant always reaches out to us, wanting to understand our mutual customers’ use cases. That’s significant because it demonstrates Signiant’s commitment to customer success, not just selling software. Plus, Signiant products are always good. They are fast of course, but they also have nice APIs that make it easy for us to integrate with.
How long have you been working with Signiant products?
We’ve worked with Manager+Agents for many years, and more recently our customers have been asking for Media Shuttle so we did a demo. Media Shuttle ticked a lot of boxes that address challenges our customers are facing.
What are the challenges you see media companies facing?
People are still using FTP, like FileZilla or something similar, to get content into their organization and to send it out. While it’s possible to use FTP, it’s slow and requires a fairly high level of technical knowledge. As an FTP alternative, Media Shuttle technology is much faster and easier to use, with a simple web portal that anybody who can use a computer and website can use.
There are also a lot of security concerns with FTP. Security is more important than ever when sending content into or out of your organization. Signiant has high security standards for product development, but also, the way you can use Media Shuttle with outside parties adds additional security. With Media Shuttle, you can send a simple download link rather than having them log in to the system and find a folder.
We also see companies struggling to navigate a transition to cloud solutions. A lot of our customers want a fully cloud-based media asset and workflow management system and we try to help facilitate that. We like to work with SaaS solutions because it makes it easy for us to talk to our customers and prospects about working in the cloud environment, and we know Signiant can partner with us on that.
