Magnolia has launched a new Java-based, open source content management system that allows broadcasters to manage and serve their content over the Internet.

Magnolia On-air captures broadcast content and provides a browser-interface that enables web teams to quickly repurpose it for publication on the Internet.

It also draws online feedback and community content back into the broadcast production environment

“The system has been designed to cut production costs, get rich media content to the web first and then, to draw timely, online community-participation back into the broadcast environment,” explained Magnolia chief technology officer Boris Kraft.

“We have taken the best Open Source technology components to develop an open and highly interoperable system based on the real-world needs of the modern broadcast media.”

Live transmissions are captured using capture cards and automatically segmented based on program scheduling information and VPS (if available).

Each segment is than completed with additional metadata residing on other systems such as Sony Newsbase.

Images, video and audio can also be uploaded into a "hot folder" where the content is analyzed and automatically transcoded to a format suitable for editing.

Website editors then use a browser-based interface to edit video and audio, create and re-size static photography and produce headlines and stories from the surrounding metadata before publishing.

[BULLETS]

  • Supported in and out formats include MXF, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, AAC, MP3, WMV, WMA, SDI, Flash and Quicktime.

  • Magnolia-on-Air, a combination of software and off-the-shelf computers running Linux, works with any host broadcast system, and is particularly effective with those that offer an XML output.

  • Users can access On-air through a web-browser 'remotely' via a standard broadband connection.

  • Content is hosted at the broadcasters' premises or by Magnolia and/or its partners.

  • Magnolia On-air is built from Open Source components, including the Operating System, most elements of the infrastructure (databases, webservers) and the core Magnolia content management system itself.

  • According to Kraft: “this massively reduces the overall licensing cost for the whole solution.”

  • There is a paid license for Magnolia-on-Air itself, which is a value-added system with functionality developed specifically for the broadcast industry.

  • Payment for this license can be worked out with the client as a one off payment or an ongoing "rent".

Magnolia International Ltd, the creator of Magnolia, is headquartered in Switzerland and has subsidiaries in the United States and Spain.

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