Thought Equity Motion Helps ACC Overhaul Content Delivery System

Thought Equity Motion, a provider of video platform and footage licensing services, has taken another notable step in achieving its ultimate goal of creating a fully digitally archived video world.

The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) will use TEM’s T3 Library Manager to establish a new digital workflow to make the distribution of video content to media partners more timely and efficient.

Thought Equity Motion’s T3 Library Manager creates a digital workflow that provides sports broadcasters and other media with timely, online access to ACC sports content.

The service replaces traditional satellite and physical workflows historically used to distribute interviews and other video content. According to Scott McBurney, ACC assistant commissioner of advanced media, the process was, at times, an arduous one that didn’t fit the deadline needs of many of its media partners.

“Based on technology, we felt like the time was right to make the leap for us,” said McBurney, who has been with the conference since 1997. “Whether it’s the six o’clock or the eleven o’clock newscast; whatever the deadline is for our media partners with the traditional satellite feeds we had to set a time and regardless of where the competition was we had to be ready to go at that time to run to the satellite uplink provider which, in itself, was a bit of a challenge.”

For TEM, the ACC deal is a solid addition to its list of college partners which includes the NCAA, the Big Ten, and Raycom Sports – the ACC and SEC’s live game syndication partner.

The ACC and its twelve member institutions will utilize the T3 Library Manager to upload highlights and interviews starting with the upcoming football season and continuing throughout the 2011-12 athletic season.

“There’s a whole package and set of things we can do with folks, using our platform and moving to a digital file-based workflow using metadata,” says Dan Weiner, VP of marketing and products at Thought Equity Motion. “I‘d say different partners are at different points and taking advantage of different features that we offer, but the desire to move to digital workflows [is pretty universal].”

A need for the ACC to improve its content distribution stems from the decreasing staff sizes at many of the media outlets in the ACC market and beyond. As a result, fewer cameramen and crews are able to cover live games themselves. So now the ACC is bringing the content to them.

“What we are trying to do here is be proactive and keeping a viable means of getting video content to our media,” says McBurney.

The platform’s online portal allows sports producers and media to easily search for and download broadcast-quality packages of ACC content, available in both standard and high-definition. The ACC and its 12 member institutions will utilize the T3 Library Manager to upload highlights and interviews starting with the upcoming football season and continuing throughout the 2011-12 athletic season.

This marks the first direct partnership between TEM and the ACC Conference Office. Both have worked jointly before through Raycom, the ACC’s live game syndication partner. Raycom teamed with TEM in establishing the ACC Vault, used to archive and place metadata on men’s basketball footage dating back to 1980.