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Blue Lucy

Saving money in the media supply chain

6 RULES TO LIVE BY

Arguably the top priority for media businesses in 2025 is to reduce operational costs. But that’s easier said than done when you’re faced with increasing content delivery demands for an ever-evolving consumer landscape. Based on our real-world experience working with international media organisations, we’ve put together six principles to help you save money across the content supply chain.

1. You can’t monetise what you can’t see.

There are vast libraries of unmanaged content running into the 10s of petabytes at a number of the big production labels – much of which isn’t even available as a browsable version. This media may as well not exist as you can’t monetise what you can’t see.  This is a common situation that’s increasing due to the significant M&A activity in the industry where multiple media catalogues have been combined from once separate production and distribution companies. But large volume content management is not an insurmountable problem. The first priority for any content owner or rights holder should be to bring everything under management so that you understand what content is in the library. Connect the MAM to the media, wherever it is, and have it register the material, generate a visible browse version, and hoover up as much metadata as you can find.  If there really is no data, a simple microservice program can automatically generate metadata based on the information contained in your filenames. You might be surprised by how far this will take you.

2. Nobody move anything, until you know what it is.

An end-to-end media supply chain is not synonymous with the cloud. Your media and the workflows involved in creating, managing and delivering content across various platforms and tools can be controlled and observable whether it’s in the cloud, on the ground (on-prem’) or any combination of the two. Bringing media under management doesn’t mean moving it to the cloud or anywhere else. Once you’ve registered the assets and made them visible  (see point 1 above) you can make an informed, value based, business decision as to where the most appropriate place is for them to be stored.  Too often we hear media execs talking about their cloud strategy rather than the business strategy and ‘the cloud’ as an outcome whereas it should be viewed as a component – albeit an extremely powerful component – of a business objective. 

3. Clean as you go.

Cloud services can deliver significant flexibility and efficiency. Equally, storing material in cloud storage has accessibility and security benefits.  But cloud storage is definitely not the least expensive option.  So, if you choose to migrate your content into the cloud, it’s worth getting your housekeeping done before you make the move.  First understand what you have, what condition it’s in, what the likely value is, and what rights you hold.  Other simple housekeeping tasks such as material deduplication or identifying minutes of colour black run out from a digitised tape, or camera pointing at ground rushes can also be carried out with the material in situ.  The 90’s broadcast engineers’ joke of operators inadvertently archiving hundreds of hours of colour bars isn’t quite so funny when you move from a $10/TB LTO to incrementally priced cloud storage.

For this reason, we tend to support a controlled migration of content and workflows to the cloud rather than the ‘forklift content and sort it out when it gets there’ approach.

4. You don’t need to shut down existing systems to modernise your operation.

Your ‘legacy’ systems can, and probably do, still deliver value. There’s no need to change your entire technology ecosystem just because you want to introduce new tools, streamline your workflows or take advantage of cloud scale. In a constantly developing technology landscape, the best approach is to integrate, not deprecate. Your MAM orchestration platform should integrate with both legacy and new technologies so that existing systems can continue to deliver value while new tools – such as AI applications – can be readily incorporated into workflows to support ever changing business needs.  At Blue Lucy we achieve this by using our BLAM microservice architecture to connect disparate systems and enable a controlled migration to modern workflows.

5. It doesn’t matter where the content is. No, really.

The actual location of your content should have no bearing on your ability to monetize it. Your MAM should provide easy and uniform access to all your assets, no matter where the ops’ team or the media is physically located.  On-prem and cloud storage should be viewed interchangeably rather than one being for operations, such as fulfilment, and the other for the “safety copy” because your MAM ‘knows’ where the material is and can be configured to use the most appropriate repository. And, if your operation is all cloud, then the need for a “safety copy” is moot as the cloud vendor can provide multi-copy resilient storage through simple configuration.  80% of Blue Lucy BLAM deployments are hybrid and use both cloud and ground storage.

6. Start small and work incrementally.                   

Big bang “Transformation” projects are dead, and good riddance.  Big projects cost big money, carry big risk and often end up in big disappointment (when they’re not quietly killed).  Even the successful ones take a long time to deliver value, and the true RoI rarely moves the needle on the CFO’s dashboard, certainly after the long-departed big consultancy company fees are included.

Instead, big projects can be delivered in small steps using modern service-based technology and open APIs.  That’s why we recommend focussing projects on end-to-end solutions for a thin, horizontal operational slice.  This approach proves the technology and the business case with minimal risk and delivers measurable value incrementally, building confidence with each slice and allowing a rapid change of direction if necessary. If your service provider or vendor can’t demonstrate value within 6 weeks of any project starting, you may want to reconsider working with them.

Interested in learning how Blue Lucy’s BLAM and BOLT platforms can help you save money in 2025?  Get in touch!

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MIP LONDON

Heading to MIP LONDON this February? So are we! We’d love to meet you at London’s biggest content week. Get in touch to discover how Blue Lucy’s solutions help you manage your expanding content inventory, and deliver more content, faster. We look forward to catching up with you there!

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New BLAM Release Set to Transform End-to-End Workflow Management

Blue Lucy’s recent software update for orchestration, integration and media management platform, BLAM, includes a major upgrade to the tasks application that is set to transform customers’ worklow management.

The new release combines automated processes with human task management in BLAM and integrates with other project management applications, providing end-to-end workflow management capabilities.      

In the new version of BLAM, the task application has been expanded across the platform so task information is always available and visible to users – like a to-do list that sits alongside the tools and resources needed to complete the work. Opening a task in BLAM automatically makes all the required media, metadata and any other assets required to complete the task available to the user. This saves time, reduces user errors and allows teams to focus on more creative work. Once a manual task has been completed, it automatically triggers the next step in the workflow – whether that’s an automated action like transcoding or another task to be completed by a user.

The task functions have also been upgraded to maximise configurability and administrators can set priorities and deadlines, assign users and filter tasks according to range of criteria. Tasks can be assigned to groups, specific team members or even guests and only the specific assets and applications needed to complete the assigned work will be made available based on the user’s permissions. The application integrates with other project management tools like Trello and Monday.com and can automatically share updates and notifications in Slack, via email and in Teams – making it easy to manage BLAM tasks as part of broader organisational workflows.

“Blue Lucy originally led the way in integrating task and asset management, and now we’re taking this to the next level,” said Joshua Martin, head of product at Blue Lucy. “While automation has become increasingly important in creating efficient workflows, we still need human intervention at critical stages of the process. With this new release, tasks and automation are truly integrated and central to all our customers’ workflows.”

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Blue Lucy takes on The Americas

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES – London-based media technology business, Blue Lucy, has set up a US division of the company and appointed Dina Behar Hevert as VP Americas. The company’s entry into the US market follows significant growth in the UK and the launch of new solutions targeting the broader media market. 

Blue Lucy creates products that close the expensive technology gaps in media operating models across the world. Global media companies including BBC Studios, Banijay Rights and Blue Ant Media rely on Blue Lucy’s flagship product, BLAM, for integration, workflow orchestration and media management at scale. The company launched their new product, BOLT, at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC Show) in September this year. BOLT is an asset portal that provides effortless access to content, allowing executives to receive, review and share content without needing any technical expertise – making it faster and easier to monetize media.

Dina Behar Hevert has worked in media and entertainment for almost twenty years and brings extensive industry knowledge and a vast contact base to Blue Lucy’s newly-created position of VP Americas. Her career started in broadcast transmission roles at Globecast, FOX Sports and The Switch before she moved into business development for localization companies including SDI Media, SPG Studios and Deluxe. Most recently she’s worked as VP of business development for Emmy-winning language customization company, The Kitchen.

“What attracted me to Blue Lucy is that their products answer a very real need in both the traditional media and entertainment world and in the broader media market,” said Behar Hevert. “In particular, the flexibility they provide for integrating multiple tools into existing technology stacks is really impressive and I am genuinely excited to introduce Blue Lucy’s solutions to the US market.”

As Blue Lucy’s VP Americas, Behar Hevert is responsible for growing the company’s US customer base and recruiting local staff. She reports to CEO Julian Wright and joins Blue Lucy’s senior management team which has already seen significant growth this year with the addition of Alison Pavitt as chief marketing officer, Joshua Martin as head of product and Joe Hegarty as director of IT.      

Julian Wright, CEO of Blue Lucy said, “Expanding our team into the US is a natural next step for Blue Lucy and part of our strategic plan for growth. It was critical that we find the right person to help establish our first international division – someone who is enthusiastic about the value our products and who has a deep understanding of the local market. We’ve found that in Dina and we’re thrilled to have her on board.”

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BLAM vs BOLT: what’s in a name?

Since its launch in 2020, Blue Lucy’s flagship product, BLAM, has also been the company’s only product. BLAM is a sophisticated workflow orchestration, system integration and media management platform, and both its core capability and the microservices which comprise its orchestration functionality have constantly evolved in that time. It has, however, remained Blue Lucy’s sole solution.  Until now.  At IBC 2024, Blue Lucy launched BOLT, a new product that’s described as a global gateway to content libraries for non-technical users. We asked Blue Lucy founder, Julian Wright, what prompted the decision to develop a new product and what distinguishes BOLT from BLAM.

Q: Can you give us an elevator pitch overview of Blue Lucy, BLAM and BOLT?

A : Blue Lucy’s ethos is to take an orthodoxy-challenging approach to solving media business problems.  Our core product, BLAM, is a sophisticated integration and orchestration platform designed to meet the complex and evolving business needs in production, localisation, and distribution. BLAM is an “enterprise” platform that serves the operational needs of multiple aspects of a media business.  Our new product, BOLT, is an operationally-simple offering designed to meet a fundamental, but most important, business need for any operation handling media assets – accessibility.

Q: What was the initial motivation for developing BOLT?

A : In BLAM deployments our implementation engineers and analysts tend to work with the media operations team within the ‘engine room’ of the operation.  In conversation with senior management teams, we were often surprised by statements along the lines of “your platform is great, the automation is really driving time to market and cost efficiency but at the executive level we would just like a really simple way to view our current inventory.” 

Q : So, is BOLT simply a media portal for viewing content?

That’s how it started, but it’s developed into more than that. On further examination, we uncovered a number of apparently simple requirements within the commercial business (i.e., outside of the technical content supply operation) that could be addressed by a toolset similar to BLAM.  Alongside the basic requirement to search and discover content is the ability to create showcases and viewing rooms and distribute these to sales prospects or internal marketing teams via secure links. Some customers want to create one or more branded ‘storefront’ portals to directly support sales or similar customer self-service functions.  On the subject of “portals” we saw a clear a common requirement within distributors to provide easy-to-use media upload portals to their production partners to allow them to push finished content and production metadata to the central content management and processing function.  This is particularly important to the aggregator distributors or production companies that hold a number of separate brands or labels under a broader umbrella.  BOLT satisfies all of these needs – it gives you effortless access to your content, provides an intuitive upload function and allows content owners to showcase and monetise content catalogues.

Q: Many of these capabilities are available in BLAM – what makes BOLT different?

A : All of these functions can be supported by BLAM as standard but as a collection of capabilities there was clearly a need for a commercially-focused product in its own right.  This is particularly the case in the overarching requirement that the tools needed to be easy to use – we took this one step further and defined the vision for the new product that it should have a zero-training requirement and be as intuitive to use as an on-line banking app – well the good ones at least.

Q: Are BLAM and BOLT totally independent products?

BOLT is built on the BLAM core technology and existing BLAM users may add the BOLT capabilities to extend the operational reach of their BLAM platform to support commercial and external business activities.  In this context, if BLAM is the engine room, BOLT is the viewing platform.  But BOLT is of course also available stand alone as a separate product.

Your content inventory represents the most significant proportion of the value of your media business. To maximise that value, make it accessible with BOLT from Blue Lucy.

Find out more about BOLT here or get in touch with the team to arrange a demo.

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Introducing Lucia

Everything you need to know about Lucia, BLAM’s new AI assistant.

The Blue Lucy team introduced BLAM’s new AI assistant, Lucia to the media and entertainment industry at IBC Show 2024 in Amsterdam. And, while the application is still in development, the industry response to Lucia has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, even earning the Blue Lucy team a TVBEurope Best of Show IBC 2024 Award. But, in a market flooded with AI messaging, what makes Lucia special and what difference will she make to BLAM users? We asked Blue Lucy’s head of product, Joshua Martin and Lucia’s primary developer, Aaron Leanage, to answer some frequently asked questions about Blue Lucy’s newest addition.

Why did you create Lucia?

At Blue Lucy we believe that technology needs to constantly evolve to keep up with the needs of the media and entertainment industry. This ethos is a big part of the reason why we built our BLAM platform on a microservice architecture, as it allows our team to develop and deliver new integrations and capabilities really quickly. But we wanted to explore how the latest AI developments could make it even easier for our customers to get value from the platform.

Our goal was to lower the entry point to automation – so that customers don’t always need an engineer to create or manage processes or get answers to complex questions about workflows. Most operators can describe what they’d like the system to do, but not everyone has the time or capacity to learn how to access BLAM’s full functionality – Lucia was created to remove this barrier for our less technical users. Even typing is optional because Lucia responds to both text and voice prompts in conversational language, making BLAM accessible to almost anyone.

What can BLAM users expect from Lucia?

Lucia works alongside organisations’ predefined workflows to help with anything from simple searches to bulk actions and complex chained commands. Where workflows in BLAM are hard-coded to do things in a pre-defined way, Lucia provides flexibility for use cases that change from day-to-day.

For example: if you’ve got a big batch of new content coming in and you need to generate placeholders, remove the bars and line-up and then save the media in a new storage folder, Lucia’s got it covered. And she remembers what you’ve asked her to do before, so it’s really easy to repeat processes or revise them without having to start from scratch.

Some of the actions Lucia can take (which can be combined to create complex chained commands) include: asset searches, folder searches, creating placeholder assets, creating folders, attaching and detaching assets from workspaces or folders and getting metadata, workflow or user data.

Besides automation, what other capabilities will Lucia provide?

Because Lucia is based on a large language model (LLM) she can be used to perform tasks like summarising information, doing mathematical calculations, translating text and answering general questions that users may have about content formats, metadata and almost anything else – and you don’t have to leave the platform to find the information you’re looking for. Lucia can also be used as a business intelligence and support tool. You can ask her questions about your content and workflows, like how many assets are in a certain folder or whether any episode numbers are missing from a series of programmes, or get Lucia to perform calculations on data retrieved such as “get me all complete workflow runs completed in the last 24 hours and calculate the average runtime.”  This kind of information would previously only be available if the workflow had included a report generation process. 

As Lucia is still in development, we’re still in the exploratory phase, establishing what the potential capabilities are and what would offer the most value to our customers. For example, if the AI assistant is integrated with BLAM’s data processing service, Lucia can use historic data to predict asset-based costs and identify workflow bottlenecks. Similarly, Lucia could rewrite BLAM user documentation in everyday language tailored to your operational context and answer users’ technical queries, cutting down on customers’ first-line support costs.

Have there been any unexpected benefits?

It quickly became apparent at IBC Show that different BLAM users would find value in Lucia for different tasks. So, while a user may be interested in asking her how to do something or creating bulk or chained operations, managers may find Lucia’s ability to summarise large amounts of data more useful and use her to find out how long it takes for workflows to be completed or how long it may take for a user to pick up a task. One of the unexpected benefits we’ve discovered is how Lucia could be used to optimise BLAM’s implementation, for example an administrator can use Lucia to identify which microservices need to be updated or to interrogate workflows to identify bottlenecks.   

Is Lucia safe?

Lucia can only add value to content or processes in BLAM. She can’t modify workflows or change the original assets, and she isn’t able to do anything that results in a loss of data. What this means is that, while Lucia can be used to create new versions of content, the original asset will remain intact and unchanged and, although the application can be used to build complex chained commands, she can’t interrupt or edit existing workflows. Lucia is also bound by the same user-permissions as the operator working in BLAM, so she can’t take any actions or access any information that the user isn’t already cleared for.

When it come to keeping your data and content secure, Lucia uses your organisation’s AI provider, credentials and authentication so there can be no cross-contamination of data between BLAM customers, and Lucia will comply with any security agreements you have in place with your provider. The application currently runs in OpenAI’s ChatGPT and can be set up in Microsoft Azure’s Open Ai, but we plan to integrate Lucia with our customers’ choice of any large language model (LLM.)  

When will Lucia be available in BLAM?

Lucia is scheduled for general release to BLAM customers by the end of 2024.  Get in touch now to chat with the team about how Lucia might benefit your organisation or to arrange a demo. 

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MIPCOM CANNES

Join us at MIPCOM CANNES this October to discover how Blue Lucy can give you effortless access to your content. We’ll be showcasing BOLT, the new super simple media portal which gives media executives a simple way to showcase content, putting the entire library at your fingertips. With BOLT you can secure, curate and share content without needing any technical expertise. Make your appointment today!

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Blue Lucy to demo asset portal and host FAST roundtable at MIPCOM 2024

Blue Lucy is bringing its new media portal, BOLT to MIPCOM 2024, Cannes, October 21-24th.  On stand P-1.C50A at the MIPCOM Innovation Lab 2024, the team will demonstrate how BOLT provides effortless access to content, allowing media executives to receive, review and share content without navigating complex UIs or waiting for technical teams to deliver files. Blue Lucy will also host a discussion at the Global FAST and AVOD Roundtable Event on October 22nd during the show. 

Blue Lucy is exhibiting at MIPCOM for the first time this year, but the company and its products are well-known by many of the attendees and other exhibitors. The business was founded by technology consultants who have worked with broadcasters and content creators for over two decades, and global media companies rely on Blue Lucy’s flagship product, BLAM, for integration, workflow orchestration and media management at scale. Launched at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC Show) in September this year, BOLT is designed to address the fundamental issue of content accessibility for non-technical team members. 

BOLT reconnects commercial media teams with their content through three core functions:

Receive: BOLT provides a simple-to-use, intelligent upload function that ensures content is received with the metadata your business needs. Rather than waiting for content to arrive and then adding metadata to it, with BOLT the content request is delivered along with set parameters and metadata requirements so it’s immediately searchable and can be set to trigger specific processing workflows on arrival.  So, your media hits the ground running.

Review: BOLT puts your entire content library at your team’s fingertips – regardless of their technical capabilities. The portal’s stunningly straightforward operation and user-focussed functionality means sales teams can search and view content from any web browser without having to request access or learn how to use advanced toolsets.    

Share: BOLT provides a simple platform for content owners to showcase [and monetise] their content catalogue. Now, sharing content with potential customers is as easy as adding items to a shopping cart, while secure links to viewing copies are automatically created and delivered to your prospects.

Julian Wright, CEO of Blue Lucy said, “BOLT not only provides commercial teams with easy access to content, but it also provides analytical data about how customers’ interact with the media. It’s all about showcasing content and sharing data to support commercial success. What better place to demonstrate BOLT’s capabilities in this area than MIPCOM, an event dedicated to showcasing the best content in our industry!” 

On October 22nd Blue Lucy CEO, Julian Wright, will lead a discussion at the Global FAST and AVOD Roundtable Event. The session will draw on the company’s experience supporting FAST channel delivery for clients like BBC Studios to explore how automation and AI processes can remove obstacles and reduce labour-intensive tasks that make FAST delivery difficult. Participants will also discuss what data sets and metrics content owners need to make informed decisions about future content offerings.  

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Blue Lucy to launch asset portal and introduce AI assistant at IBC 2024

Blue Lucy has announced plans today to launch BOLT on stand 6.C29 at IBC 2024, Amsterdam, September 13-16th.  Described as an asset portal, BOLT provides effortless access to content, allowing media executives to receive, review and share content without navigating complex UIs or waiting for technical teams to deliver files. The Blue Lucy team will also demonstrate extensive integrations and a powerful AI assistant in BLAM, Blue Lucy’s proven tool for asset management, workflow orchestration and integration, at the show.

BOLT is designed to reconnect commercial media teams with their content through three core functions:

Receive:

BOLT provides an intelligent upload function that ensures content is received with the metadata your business needs.  Rather than waiting for content to arrive and then adding metadata to it, with BOLT the content request is delivered along with set parameters and metadata requirements so it’s immediately searchable and can be set to trigger workflows in BLAM on arrival.  So, your media hits the ground running.

Review:

BOLT puts your entire content library at your team’s fingertips – regardless of their technical capabilities. The portal’s stunningly simple operation and focussed functionality means sales teams can search and view content from any web browser without having to request access or learn how to use advanced toolsets.  

Share:

BOLT provides a simple system for content owners to showcase and monetise their content catalogue. Now sharing content with potential customers is as easy as adding items to a shopping cart and secure links to viewing copies are automatically created and delivered to your prospects.

BOLT will be shown working as both a standalone product and in conjunction with BLAM on the Blue Lucy stand at IBC 2024.    

The Blue Lucy team will also demonstrate the power of BLAM’s extensive integration capabilities at the show and introduce visitors to its new AI assistant “Lucia.” 

BLAM’s unique approach to integrations:

With nearly 500 existing connectors and an almost limitless ability to quickly add new integrations due to the platform’s microservice architecture, BLAM allows media teams to connect disparate systems in their media supply chain. IBC 2024 attendees can expect to see demonstrations of BLAM’s integration with products including Adobe Premiere Pro, Amazon S3, Monday.com and Rascular on stand 6.C29a. The team will also highlight the company’s open-access approach to integration that sees their customers maintain control of the commercial relationship with each vendor to maximise business value.  

Meet BLAM’s multitasking AI assistant:

Visitors to Blue Lucy’s stand will be the first to meet Lucia, BLAM’s new AI assistant. Lucia takes the grunt work out of media management and workflow orchestration in BLAM and is especially useful when multi-step, bulk actions need to be performed. For example: users can type instructions in plain English to set up complex workflows like automatically generating placeholders, removing bars and tone and creating a folder for a batch of incoming content. 

Julian Wright, CEO of Blue Lucy said, “Blue Lucy is known for helping media companies manage their media, orchestrate workflows and integrate technologies.  At IBC 2024 we’re expanding the reach of these benefits by putting content in the hands of commercial teams and leveraging integrations and AI to make media supply chains even more efficient. We’re looking forward to showing IBC visitors what our products can do!”   

Get in touch to set up a meeting here

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IBC 2024

Join us at IBC this September and discover what’s new at Blue Lucy

We’ll be showcasing BOLT, our new super simple media portal which gives media executives an effortless way to showcase content, putting the entire library at your fingertips. With BOLT you can secure, curate and share content without needing any technical expertise. And that’s not all…

Visitors to our stand will be the first to meet Lucia, BLAM’s new multitasking AI assistant. Lucia takes the grunt work out of media management and workflow orchestration in BLAM, and she really comes into her own when multi-step, bulk actions need to be performed.

For content orchestration at scale, book your BLAM demo. With over 500 existing connectors and an almost limitless ability to quickly add new integrations, BLAM allows you to connect disparate systems in your media supply chain. Explore how quickly BLAM can deliver value when your project kicks off and get you straight to the functionality you need. Make your appointment today!

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