AgentBased Architectures for Seamless Integration of Broadcast and Production Applications

1
Agent-Based Architectures for Seamless
Integration of Broadcast and Production
Applications

• Steven. C. Bilow
• Senior Product Marketing Manager
• Media Software Products
• Grass Valley Group Inc.

2
The Problem
3
Three Dimensions of Interoperability
Application
Format
Transport
4
The Historically Important Dimension - Format
Application
Example MPEG
Transport
5
The Material Exchange Dimension - Transport
Application
Example GXF / AAF / SDTI
Format
6
The Forgotten Dimension - Applications
Agent Architecture (e.g ContentShare)
Format
Transport
7
New and Legacy Systems Create Related Material...
Audio
Video
V/O
Shots
Audio
Video
Air Time
Description
Rec Time
Playout Server
Editor
Ingest Server
V/O
Shots
Speech
Images
Audio
Video
Description
Description
ArchDate
Sports
Browse System
Archive
ClipID
AsRunLog
Story
Story
Sat
Trend
Notes
Script
Script
Facility Automation
Newsroom
Weather
8
...But Only Manage Their OWN Environment
Audio
Video
V/O
Shots
Audio
Video
Air Time
Description
Rec Time
Playout Server
Editor
Ingest Server
V/O
Shots
Speech
Images
Audio
Video
Description
Description
ArchDate
Sports
Browse System
Archive
ClipID
AsRunLog
Story
Story
Sat
Trend
Notes
Script
Script
Facility Automation
Newsroom
Weather
9
Application Integration Removes Barriers!
Audio
Video
V/O
Shots
Audio
Video
Air Time
Description
Rec Time
Playout Server
Editor
Ingest Server
V/O
Shots
Speech
Images
Audio
Video
Description
Description
ArchDate
Sports
Browse System
Archive
ClipID
AsRunLog
Story
Story
Sat
Trend
Notes
Script
Script
Facility Automation
Newsroom
Weather
10
Benefits of Integrated Applications

• Asset Mining
• Browsing/Exploring
• Searching
• Getting and using metadata
• Tracking and linking
• Media interchange

11
How Can Software Agents Solve The Problem?
12
Some Definitions

• An Agent
• Autonomous process - communicates by message
  passing
• A Broker
• Autonomous Data-Store interface
• A Framework
• Any collection of reusable components
• An IDE
• An Integrated Development Environment
• A Platform
• A system foundation built from a Framework,
  Agents, and an IDE

13
A Platform is a Common Language
Video Server
Browse Server
Wide Area Networks
Broker
Broker
High Res video
Low Res video
Messaging Framework for Agent Communication via
XML
Link Assets
Search requests
Broker
Broker
News
Automation
Search
Agent
Script
Clips
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A Framework Makes Communication Possible
Video Server
Browse Server
Wide Area Networks
Broker
Broker
High Res video
Low Res video
Messaging Framework for Agent Communication via
XML
Link Assets
Search requests
Broker
Broker
News
Automation
Search
Agent
Script
Clips
15
Brokers and Agents Serve as Interfaces
Video Server
Browse Server
Wide Area Networks
Broker
Broker
High Res video
Low Res video
Messaging Framework for Agent Communication via
XML
Link Assets
Search requests
Broker
Broker
News
Automation
Search
Agent
Script
Clips
16
An Agent Architecture
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Basic Premises

• To serve its purpose effectively, a Platform must
  be
• Open, Extensible, Scalable, and Distributed
• Platform-independent
• Peer-to-peer
• Internationalizable
• Dynamically configurable

Check your premises. Ayn Rand
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Foundations
Java Agent Development Kit
Java Agent Class Library
XML Parser
Core Content Language - XML
Agent-Oriented Messaging Protocol - KQML
Message Transport Protocol - TCP / IP
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Interface Agents Brokers and User Agents

• Brokers interface to data
• User Agents interface to UIs
• Brokers can provide three classes of standard
  services
• Asset Service
• Transfer Service
• Query Service
• These can be extended
• Extensions to standard services
• Specialized services
• Custom Service Classes
• Brokers may implement more than one Service Class

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System Agents Communication Facilitators

• System Agents tie everything together
• Agent System Knowledge (ASK)
• Directory of Services contains information
  registered with it by each Broker that provides
  services
• Resolver
• Tracks assets in the system and provides
  location independence
• Agent Name Service (ANS)
• Manages security

21
The ContentShare Example
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System Agent 1 Dynamic System Knowledge

• Registration Repository
• Dynamic Discovery
• Agent Domains
• Brokers
• Vocabulary
• Services

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ASK Facilitates, Brokers Communicate
1. ASK Request Who has video that can
potentially match my search?
2. ASK Reply These servers do
---------- -----------
4. Yes, I do.
3. Got anything that matches my criteria?
Broker
Broker
Broker
Broker
Video Server
Video Server
Video Server
Video Server
24
System Agent 2 Resolver
Linking and Location Independence - accomplished
via one-to-many mapping of a URN to multiple URIs.
URI WXYZNews/Profile1/ Int1/Incoming/News_200
, video/profile.cmf
URI WXYZNews/NTServer/ C/Incoming/News_200,
video/mpeg1
200 News Feed URN WXYZNews/ 12309812332/12348
7923
URI WXYZNews/NewsServer/ JohnLStories/News_200
, text/transcript
Universal Resource Identifier (URI) - every
independently addressable asset in the system has
a URI.
Universal Resource Name (URN) - sets of assets
that are logically equivalent share a URN.
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Agent Domains
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What About Legacy Integration?

• Agent Architectures require no changes to the
  underlying application.
• Legacy storage schemes need not be changed!
• Reduced integration complexity.
• No need to ask a system supplier to write drivers
  for a collection of older products. Each
  developer does his part.

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Conclusions

• System agnostic
• Proven technologies
• XML
• TCP/IP
• Java
• Software can work together with no changes to the
  underlying application.
• Respects underlying unique storage schemes
• One interface to an assortment of applications
• Access across departments, facilities, and
  geographies
• Reduced integration complexity