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DAM [Digital Asset Management] consists of management tasks and decisions surrounding the ingestion, annotation, cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of digital assets. Digital photographs, animations, videos and music exemplify the target-areas.” (Reference Wikipedia)
Currently we all use some form of asset management to manage our digital assets. In the near future more than 25% of content will be dominated by audio, videos and pictures. As digital assets grow, DAM systems will increasingly help manage resources effectively and efficiently - saving time for content users and creators through organizational structure and data centralization.
DAM systems are easy to use, however they require training in bringing together platforms, processes and people.
Digital assets can be all kinds of files: stock photos, product images, presentations, videos, audio clips, and so forth. DAM systems provide secure and accessible repositories for various asset formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, GIIF, TIFF, MPEG4, etc.). DAM systems also provide several tools to organize data, and distribute assets across the marketing and communication channels of a company.
What are the types of DAM?
Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECM): create an unlimited centralized storage location for all digital assets, making them easily accessible. These systems allow for a federated search and preview for all digital assets in all storage locations throughout an organization, all over the country or world.
Media Asset Management Systems (MAM): move media assets (video, audio, CC, graphics) throughout an organization. MAM systems will generally hold final/approved assets that have been placed in the system from surrounding sources. It is the main point of search and distribution (linear and non-linear platforms, and syndication). MAM requires careful planning, which begins at asset acquisition and creation. At advanced levels, MAM can drastically transform the way organizations manage the digitization of assets and corresponding access levels. MAM systems offer an array of ways for organizations to repurpose assets to maximize their value.
Production Asset Management Systems (PAM): hold and share video, audio and graphics for production and editorial usage. They hold all non-distribution assets and are seen as more of an ‘Editors/Producers Sandbox’. PAM systems can hold raw footage, rough cuts and fine cuts of content. PAM systems will hold non-approved cuts that may not be available for distribution. PAM’s are designed to work in more localized environments such as editor’s workstations and desktops.
What is eMAM? Why use eMAM?
eMAM™ is a web-based DAM system that organizes, manages, and distributes all kinds of digital information. eMAM is secure, reliable, extensible, feature-rich and capable of managing assets of any format. This powerful system has been designed to meet digital asset management requirements for organizations of any scale.
It offers three product lines: eMAM Online for remote hosting of assets, eMAM Vault is a turnkey intelligent archive system and eMAM Enterprise is a complete workflow and asset management system for installation on servers at client locations.
eMAM Enterprise and eMAM Vault incorporate all the best features of MAM and ECM in one system. eMAM Online is an ECM with partial MAM functionalities, providing worldwide delivery and download of content through our hosted servers and Amazon Cloud.
eMAM™ has some desktop tools, including eMAM Feeder, but it is not a PAM.
eMAM is the ultimate DAM solution - designed to manage a wide range of workflows. eMAM has a rich feature set capableanaging all types of content (video, audio, images, documents and
files). eMAM can perform federated searches across multiple storage
locations; move assets to different systems, storage locations, and
arch of mive as needed; allow download and deliver to a variety of locations and platforms and locations in almost any codec/format; allow web based collaboration and approvals; power marketing; and much more.
The easy-to-use interface is accessible from any web browser. Assets can be sent by ftp, Signiant, Aspera, UDP, or Amazon CloudFront to any smart phone or tablet. It has four front end, and seven backend components that seamlessly work together to manage assets from end to end.
