Using Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Digital...

Microsoft Communications Sector hosting | media & entertainment | telecommunications

Using Microsoft SharePoint

Server 2010 for Digital

Media-Based Solutions

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ......................................................... 4

Business Context and Business Benefits ...................... 6

Managing Digital Media .................................................. 6

The Business Challenge ..................................................... 6

The IT Challenge .................................................................. 7

Business Benefits ................................................................. 7

Solution Architecture ...................................................... 7

Overview ................................................................................. 7

Managing Digital Assets Less Than

Two Gigabytes ............................................................... 11

Managing Digital Assets More Than

Two Gigabytes ............................................................... 12

Document Sets, Digital Assets, and Supporting

Collateral .......................................................................... 14

Guiding Principles ............................................................. 15

Simplicity ......................................................................... 15

Agility ................................................................................ 15

Quality .............................................................................. 15

Scalability ......................................................................... 16

Visibility ............................................................................ 16

Architectural Layers .......................................................... 16

Web Presentation Front-End Layer ....................... 17

Service Application Layer .......................................... 17

Database and Storage Layer .................................... 18

Usage Scenarios ............................................................. 18

Uploading Assets and Editing ...................................... 18

Configurations and Assumptions ........................... 18

Ingesting a Video File ................................................. 19

Applying Rough Cuts to Video Files ..................... 20

Digital Distribution ........................................................... 21

Configuration and Assumptions ............................. 21

Adding Content to a Distribution Set ................... 26

Customized Distribution Workflow ....................... 30

E-Learning ............................................................................ 31


Customized Home Page for E-Learning .............. 34

Customized Display Page for Videos .................... 34

Customized Course Page for Videos ..................... 36

Adding Content to Courses ...................................... 37

Using Office Business Applications and

Digital Assets ....................................................................... 38


Custom Microsoft Word 2010 Document

Template for Product Page ...................................... 40

Custom Microsoft Word 2010 Add-in .................. 41

Custom Windows Presentation Foundation

Application ...................................................................... 42

Saving and Managing the Data .............................. 42

Creative Work in Progress ............................................. 43

Project Management/Tracking ............................... 43

Project Scheduling and Task Assignment ........... 44

Creative Planning and Preproduction .................. 46

Production....................................................................... 47

Distribution ..................................................................... 47

Life Cycle and Archive ................................................ 47

Appendix—References ................................................. 48

Microsoft | Communications Sector | 4

Executive Summary

With the increase in digital content, companies have an increased need to

effectively manage their data. To succeed in managing digital and online media,

they need to help their teams collaborate more efficiently, integrate content and

business systems, and streamline business processes. Companies also need to

enable better process transparency, work more efficiently across organizational

boundaries with external service providers, handle metadata more effectively, and

become more agile in setting up new content services. Doing so can help

companies to respond more to not only changing market requirements and

consumer demand but also to internal business unit demands

Figure 1: Managing Media

In this white paper, Microsoft presents an IT architecture for the software

landscape of a company managing digital media and includes some scenario-

based examples. This architecture shows how companies can combine the

Microsoft® platform and Microsoft (and partner) products into an overall solution

for managing their digital media, software-plus-services, scalability, openness,

extensibility, and configurability. The architecture presented is specifically tailored

to a small to midsize company managing digital media that enables the following

key objectives:

Simplicity—A straightforward path to address companies managing digital

media business needs. The architecture can be implemented faster, is easier to

maintain and extend, and involves applications that are broadly recognizable

and familiar to new technology users.


Agility—Based on extensibility principles that allow companies managing

digital media to add capabilities and adapt as the business evolves. The

architecture provides better tools for business users to adapt and modify

workflows without having to understand how to read and write code.

Quality—Provide a low level of technology risk and a high level of reliability.

This gives companies the assurance that this solution directly addresses

managing digital assets and takes advantage of new capabilities that are

highly efficient, effective, and flexible.

Scalability—This technical solution and comprehensive approach to delivery

enables both streamlined long-term growth and expansion as the company’s

needs change and adapt. The solution remains scalable even as file formats

and delivery channels proliferate.

Governance and Manageability—Provide a consistent environment for users to

work in while providing governance that helps increase overall productivity,

cohesiveness, and manageability.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)—Focus on reducing TCO by helping to keep

the price point of software low and providing a solution that is more functional

out of the box and is easier to maintain and extend with internal resources.

The Microsoft technical solution offers an exceptionally straightforward platform

for cost-effective sustainability. The solution includes the following:

A simple and familiar IT infrastructure and architecture

Ease of adaption among experts, information workers (IWs) fostering

enterprise wide collaboration

An integrated stack of complementary applications

The broad availability of skills in the market to maintain some of the best-

selling and best-supported software in the world

Native integration and upgradeability of the systems

The simplicity and flexibility of this Microsoft solution affords companies managing

digital media great flexibility to evolve the solution as their needs change—with

highly predictable ongoing costs for support and maintenance.

Companies may have other integration points not outlined in this architecture. The

flexibility of the architecture allows the scenarios outlined here to stand alone or to

interact with existing systems. This allows companies to phase in or out functional

areas/integration points with existing systems by either replacing them with

improved mechanisms or removing them all together. In essence, companies can

re-engineer the architecture to meet their business objectives and new business

models.

To bring this blueprint ―to life,‖ several real-world scenarios are outlined in the

Usage Scenarios in Section 4.


Business Context and Business Benefits

Managing Digital Media

The increased production and consumption of digital media necessitates that companies manage and

distribute this content more efficiently and effectively. This includes enabling better collaboration between

teams, integrating content and business systems, and streamlining business processes while achieving

advanced process transparency. This will help companies to work more efficiently between and across

organizational boundaries, handle metadata more effectively, and become more agile in delivering new

content services. This puts companies at a competitive advantage of being more responsive and better able

to execute on new customer and market demands, internal or external to the organization. Doing so can

help companies to respond more to not only changing market requirements and consumer demand but

also to internal business unit demands.

The Business Challenge

This section outlines the business challenges/needs introduced by managing digital media:

Need to adapt to ―Any Content, Any Device, Any Time‖ Media 2.0 paradigm.

Need to streamline processes to cut costs and help maximize bottom line.

Need to provide better process transparency for customers and management.

Need for more agility and flexibility regarding input and output formats.

Need to efficiently handle metadata and package it with the delivered product.

Need to obtain enterprise wide adoption so that the right people are accountable for the right tasks.

Need to adapt processes that meet the changing business environment.

Need to understand business performance short-term and project long-term benefits.

Conventional systems are typically too specialized or too large and inflexible to adapt to process changes,

new workflows, or integration with complementary systems.

Companies that deal with digital media are undertaking a significant business transformation to support

the vision for a more rigorous, efficient, agile, and collaborative operation. To reach this goal, companies

are focusing initiatives on their processes to operate more efficiently today and to accommodate ever-

changing creative and technical environments. The resulting operational effectiveness can help deliver

significant quantitative and qualitative benefits to companies’ operations.

Currently, most companies that manage digital media do so in a disjointed and often labor-intensive way.

Despite this, companies have continued to expand to meet demands, although at a somewhat lagging

pace. Challenges arise when new or ad-hoc workflows are needed to reprioritize or circumvent standard

processes to meet deadlines and overcome constraints in a given process. In some cases, near 360-degree

visibility is required into the business, and operational processes to enable leadership to call to match

appropriate resources to assignments. With an effective solution for managing digital media, organizations

are positioned for growth with this greater efficiency and visibility in its operations.


The IT Challenge

This section outlines some of the IT challenges/needs introduced by managing digital media.

Need to integrate productivity, content management, and business management systems.

Need to integrate in-house, hosted, and ―cloud-based‖ services to usher in cost savings and provide

on-demand extensibilities.

Need to integrate multiple sites (geo-disperse).

Multi-tenancy support with strict access control.

Need to manage both automated and human-to-human workflows.

Need to preserve and protect assets in a cost-effective manner, including bandwidth capacity planning.

This is difficult to do with some packaged software solutions that are challenging to extend and integrate

with other systems. However, even more ―open‖ approaches using a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)

often have complex integration between functional applications, multiple diverse development

environments, and many vendor support agreements to manage and maintain for each functional

component.

Business Benefits

Increased efficiency and effectiveness of operations to help enable a more stable and streamlined

creative process

360-degree visibility into the end-to-end flow of work

Flexibility in processes, organization, and systems necessary to react easily in dynamic environments

Finer analysis and control of resources and the work various departments are performing

Solution Architecture This section includes a thorough description of our solution for managing media using Microsoft

SharePoint® Server 2010 by outlining the solution’s functional and technical characteristics and benefits.

The solution features a proven and tightly integrated stack of industry-leading applications for database,

web, and workflow that we believe help strongly position companies to fulfill the high-level objectives of

this endeavor—building a rigorous, efficient, agile, and collaborative operating environment.

Overview

The proposed architecture for the agile company managing digital content includes the following

components, enabling key capabilities:

The Digital Content Management component provides document and media asset management

capabilities, including an Asset Library web part, search, versioning, support for check-in/check-out

mechanisms, metadata management, etc. In the architecture, this component is based on Microsoft

Office SharePoint Server 2010 and can also be used with SQL Remote Blob Storage.

The Business Process Management component integrates back-end systems and automates business

processes, also across multiple organizations. In the architecture, this component is based on Microsoft

SharePoint Server 2010 and the Business Connectivity Services.

The Workflow Engine components support workflows involving human users and integrate with the

Personal Information Management component or user notifications and task tracking, and with the

Business Process Management component for connecting to back-end systems. In the architecture, this

component is implemented based on the Windows® Workflow Foundation.

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/default.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748649.aspx



The diagram below outlines the components of the architecture and highlights the communication

between the various systems. Each component is listed in the table that follows along with the

overview/highlights that each provide. For brevity, a subset of highlights is listed that each component

provides. For more information on each component, please refer to the Appendix in Section 5.

Figure 2: High-level overview of components


Table 1: Microsoft component overview

Microsoft Component Overview/Highlights

Microsoft Office SharePoint

2010

Provides unified user interface (UI) and collaboration.

Offers out-of-the-box and customizable workflows.

Built-in security document management and search.

Presentation layer for business intelligence (BI).

Easily extendable for hosting applications.

Available application programming interface (API) and web services.

A wide range of Service Applications, including Business Data Catalog,

Excel® Services, Search, etc.

Media Asset Library web part to support video, audio, and image assets

along with supporting content types for each.

Silverlight® Media Player web part provides seek and progressive download

capabilities; users do not wait for the entire file to download to start

playing.

BI integration via PowerPivot, Excel Services.

Dashboard and Key Performance Indicator (KPI) capabilities.

Powerful scheduling and calendar tools.

Uses proven and familiar project management paradigms.

Microsoft Business

Intelligence

Suite of tools that provides core functions for data warehousing, reporting

and analysis, and performance management, including PowerPivot, Excel

Services.

Includes many out-of-the-box features that provide integration between

Microsoft products.

Microsoft SQL Server®

Database Software

Enterprise-class data store

SQL Remote Blob Storage Provides the ability to store blobs of unstructured data in a remote server

external to SQL Server.

The architecture provides all user functionality through a single, web-based portal with a common look and

feel. A user’s role and security privileges in SharePoint 2010 dictate what functionality is available to the

user. SharePoint 2010 provides users with a wide spectrum of functionality while taking advantage of many

of the out-of-the-box benefits available such as common look and feel, role-based security, workflows,

document management, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed, and alerts integration with Microsoft

products such as Microsoft Office 2010 suites.


The following diagram represents a sample of user roles and the various mix of functionality that may be

available to the user based on security. Each functional area outlined in the diagram (content

management—digital media, documents, etc., planning/scheduling, dashboards, and reports) is available in

one central web-based portal. If data is being delivered from systems other than SharePoint 2010, the

underlying technologies that provide the functionality are transparent to the users. The communication

between the various components that deliver the rich functionality to the overall solution is also

transparent. Users can accomplish this in a number of ways, including using the SharePoint Server 2010

Business Data Catalog and Connectivity Services.

Figure 3: User role functionality based on security


Managing Digital Assets Less Than Two Gigabytes To better understand how the architecture satisfies managing digital media assets and supporting

collateral, consider the following diagram for scenarios for media assets less than two gigabytes (2GB) in

size.

Figure 4: Saving a Media File using RBS

A user with appropriate security privileges can access the SharePoint Server 2010 portal site and initiate an

upload of digital media via the Asset Library web part or custom upload web part as seen in Step 1.If

additional business logic is to be applied, apply it in Step 2. An example of additional business logic

includes a workflow for generating a proxy or transcoding of a video file. The Remote BLOB Store (RBS)

Client then determines if the file size is above the threshold specified during the RBS configuration. If the

file size exceeds the threshold, then the BLOB is saved (Step 3) and written (Step 4) to the BLOB store

specified during the RBS configuration. Once written, a BLOB ID (Step 5) is returned and saved in the

content DB along with the metadata as outlined in Step 6b. In the case where the digital file size does not

exceed the specified threshold, the data is stored in the content DB (Step 6a). The architecture provides

complete transparency to the users.


Figure 5: Reading a Media File using RBS

Figure 5 outlines how a media file that is stored in the BLOB store is retrieved when a user requests the

media to view or read. A user makes a request from the Asset Library web part as seen in Step 1. If there is

additional business logic to apply prior to retrieving the data, this would take place in Step 2. The BLOB ID

and metadata is retrieved from the content DB stored in SQL Server 2008 and used to read the BLOB from

the BLOB store in Step 4. The BLOB is then returned and displayed to the user. Regardless of where the

BLOB is stored (directly in the content DB or the BLOB store), the user experience will be exactly the same

and completely transparent to the user. The architecture allows for underlying messaging to take place

completely transparent to the user while guaranteeing message delivery and enforcing error tracking and

mitigation that best suits a company’s needs and is defined by a company.

Managing Digital Assets More Than Two Gigabytes For the instances where the digital assets exceed two gigabytes in size, users should take an alternative

approach to the one outlined in 3.1.1. Out-of-the-box functionality can be used, making use of the ―Link to

a Document‖ content type and deriving a new customized content type from it for customized use. The

―Link to a Document‖ functionality allows a user to reference content stored elsewhere via a URL. It is

recommended to create new content types derived from the ―Link to a Document‖ content type. As an

example, ―Link to Video‖ and ―Link to Audio‖ content types should be created. This approach has several

advantages and also several drawbacks. Consider the following two scenarios.


Table 2: Two gigabyte comparison

Scenario Overview

>2-GB Media File already in

Desired Location (does not

require uploading)

Use existing ―Link to a Document‖ functionality to reference

existing file via a URL by creating a new content type, for example,

―Link to Video.‖

Little to no customization is needed if the current functionality is

adequate.

File already resides in desired location.

For videos, no Silverlight playback through Asset Library but

playback via ―View‖ functionality and clicking the Type Icon .

(NOTE: The Display and Edit form for an item can be customized

to playback videos if needed.)

No out-of–the-box thumbnail representation. (NOTE: This can be

accomplished via customization.)

> 2-GB Media File Requires

Upload

Custom upload form is required that includes:

Custom upload control capable of managing large files

Update the URL metadata of the ―Link To Video‖ Content Type

once the upload has completed

For videos, no Silverlight playback through Asset Library but

playback via ―View‖ functionality and clicking the Type Icon .

(NOTE: The Display and Edit form for an item can be customized

to playback videos if needed.)

No out-of–the-box thumbnail representation. (NOTE: This can be

accomplished via customization.)

Users can make further customizations to the Asset Library to improve their overall experience as mentioned

above, including modifying or creating custom content types, and display and edit forms. In Figure 6 below,

video assets are stored in an Asset Library via RBS and also via the ―Link to Videos‖ content type.

Figure 6: Asset Library with Content Stored via RBS and “Link to Videos”


Document Sets, Digital Assets, and Supporting Collateral The SharePoint Server 2010 document sets feature introduces the ability to manage an entire collection of

documents, worksheets, presentations, media assets, or other types of document content as an entire end-

to-end work product.

Metadata is applied to each item in a document set and can also be applied to the document set as a

whole. For documents inside of a document set, administrators can select columns that they want marked

as read-only. The property can be edited only on the document set. Any changes to the column that is

marked as read-only are applied to all of the documents inside.

Document sets support versioning and templates that can be created in Microsoft Visual Studio® 2010

development system. Versioning makes it possible to capture the state of the document set at different

points in its life cycle, view its history, and restore previous versions of the document set. In addition,

workflows can be applied to an entire document set, which is extremely powerful.

Document sets have many uses as is the case with media assets and associated projects. Consider an

advertising campaign, spot creation, or web page content creation project. Document sets can bring all of

the collateral necessary to complete these projects together in one central location with the added benefits

of versioning, security, and the ability to apply workflows to an entire document set.

Figure 7 below represents a simple customized Document Set Home Page used for Distribution purposes.

The home page displays all of the related content, and, in this case, has three different types of content

combined for distribution purposes. Microsoft SharePoint Designer was used to add and configure the

Content Query Web Parts representing the videos, images, and documents of interest. The home page

below can be fully customized to suit specific needs.

Figure 7: Sample Document Set Home Page with Simple Customization


Guiding Principles

In crafting this architecture, we have addressed several objectives that we believe are the foundation for a

successful solution and implementation.

Simplicity Our architecture can help users get up to speed quickly by supporting process changes rather than driving

the process changes due to complexity or constraints within the technology. The solutions core

components help facilitate adopting new processes and technology by building on interactions similar to

those in today’s environment. They are also simple enough to engender fast familiarity. Our solution’s

simple single point of entry—an interface based on the ubiquitous Microsoft Office2010 suites—will help.

And the solution’s flexibility in taking advantage of different user interfaces based on user preference will

also help.

Agility The architecture outlined here uses the best of technologies for integrating IT resources so that a company

can take advantage of existing assets and build an IT infrastructure that can rapidly respond to new

organizational challenges and deliver new dynamic applications. This architecture outlined can help free

application functionality from its underlying IT architecture and make existing and new services available

for consumption across the network by providing tight integration with the fabric of a company’s

organization and current IT environment from the project’s outset. But, longer term, the architecture will

also enable relatively easy scalability to grow and evolve as a business changes. The approach supports a

high degree of agility and flexibility in its product roadmap, easy configurability, customization options

using standard technology, and ease of integration.

This Microsoft commitment means that a company will possess a highly visible product roadmap for the

main solution’s components—Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Any future customization of the solution,

which could be minor or extensive over time, would be performed through a Microsoft .NET/SharePoint

framework. Finally, though our solution uses the best of the native integration of Microsoft, it also provides

fairly straightforward integration points with third-party applications that companies may want to use in

the future (for example, transcoding engines) or which may already be a part of the overall company’s

application architecture.

Quality The leading way of facilitating such quality delivery in the technical solution is to reduce customizing and to

use a product suite with integration and interoperability that is known and proven through time. With this

in mind, the architecture uses a single common framework—Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010—and

the native integration between Microsoft products.


Scalability Our solution builds on inherent scalability provided by the unified enterprise-class Microsoft solution stack.

This scalability applies to multiple dimensions: functionality, performance, and maintainability. The tiered

and extensible architecture allows the solution to grow with a company by providing a solid foundation.

This is achieved at a technology level by observing detailed international standards and protocols, in

particular those of web services. Based on standards such as XML, SOAP, and the web services stack, the

architecture helps companies achieve the necessary agility and flexibility to support rapidly evolving

business processes and changing business objectives and goals.

Further, it is likely that some of the building blocks exist as legacy applications that can be reengineered

rather than discarded, giving access to their functionality and data.

Visibility Our solution increases the visibility of the entire end-to-end process via customized process-oriented alerts

and depicting end-to-end process status via dashboards. The dashboards are customized to meet the needs

of specific user roles governed by security.

Architectural Layers

The following diagram outlines the architectural layers and provides a system overview. The web

presentation layer is represented by SharePoint Server 2010 web front-end (WFE) servers, while the

application layer represents the SharePoint Server 2010 service applications that deliver the varying

functionality. The following sections outline the web presentation layer, the service application layer, and

the database and storage layer.

Figure 8: System Overview with Optional SQL RBS Components


Web Presentation Front-End Layer The WFE layer caters to the needs of intranet and Internet users. At the core of our solution is Office

SharePoint Server 2010, a powerful and flexible framework, including a presentation platform. The

SharePoint Server 2010 out-of-the-box capabilities provide a rich collaborative environment that

streamlines everyday business activities, while taking advantage of the latest development technologies

such as Silverlight, web parts, ASP.NET, and the Windows Workflow Foundation. SharePoint Server 2010

delivers two key features: a unified look and feel for all users and critical process functionality accessible

through a central location (the WFE). SharePoint Server 2010 allows granular role-based security privileges

using an existing Active Directory® service or claims-based authentication ideal for external vendors and

partners. This quickly connects decision makers with pertinent, customized information and allows users to

share business data in a secure and efficient manner.

SharePoint Server 2010 improves performance on the WFE by introducing new client synchronization protocol

designed to manage file transfers between the client and server, a throttling feature to better manage peak

loads, as well as improved web parts, including a Silverlight media player that provides progressive download-

and-seek functionality. This removes the need to download an entire file and improves the user experience.

SharePoint Server 2010 provides built-in redundancy and scalability because users can add WFE servers to

reduce the impact of hardware failure and help facilitate expected performance results. This allows the

SharePoint Server 2010 environment to easily grow with a company’s evolving IT demands and needs.

Service Application Layer SharePoint Server 2010 provides even greater flexibility than previous versions through the Service

Application Model, allowing each web application to select from a wide range of service applications that

can include custom service applications. As seen in Figure 8, each web application can select the Service

Applications required, where Web Application A is using the Search, BDC, Microsoft PerformancePoint® BI

software, and third-party services, and Web Application B is using only the third-party services.

The SharePoint Server 2010 Service Application Model consists of a wide range of services with several of

these applications called out in Figure 8. With the model’s flexibility, a company can select those services

that satisfy its immediate needs while allowing it to easily add services as needed. These additional services

can include custom third-party services that integrate with legacy systems that may exist. By relying on

standard messaging protocols such as XML, SOAP, HTTP, and FTP, and through the Business Data Catalog

and Connectivity Services, SharePoint Server 2010 is designed for the turn-key on-boarding of additional

systems and integration points. With the integration through Microsoft Office SharePoint Server web parts,

web services, and APIs into these systems, users can perform their tasks cohesively from one familiar central

location regardless of their functional roles or underlying systems.

This distributed nature guarantees scalability, fast response, redundancy in case of failure, and many other

features far exceeding the capabilities of the classical central-server design. At the same time, it becomes

increasingly important to have end-to-end visibility into business activities. Making the right business

decisions hinges on knowing the progress and dependencies of all units of work at any point in time.


Database and Storage Layer Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is used as the enterprise database storage for SharePoint Server 2010. This

allows administrators to take advantage of the complete range of enterprise-ready backup solutions that

SQL Server 2008 provides. It also implements a failover strategy that can reduce the impact of hardware

failure and promote expected performance results. Other key benefits of using SQL Server 2008 at the core

of this solution include the following:

Supports Mission-Critical Applications—SQL Server ―Always-On‖ Technologies support mission-critical

applications with a high level of availability with clustering that allows for redundancy and scalability.

Reduces System Downtime—System downtime occurs for a variety of reasons, such as human error,

natural disasters, hardware or software failure, or application upgrades. SQL Server Always-On

Technologies provide a full range of options to reduce system downtime and maintain appropriate

levels of application availability.

Offers a Full Range of Features—Today, SQL Server 2008 Always-on Technologies consist of database

mirroring, failover clustering, database snapshots, snapshot isolation, peer-to-peer replication, log

shipping, and online operations. Used separately or in combination, these features help reduce

downtime and keep critical enterprise systems available.

Snapshot management—Snapshots can now be forced during backup, reducing contention on the SQL

Server during the backup process. The snapshot can then be used when restoring data.

Unattached content database restore—Provides the ability to browse SharePoint Server 2010 objects in

any content database without having to attach the content database to a SharePoint Server 2010 farm.

Remote Blob Storage (RBS) API—Provides a powerful external storage solution, allowing the storage of

large BLOBS outside of SQL Server.

Usage Scenarios The following sections present high-level overviews of several possible usage scenarios, making use of the

new media functionality in SharePoint Server 2010.These scenarios are intended as samples only and should

be tailored, incorporated, or extended for specific needs following SharePoint Server 2010 best practices.

Uploading Assets and Editing

This scenario involves users uploading or ―ingesting‖ media files to an Asset Library in varying formats,

applying some key actions on the media and then allowing users to apply rough cut editing to the media

files.

Configurations and Assumptions For this scenario, several configurations and assumptions were made prior to any customizations. This

included creating and configuring three Asset Libraries populated with data. It is assumed for this scenario

that the Microsoft Silverlight Rough Cut Editor was installed, configured, and modified to edit videos

contained in the Course Videos Asset Library. These changes are referenced in the following sections for this

specific scenario and are mentioned for clarity.


Asset Libraries

It is assumed that the following Asset Libraries exist with content.

Table 3: Configurations Made

Asset Library Lists Overview

Course Videos Asset Library with only the Video Content Type enabled that is

used to store the course videos.

Course Thumbnails Asset Library with only the Image Content Type enabled that is

used to store the corresponding course video thumbnails.

Course Proxies Asset Library with only the Video Content Type enabled that is

used to store the proxy video of the course videos.

Ingesting a Video File Users can upload a video file in many different formats (.MP4, .WMV, etc.) via the Course Videos Asset

Library or a custom upload control. A .NET workflow associated with the Course Videos Asset Library is used

to help manage files that users upload by performing the following:

Encode the master file into a specified consistent format and store in the Course Videos Asset Library.

o This provides a standard format for storing media files and allows all content to playback via the

Silverlight player.

o Does not restrict or limit the distribution to various channels because transcoding can be

performed on the file prior to distribution.

Generate a proxy of the master video file and store in the Course Proxy Asset Library.

o Proxy representation can be used to show a quick clip or preview of the entire video.

Generate a thumbnail of the video file and store in the Course Thumbnails Asset Library.

o Thumbnail is displayed in the Course Videos Asset Library view.

Send completion email.

Figure 9: Visual representation of the workflow applied to an ingested video file


Microsoft Expression® Encoder was used from within the workflow for the encoding process. The workflow

can be configured to support any encoder or transcoding application with APIs or supporting standard web

services.

The workflow updates the workflow history report on percentage complete on the encoding process as

seen below. This information can be useful for reporting purposes and determining any bottlenecks in the

process.

Figure 10: Workflow History

Applying Rough Cuts to Video Files When the video files have been ingested successfully, users may need to perform editing on the videos. The

Silverlight Rough Cut Editor (RCE) gives users the ability to quickly edit videos from a browser-based, real-

time solution while improving collaboration and managing dynamic metadata. Users can use the RCE to

assemble and edit video, audio, images, and XAML overlays with time code accurate control as seen in the

following figures.

Figure 11: Silverlight Rough Cut Editor


Figure 12: Silverlight Rough Cut Editor

Digital Distribution

The digital distribution scenario covers the need to distribute a package of data that includes digital assets

and associated collateral (for example, scripts or other supporting documents) to external sources such as

vendors or clients. In this instance, using SharePoint Server 2010 Document Sets, users can accomplish the

distribution process because they can create a set or ―package‖ of data to be distributed.

Figure 13 below represents a simple customized Document Set Home Page used for distribution purposes.

SharePoint Designer was used to add and configure the Content Query Web Parts representing the Videos,

Images, and Documents Of Interest. Document Sets are fully customizable and as such provide great

flexibility in displaying and managing data.

Figure 13: Sample Document Set with Simple Customization

Configuration and Assumptions For this scenario, several configurations and assumptions were made prior to any customizations. These

included adding several custom content types and having two Asset Libraries populated with data. These

changes are referenced in the following sections for this specific scenario and are mentioned here for

clarity.


Asset Libraries




Course Thumbnails Asset Library with only the Image Content Type enabled

that is used to store the corresponding course video

thumbnails.

Course Videos Asset Library with only the Video Content Type enabled

that is used to store the course videos.

Enabling the Document Set Functionality

To use the Document Set functionality, the feature must first be activated if it is not already. In SharePoint

Server 2010 Central Administration, select ―Site collection features‖ from the ―Site Collection

Administration‖ group and ensure it is activated as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 14: Site collection feature

Figure 15: Document Sets feature activated


Creating Custom Content Types

For this scenario, several custom content types were created and used.

Custom “Link To Video” and “Link To Image” Content Types. The Custom ―Link To Videos‖ and ―Link To

Image‖ content types were created to help avoid duplicating assets. For purposes of distribution, users

should manage and maintain videos and images in a single (or multiple if necessary) Asset Library and not

in the document set. The distribution package should link to this content. This addresses the following

issues that often arise with distributing assets:

Duplicate Assets—A master asset exists that users can include in several distribution packages.

Asset Security—Security at the Asset Library level is maintained. There may be cases where users who

can create distribution packages should not be able to modify the asset. Linking to the video provides

this flexibility.

Figure 16: “Link To Video” Custom Content Type


Figure 17: “Link To Image” Custom Content Type

Custom Document Set Content Type. For a specific scenario as with Distribution, we recommend creating

a custom content type based on the Document Set. This is for several reasons:

Extendable—The Distribution scenario described here includes multiple forms of content such as

images, videos, and documents. Creating a custom content type allows us to specify the supported

content types in a document set and add/remove as necessary with no impact on other document sets.

Flexible—Changes to the custom content type have little to no impact on other implementations.

The ―Dist Document Set‖ content type was created with the parent content type being the Document Set.

Once it was created, several content types were added to the Allowed Content Types:

Document—Any specific documents for this distribution process. Typically, these documents are very

specific to the distribution process and are not reused elsewhere.

Link To Image—Link to images from an Asset Library that should be included in the distribution

process.

Link To Videos—Link to videos from an Asset Library that should be included in the distribution

process.

Link To a Document—Link to documents from a Document Library that should be included in the

distribution process. An example of this might be a ―Terms and Conditions‖ document that is standard

for all distribution packages. Any changes to the ―Terms and Conditions‖ document take place in one

location and ensures that each document set links to the most up-to-date version.


To accomplish this, the ―Document Set settings‖ was selected followed by selecting the ―Document,‖ ―Link

To a Document,‖ ―Link To Image,‖ and ―Link To Videos‖ content types.

Figure 18: Document Set settings

Figure 19: Adding Content Types to the Custom Document Set Content Type


Creating and Configuring a Document Library

Add Content Types. On the Advanced Settings of the Document Library, select ―Yes‖ to ―Allow

management of content types?‖

Figure 20: Allowing content types

Ensure the appropriate content types, including the ―Dist Document Set,‖ are added to the Document

Library as seen in Figure 21.

Figure 21: Document Library with content types added

Users can add columns or metadata as well as appropriate security settings to the document library as

needed following best practices.

Adding Content to a Distribution Set When the configurations have been completed, users with the appropriate permissions can then create

document sets as seen in Figure 22.

Figure 22: Document Library with the Two Document Sets Created

After selecting one of the distribution packages, the user is then presented with a document set home

page. As mentioned previously, users can customize these home pages for specific needs. The one shown

below is a simple representation of a home page created with SharePoint Designer and using the Content

Query Web Parts.


Figure 23: Sample Document Set Home Page with Simple Customization

With the configurations made, the user can now select the type of content to add to the document set.

Figure 24: New Document Options for the Distribution Document Set


SharePoint Server 2010 provides the ability to customize the forms used to manage items, including the

Display, Edit, and New forms, which can provide an even greater user experience. The two following

screenshots are examples of custom Display forms created via the SharePoint Designer for the ―Link To

Image‖ and ―Link To Videos‖ items. Figure 25 represents a simple Image Display Form, while Figure 26

represents a Video Image with a Silverlight media player and extended view of the metadata.

Figure 25: Customized Display Form for “Link To Image” items


Figure 26: Customized Display Form for “Link To Videos” items


Customized Distribution Workflow Users can create and associate a distribution workflow to the document library that implements the

document sets. The distribution workflow may include packaging the document set into a zip file or Ftp’ing

the document set to a preconfigured location. The workflow is applied to the document set as a whole so

that no additional packaging is required from the user.

The sample workflow implemented here captures a version of the document set once initiated, allows the

initiator to see the items that will be distributed, select the vendor to send to, and select the method in

which the items should be delivered. The following shows the initialization form.

Figure 27: Sample Distribution Workflow Initiation Form

Once the user initiates the workflow, the vendor information that is stored in a custom SharePoint Server

2010 list is retrieved, including the corresponding delivery method information. For example, if FTP was

selected, the vendors FTP information is retrieved and used in the workflow to process.

Figure 28: Sample Custom Vendor List

An email is sent to inform both the sender and receiver that the package has been processed and will be

delivered shortly. Another email notifying both parties on successful completion is sent as part of the

workflow. In addition, if an approval process is required prior to distributing the content; approval tasks can

be added to the workflow following workflow best practices.


E-Learning

With the increased popularity of delivering course content electronically both in schools and in the

corporate world, E-Learning has grown and become a requirement for delivery. SharePoint Server 2010 can

help address this need in an easy and efficient manner. Some customization may be needed to accomplish

this task, depending on the level of customization required. Below is a sample customized E-Learning home

page:

Figure 29: E-Learning Home Page

Configurations and Assumptions For this scenario, several configurations and assumptions were made prior to any customizations. These

included adding several site columns, modifying the Video Content type, and having two Asset Libraries

populated with data. These changes are referenced in the following sections for this specific scenario and

are mentioned here for clarity and follow the ―Walkthrough: Creating a Video Site‖ MSDN® developer

program article referenced in the Appendix.


Site Column Addition

One site column was created for this scenario. The name is generic so that it can be used in other scenarios

as appropriate.


Site Column Setting Overview

Channel Lookup Field

Get Information From: Pages

In this Column: ―Title‖

Used for filtering and to determine the

channel the video should be associated

with.

Figure 30: Creating the “Channel” site column


Video Content Type Modification

Two site columns were added to the Video Content Type as described below.


Video Content Type


Overview

Rating (0-5) Out-of-the-box site column for displaying the rating of SharePoint

Server 2010 items.

Channel Custom site column created to associate a video with a channel for

viewing and grouping videos according to courses/classes. NOTE:

This implementation only allows a video to be associated with one

channel. This can be adjusted if needed.

Figure 31: Video Content Type with Added Site Columns

Asset Libraries









Customized Home Page for E-Learning Customizing home pages can take many different forms and can range from simple to complex. For this

scenario, a simple but functional home page was created to manage course material and videos as shown

in Figure 32. This home page lists the latest course videos along with a list of current courses that have

channels set up. Aggregating course content into a group of related items that students/users can browse

and subscribe to as a single unit is often referred to as ―channels‖ and has fast become the way that users

want to work. For E-Learning, this is especially important because content related to specific courses can be

quickly accessed to ensure timely consumption.

Figure 32: E-Learning Home Page Created Using SharePoint Designer

Customized Display Page for Videos From the home page, a user can select one of the latest course videos to watch. Selecting one of the latest

videos to watch presents the display page for the video item. As in the previous scenario, a custom display

page was created via the SharePoint Designer for the Video Content type, which uses the Silverlight media

player and displays the extended metadata. Users can then quickly view course material from the E-

Learning home page.


Figure 33: Customized Display Form for Video items


Customized Course Page for Videos From the home page, a user can select one of the course channels. Selecting one of the course channels

navigates the user to the course channel page displayed below. As mentioned previously, the course

channel page aggregates all relevant material to a single location for users to view. As shown below, a user

can quickly see that three videos are currently associated with the ―E-Learning 101‖ course and each has the

title, thumbnail, and rating displayed. The page also displays a RSS feed icon. Using this icon, a user can

subscribe to this content and be alerted of any additions or modifications. This page is fully customizable

and can range from a simple implementation or something more complex, depending on specific needs.

The page below was created in SharePoint Designer using the Content Query Web Part to display the latest

videos as outlined in the ―Walkthrough: Creating a Customized Home Page and Content By Query Web

Part XSL‖ MSDN page referenced in the Appendix.

Figure 34: Course Page


Adding Content to Courses For the E-Learning site to be successful, content must be added and managed. It is important to first have

the course structure in place because users can then add content and associate it with specific courses.

However, if users add courses later, videos can later be associated via the Edit form.

Figure 35: Adding a Course to a Channel


Using Office Business Applications and Digital Assets

SharePoint Server 2010 improves and extends integration with Microsoft Office applications such as

Microsoft Word 2010. SharePoint Server 2010 is closely connected to Microsoft Office, and the content

provides a familiar user experience. People are comfortable with the system, so they use it. They find the

information they need more easily, and their work is managed from start to finish.

In this scenario, a sample Word 2010 Business Application was created to generate a new product item

page. In this case, one of the contributors works directly and only in the Microsoft Word 2010 environment

to generate content to be displayed on a website. In the background, the business application is interacting

with SharePoint Server 2010 seamlessly to update product page information in a SharePoint Server 2010 list

and to retrieve digital assets to display in these pages.

Figure 36: Overview of Business Application and SharePoint Server 2010 interaction

Configurations and Assumptions For this scenario, several configurations and assumptions were made prior to any customizations. These

included creating a custom content type for page description and creating a SharePoint Server 2010 list for

new product pages, and that two Asset Libraries populated with data exist.



A site column was created for this scenario. The name is generic so that it can be used in other scenarios as

appropriate.


Site Column Setting Overview

Product SKU Number Used for identifying products.

SharePoint Server 2010 Product Page Content Type

For this scenario, a simple custom content type was created for a Product Page based on an Article Page.

Figure 37: Custom “Product Page” content type

The ―Product SKU‖ site column was then added to this content type.

SharePoint Server 2010 Custom“2010 Product Pages” List

A custom list for storing product page information named ―2010 Product Pages‖ was created. The list has

the ―Product Page‖ content type associated with it. The list also has an out-of-the-box approval workflow

that is triggered when new items are added to the list. This ensures that each new item gets the attention

and is approved or rejected as quickly as possible.


Asset Libraries








Custom Microsoft Word 2010 Document Template for Product Page Users can use Visual Studio 2010 to create powerful Office Business Applications. For this scenario a very

simple Microsoft Word 2010 document template was created using Visual Studio 2010 to create document-

level customization and to obtain data from a user. The template includes several content controls such as

plain text, date, and a drop-down control. The template is shown below in Figure 38 and is used to obtain

basic product information from a user.

Figure 38: Microsoft Word 2010 Document Template created in Visual Studio 2010

Figure 39: Product Page with data and Date Picker control


Custom Microsoft Word 2010 Add-in A simple Microsoft Word 2010 Add-in was created in Visual Studio 2010. The add-in consists of a simple

tab that was added to the ribbon named ―Product Page‖ with two commands: ―Get Media‖ and ―Save to

SharePoint 2010.‖

Figure 40: Customized Ribbon with Several Customized Functions

If it is necessary to associate media with the product item, the user can select the ―Get Media‖ button from

the ribbon.

Figure 41: Get Media


Custom Windows Presentation Foundation Application The ―Get Media‖ button is for the user to select a media object that should be associated with the Product

Page. The button launches a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application that uses the SharePoint

Foundation 2010 Managed Client Object Model to retrieve thumbnails and other metadata of items in an

Asset Library. A sample implementation of this is shown in Figure 42. NOTE: Users should follow best

practices for retrieving large amounts of data. If the Asset Library is large, they should consider adding

some search functionality to trim the results returned.

Figure 42: Get Media WPF Application

Saving and Managing the Data The ―Save to SharePoint 2010‖ button saves the data the user entered into the ―2010 Product Pages‖

SharePoint Server 2010 list by calling into a web service. The ―2010 Product Pages‖ list has an out-of-the-

box approval workflow associated with it that creates a task for a specific user requesting approval for the

item. The workflow was configured to run for new items only and to send an email confirmation when an

item has been approved or rejected or to alert users of further actions needed to complete the process.

Figure 43: Custom “2010 Product Pages” list with item inserted


Creative Work in Progress

Managing digital assets may be a single piece of a larger business need, for example, the need to manage

work in progress such as a broadcast show or news publication that requires management throughout the

life of the work. SharePoint Server 2010 provides an increased amount of out-of-the-box functionality

(PerformancePoint Services for SharePoint Server, Project Server Services, etc.) that allows for managing and

tracking work in progress from inception through delivery as shown in the sample management process in

Figure 44. For functional areas that are not native to SharePoint Server 2010, strong and improved

integration with other products exist.

Figure44: Sample Work In Progress Management Process

Project Management/Tracking Managing projects is a core process in many groups. The term project is a general term that can apply to

many different activities where content must move through multiple business and creative processes before

being distributed and/or archived. A project’s life cycle may include planning, executing, and tracking

elements and tasks through multiple stakeholders and platforms. A key objective of this functional area is to

provide the tools and capabilities to improve the way that stakeholders collaborate, schedule, and track

numerous activities, including crucial milestones in a given project. These tools and capabilities can help

stakeholders more effectively manage many simultaneous projects throughout the project’s life cycle,

improving efficiency and communication between project members and managers.

Centralized Portal Access to Project-Related Material

o Develop and share key documents such as project plans, brief, etc.

o Central location to share and exchange thoughts and feedback on documents

o Facilitate and enforce processes

o Apply access control

User Notifications

o Email alerts via SharePoint Alerts

o RSS feeds

Master Calendar

o View and access a project’s master calendar

Delivering KPIs and Other Key Metrics

o Use the PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint Server 2010 to deliver powerful, meaningful KPIs

and dashboards

Security

o Layered on top of the security of underlying technologies and products such as Microsoft Internet

Information Services (IIS), ASP.NET, SQL Server, and the Windows Server® operating system

o Provide the appropriate access to the information contained in the portal by using the SharePoint

Server 2010 security settings and groups. In addition, SharePoint Server 2010 incorporates a new,

more powerful, flexible authentication model that works with any corporate identity system.

Project Mgmt / Tracking Project Scheduling

& Task Assignment

Creative Planning & Pre-Production

Production Distribution Lifecycle & Archive


Figure 45: Sample KPI Dashboard Page

Project Scheduling and Task Assignment Project Scheduling requires a formalized, system-enabled process for initiating, organizing, scheduling,

prioritizing, assigning, and managing project work. The goal is to provide visibility into the work in progress

and the ability to assess and manage shifts in priority. This section highlights several key tasks that may be

addressed during the project scheduling phase and demonstrates the approaches taken to satisfy them

with the integration of Project Server Services in SharePoint Server 2010:

Initiating a Project

Identifying Resources

Managing a Dynamic Scheduling Environment

Using―What-If Analysis‖

Managing Resource Use

Automatic Updates to the Project Calendar

Figure 46: Identifying Resources


Figure 47: Viewing Multiple Projects

Figure 48: What-If Analysis


Creative Planning and Preproduction The creative planning process involves applying the creative essence of the show and the work in progress

to the specific marketing messages to be created through the production process. SharePoint Server 2010

provides powerful collaborative functions to support this iterative creative life cycle. Additionally, enhanced

visibility into assignments, deadlines, and resource capacity through customized dashboards and ad hoc

reports confirms that the best-suited creative minds are matched to the appropriate projects. This section

highlights several key tasks that can be addressed during the Preproduction phase and demonstrates the

approaches taken to satisfy them:

Adding Preproduction Tasks to Schedules

Central Workspaces for Projects

The previous section provided some overview and screenshots on how tasks can easily be added to

schedules through Project Server integrating with SharePoint Server 2010. Central workspaces can be

accomplished a number of ways, depending on the specific need. For example, it may be that document

sets are sufficient for managing simple projects while new sites or sub sites may be required for other more

complex projects. SharePoint Server 2010 provides the flexibility to address both scenarios with ease while

providing a rich set of functionality.

Users can use the SharePoint Server 2010 Media Asset Library in both scenarios by either linking to digital

content in a document set (as discussed in the Distribution Scenario in section 4.2) or by using the Content

Query Web Part on each project site to display the appropriate assets.

Figure 49: Displaying content stored in a Media Asset Library


Production In production, many media elements can be combined or used together to create the final deliverable(s).

To maximize efficiency, the solution organizes production by projects that include the tasks, the required

resources, priorities, status, and deadlines. This process also requires associated assets to be easily

searchable, retrievable, and versioned via the Asset Library. This section highlights several key tasks that can

be addressed during the Production phase and demonstrates the approaches taken to satisfy them:

Approvals

Graphics

Production Build—RCE

Distribution Distribution was discussed in section 4.2 as a separate usage scenario and can be used as a base for

discussion. In this case, distribution may mean distribution to the appropriate channels either via files or

physical media where channel is defined as a file format or specification. This process would engage a

multipart workflow where the essence media is processed and transcoded to match each channel

specification. This may include high definition, standard definition, or portable/mobile definition formats to

support a range of screening devices.

Once the workflow is completed, the system automatically sends out notifications to stakeholders that the

media is available for third-party retrieval or that the media has been delivered successfully to the

appropriate endpoint. Notification of downloading/access by business partners is reported back to the

Digital Media Supervisor via email and/or dashboard in SharePoint Server 2010. All tasks in the workflow

are updated back in the project schedule, and the system validates all completed tasks against the original

order requirements created.

Life Cycle and Archive The Archive is responsible for storing and managing assets for Preproduction, Production, Graphics, Audio,

and Distribution. Its objective is to provide easy access to content and assets, promoting reuse where

applicable.

Once a project has been completed and delivered for distribution, all media and non-media assets

associated with that project may need to go through a media life-cycle process. This process may identify

which assets can be deleted and removed from the system and which are archived for future use or

reference.


Appendix—References Remote Blob Storage: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748607.aspx

Building WPF Applications by Using the SharePoint Server 2010 Client Object Model:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff630937.aspx

Using the SharePoint Foundation 2010 Managed Client Object Model: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-

us/library/ee857094(office.14).aspx

Creating a Template by Using Content Controls: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386290.aspx

Associated Press Case Study News Network Streamlines Editorial Process with Flexible, Efficient Newsroom

System: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000006933

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server: http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/

Microsoft Silverlight Rough Cut Editor: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/RCE/

Business Intelligence: http://www.microsoft.com/bi/

Microsoft SQL Server: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/

Windows Workflow: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb421687.aspx

WCF: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663324.aspx

Enterprise/FAST Search:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms495418.aspx

http://www.fast.no/l3a.aspx?m=1066

WPF: http://windowsclient.net/wpf/

CDN:

http://www.akamai.com/

http://www.movenetworks.com/

http://www.limelightnetworks.com/

Rights and Royalties Management: http://www.rsgsystems.com/

©2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This white paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.

Microsoft provides this material solely for informational and marketing purposes. Microsoft software is licensed not sold. The value and

benefit gained through use of Microsoft software and services may vary by customer. The contents of this white paper are subject to

change.

0810


http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff630937.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee857094(office.14).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386290.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386290.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000006933

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000006933

http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/RCE/

http://www.microsoft.com/bi/

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb421687.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/aa663324.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms495418.aspx

http://www.fast.no/l3a.aspx?m=1066

http://windowsclient.net/wpf/

http://www.akamai.com/

http://www.movenetworks.com/

http://www.limelightnetworks.com/

http://www.rsgsystems.com/

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