{"id":88385,"date":"2025-02-19T09:04:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=88385"},"modified":"2025-02-19T09:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:04:28","slug":"workflow-playbook-migrating-your-media-assets-to-a-mam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/workflow-playbook-migrating-your-media-assets-to-a-mam\/","title":{"rendered":"A Playbook for Migrating Your Media to a MAM System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Media asset management systems (MAM) have become a standard tool in the tech stack of many media organizations. MAM systems have evolved from basic file storage to sophisticated platforms with advanced organization features, increasing efficiency, collaboration, and distribution speeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this post, I\u2019ll explain some media asset management basics and introduce five key plays you can put into practice to get the most out of your assets, including how to move them into a MAM system or migrate from an older system to a new one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do you need a MAM system?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a media professional, I\u2019ve come across some, let\u2019s say, creative<\/em> file naming conventions in my day. While it\u2019s hilarious, \u201cEpisode6-Final-final-v2.3_OH_YEAH_THIS_IS_DEFINITELY_THE_FINAL_ONE_2_LOL.mp4\u201d isn\u2019t going to be the easiest thing to find years later when you\u2019re searching through hundreds of files for the (for real) final one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you make videos, images, or music, the more you produce, the more difficult those assets become to manage, organize, find, and protect. Managing files by carefully placing them in specific folders and implementing more logical naming conventions can only get you so far. At some point, as the scale of your business grows, you\u2019ll find your current way of organizing and searching for assets can\u2019t keep up. That\u2019s where media asset management systems come in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAM systems explained: Key concepts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before you start building a playbook to get the most from your creative assets, let\u2019s review a few key concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assets and metadata<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Asset:<\/strong> A rich media file with intrinsic metadata.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An asset is simply a file that is the result of your creative operation. Most often, it is a rich media file like an image or a video. Typically, these files are captured or created in a raw state, then your creative team adds value to that raw asset by editing it and creating a finished story that in turn, becomes another asset to manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metadata:<\/strong> Information about a file, either embedded within the file itself or associated with the file by another system, typically a MAM application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any given file carries information about itself that can be understood by your laptop or workstation\u2019s operating system. Some of these seem obvious, like the name of the file, how much storage space it occupies, when it was first created, and when it was last modified. These would all be helpful ways to try to find one particular file you are looking for among thousands just using the tools available in your OS\u2019s file manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

File metadata:<\/strong> Information about a file specifically pertaining to the technical attributes of the file. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s usually another level of metadata embedded in media files that is not so obvious but potentially enormously useful: Metadata embedded in the file<\/a> when it\u2019s created by a camera, film scanner, or output by a program.<\/p>\n\n\n

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An example of metadata embedded in a rich media file.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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For example, this image taken in Backblaze\u2019s data center carries all kinds of interesting information. When I inspect the file, I can see a wealth of information. I now know the image\u2019s dimensions and when the image was taken, as well as exactly what kind of camera took this picture and the lens settings that were used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, this metadata could be very useful if you want to find all images taken on that day, or even images taken with that same camera, focal length, F-stop, or exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going through files one at a time to find the one you need is incredibly inefficient. Yet that\u2019s how things still work in many creative environments\u2014an ad hoc system of folders plus the memory of whoever\u2019s been with the team longest. Files are often kept on the same storage used for production or even on an external hard drive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teams quickly outgrow that system when they find themselves juggling multiple hard drives or they run out of space on production storage. Worst of all, assets kept on a single hard drive are vulnerable to disk damage or to being accidentally copied or overwritten. Even if standard protocol is a redundant backup process, natural disasters can become a serious threat depending on the location of the physical tapes or drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why your assets need to be managed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To meet this challenge, creative teams have often turned to MAMs. A MAM<\/a> automatically extracts all of the assets\u2019 inherent metadata, helps move files to protected storage, and makes them instantly available to MAM users. As time has gone on, we\u2019ve seen MAM systems be powerfully enhanced by AI<\/a>. In a way, these MAMs become a private media search engine where any file attribute can be a search query to instantly uncover the needed files in even the largest media asset libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, asset management systems are rapidly becoming highly effective collaboration and workflow tools. For example, tagging a series of files as Field Interviews \u2014 April 2019<\/code>, or flagging an edited piece of content as HOLD \u2014 do not show customer<\/code> can be very useful indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inner workings of a media asset manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you add files into an asset management system, the application inspects each file, extracting every available bit of information about the file, noting the file\u2019s location on storage, and often creating a proxy version of the file that is easier to present to users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To keep track of this information, asset manager applications employ a database and keep information about your files in it. This way, when you\u2019re searching for a particular set of files among your entire asset library, you can simply make a query of your asset manager\u2019s database in an instant rather than rifling through your entire asset library storage system. The application takes the results of that database query and retrieves the files you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A MAM Case Study: Complex Networks<\/h4>\n

Complex Networks<\/a> was running out of space. Whenever local shared storage filled up, they had to pull assets off to give everybody enough room to continue working. They moved all of their assets to iconik<\/a><\/a> media asset management software and backed them all up to the Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. They\u2019re now free to focus on what they do best\u2014making culture-defining content\u2014rather than spending time searching for assets.<\/p>\n\n\"Read<\/a><\/span>