CMSG13_12_2007 © 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 Welcome… … to the Human Network Enabling a Richer Video Experience With Metadata December 13, 2007 John Toebes Chief Architect – Cisco Media Solutions Group

CMSG13_12_20072© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. What is Metadata?  Data to describe the actual data of interest  Either: Embedded into the content (like EXIF for Photos) In a separate file or database associated with the content  As verbose or sparse as you can imagine  for those who want to read more

CMSG13_12_20073© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. What can you do with Metadata?  Program Guides  Program Descriptions  Find Actors, Genres  Filter by Ratings  Describe Scenes, Objects  Dynamic Advertising

CMSG13_12_20074© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Advertising from Metadata

CMSG13_12_20075© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Types of Metadata We see that there are four types of Metadata  Content Attributes - Information about the form of the data. Timing, Formats, Length, Sizes.  Content Description - Information about the presentation content. Actors, Genre, Ratings, Summary.  Timed Metadata - Information that applies to a subset of the content. People and Objects in Scenes, Locations, Closed Captioning, Lyrics.  Hotspots - Information identifying specific portions of image/display content: Clickable locations, People, Objects. May be static or track the object.

CMSG13_12_20076© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Metadata for forms of the same Content Given the same content in multiple formats (HD, low bandwidth, mobile device, set-top), some of the metadata is common and some is different  The Content Attributes are unique to each form of the content (bit-rate, codec, resolution)  Content Description and Timed Metadata are shared across all forms of the content.  Hotspots might be different only if the resolution and aspect ration of the content changes, but can be translated algorithmically.

CMSG13_12_20077© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Sources of Metadata  Content Creator - During the creating of the content a huge amount of data is actually created, but rarely captured in a usable form. Clearing rights for objects, people in scenes, locations.  Publisher - When content is released someone creates the top-level metadata.  Professional Content - Organizations that create metadata from the content. Closed Captioning.  Users - Rich descriptions by and from avid fans.

CMSG13_12_20078© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Standard, Standard, who has the Standard? W3C XML metadata attached to timecodes within corresponding video. Not strictly a metadata standard, but used for synchronizing information VOD Metadata Content Specification 2.0 Apple ITUNES XML - Used for Podcasts, Movies and Audio Yahoo MediaRSS And 100s more … Just pick your favorite! And 100s more … Just pick your favorite!

CMSG13_12_20079© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Impediments  Many standards? - Different industries have different standards despite usage of the same content across industries.  Focusing on delivery instead of experience - Web application developers spend more time just making the video player work instead of deriving the value from having the video  User contribution metadata - Specific to media metadata, existing metadata approaches focus on the originator of the content generating the metadata to the detriment of the Web 2.0 community  Replication of metadata - Given multiple forms of the same content, there is replication and even loss of metadata among the multiple copies.  Consistency of metadata availability - The choice of the video format often limits the choices the application can make to derive value from it. The process of transcoding can make it difficult to transfer the metadata.  Separation of metadata and delivery - Web developers often have to code custom runtime applets to deal with dynamic video content.

CMSG13_12_200710© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Opportunity  Treat video as a first class object like images  Separate out metadata access from content access  Define capabilities for all forms of metadata access from Web applications

CMSG13_12_200711© 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.