In this blog, our colleague Simon shares a story that shows why automated and connected media supply chains are so important in today’s fast-paced broadcasting world.

A few years ago, what started as a relaxing weekend in Dubai quickly turned into a race against the clock to save a prime-time broadcast. Simon’s story highlights the problems of fragmented workflows and how an intelligent supply chain in the media & entertainment industry could have prevented a potential big problem. The lesson? Automation isn’t just about saving time, it’s about delivering content reliably, on schedule, every single time. Read on to see why the future of media supply chains lies in smart, automated and intelligent solutions?

A real-life story: Simon's crisis in Dubai

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in Dubai. I was relaxing by the pool at my hotel when my phone rang. On the other end was a worried client:

“Simon, HELP! Where is my program?”

The caller was the head of broadcast operations for a major regional broadcaster. That evening, they were supposed to air a heavily promoted new episode of a popular US TV show, a key part of their prime-time schedule. But with just a few hours left before it was supposed to air, the ready-to-broadcast master file and other needed assets hadn’t arrived. The workflow for the station enabled the media services company employed by the content distributor to transfer the localised, complied, conformed, TX-ready broadcast master directly into their playout system workflow. Their system was flashing red, warning of a crisis. There was a big hole in their schedule.

The challenges of a fragmented media supply chain

“Simon, do you know where my program is?”
“I don’t know. Who is the distributor’s servicing partner for this TV show?”
“I don’t know, and I can’t reach them to find out. Is it you? And if it’s not you, who is it?”

We did service content from that distributor, but not all their catalogue, not in all regions, and not to every broadcaster. The media supply chain is often very fragmented, with many different service providers, distributors, and systems involved. At that moment, I should have been able to log into a platform to check the status of the content. But no such platform existed. Nor did my client have a system recording and sharing the journey and status of his content from acquisition to playout. I called our company’s on-call operations manager back in London. They didn’t know if we were responsible for delivering that content, so they logged into a remote system to investigate. After some time, they found out that a file transfer server had stopped working, and the file (recognized only by a long, confusing filename) was stuck in an outbound transfer directory. Who knew?

After rebooting the servers, the files slowly started moving to the broadcaster’s system. An hour later, my relieved client called back to confirm that the programme was safely in place for that evening’s broadcast. Crisis avoided, but only just.

Why we need smart, automated workflows

This last-minute scramble showed a big problem in the media industry: the lack of an intelligent, automated, connected supply chain. Moving important content from post-production in Los Angeles to a broadcaster somewhere else in the world involved many third-party vendors, manual processes, and a lack of clear information. It worked, but only just. Imagine if both myself and my client had real-time visibility into this connected content supply chain. What if there was intelligent monitoring and alerting to raise issues before they escalated? What if there was intelligent monitoring and alerting to raise issues before they escalated? What if I could have logged into a single platform to instantly see where the content was? Intelligent, automated workflows would have avoided all the stressful phone calls, manual checks, and last-minute efforts to meet the deadline.

The future of the media industry is in automation and integration, and the eyes-wide-open sensible application of new AI tools. From post-production to playout, smart workflows can change how content is managed, reducing mistakes, saving time, and making sure assets get where they need to go smoothly. By automating these processes, broadcasters can focus on what really matters: delivering great content to their audiences on time.

The way forward ... with Merapar

At Merapar, we’re focused on building the future of cloud-based, integrated media supply chains. Our solutions automate the entire content journey, from post-production to publishing. By using data science, machine learning, and AI, we help clients enrich metadata, check for compliance, localise content, and insert ads.

Our cloud platforms are built on open data systems that connect smoothly with existing workflows, allowing broadcasters to improve without having to change everything they already use. With our expertise in systems integration, we help clients bring together the best tools into a unified, scalable solution. Metadata enrichment, compliance support, localisation, advertising insertion point identification are all benefits that come from a supply chain built around an open data architecture in the cloud that can entertain new AI technologies as they mature.

We’re committed to helping broadcasters and content creators transform their supply chains. By combining vision, careful planning, and integration expertise, we create real value on time and within budget. Interested in learning how we can optimize your media workflows? Let’s connect and explore how we can help your business succeed.