Avid Technology, Inc.
Media asset aggregation in a multi-database environment

Abstract:

Within a media production environment, multiple variants of a given media asset may be stored on various systems within the environment. The described production environment tracks whether a newly created asset is a variant of an original asset within the environment, and, if so, assigns it a linkage key that it shares with the original and any other variants of the original. When responding to an asset search request, responsive assets may include assets sharing a linkage key. These are assembled into an aggregate asset that is returned as a single asset among the search results. Aggregate assets include descriptive metadata copied from its constituent variants and shown in the search results to represent the asset within the search results. Using links within the aggregate asset, the application automatically retrieves a compatible variant of the selected asset, if one is present within the production environment.