Metadata Management

In a digital media file, the data is a digital representation of the content itself. Metadata, on the other hand, refers to information about the data and comes in two main flavors. Technical metadata is the inherent information present in a digital media file that describes various attributes of the content. For example:

Duration

The runtime of the content, usually expressed in hours, minutes, and seconds

Dimensions

The visual size of the content, usually expressed in pixels (video only)

Frame rate

The number of frames, or images, per second

Codec

The name of the encoding mechanism used to digitally record the data

Bitrate

The number of bits per second

Sample rate

The number of samples recorded per second (audio only)

On the other hand, user-supplied metadata refers to any information about the content that was provided by a user. User-supplied metadata includes attributes such as the title, description, keyword tags, contributor, and still frame images. Such metadata can be provided at upload time or extracted from the file itself and can later be reviewed and modified using the management console or API.

Custom metadata fields provide even more flexibility over recording and tracking metadata for your content. Using custom metadata fields, you can extend the Twistage data schema to incorporate your own company's own proprietary information. This might include a product SKU, department number, genre or other fields that are meaningful to your organization.

Metadata can be helpful when browsing your content, but becomes really powerful when used to dynamically pull content into your site. Twistage playlists allow you to group related content together, and make them available either on your own site in a media player or via an mRSS (media RSS) feed for syndication. After configuring a playlist to select content based on metadata, each time it is loaded into your website, your users will see the latest content in your Twistage account matching the corresponding playlist criteria. Content can also be selected dynamically on the fly without creating playlists in advance, using the Twistage API.

Metadata Extraction and Injection

While it's always possible to fill in user-supplied metadata manually, it's not always practical to do so when working with a large media library containing potentially thousands of rich media files. In these situations, automation is essential. Twistage automatically analyzes each video, audio track, and image the moment it is uploaded, and pulls both technical and user-supplied metadata from the file. The metadata is stored within the Twistage CMS and is available immediately. Similarly, metadata that has been modified within Twistage can be automatically injected into the content when it is downloaded, depending on the format.