Posts by:

Blue Lucy

Blue Lucy BLAM

BBC Studios picks Blue Lucy’s BLAM for agile media operations, collaboration and delivery

Blue Lucy has signed a multi-year contract with BBC Studios, who will continue using its BLAM media management platform. The new contract is an extension of a previous agreement and sees the content provider using BLAM to automate the collection, repurposing, and delivery of content to internal and external partners, including servicing BBC Studios FAST channels. 

BLAM was originally deployed on BBC Studios’ AWS instance to bring disparate content under management, implement a uniform data structure, and support distribution with basic content repurposing functions. However, over the course of the initial contract, BLAM use has expanded and the international BBC Studios team now uses the platform to orchestrate both automated and manual tasks. The ingest workflow has been enhanced with closed-loop integrations with Telestream’s Cloud Qualify, GrayMeta’s Iris Anywhere and Yella Umbrella’s Nebula and Stellar tools to provide an automated quality-control process that triggers a manual QC when necessary. Content is repurposed to remove bars and tone, create slates and add transitions with minimal user intervention. The Blue Lucy team has also worked with BBC Studios to develop an accessible content fulfilment system that allows the technology operations teams to trigger BLAM Work Orders from outside of the platform to orchestrate content searches, transcode media and gather supporting assets for delivery. To date, BLAM has supported BBC Studios’ processing of over 20,000 titles / 100,000 assets under management, which equates to more than one and a half petabytes of data.

“Our use of BLAM has grown over the last three years as we discovered the platform’s capabilities and worked with Blue Lucy’s engineers to create bespoke workflow configurations,” said Adam Jakubowski, VP technical operations at BBC Studios. “BLAM supports our teams’ agility and the demands of the business to manage, transform and monetise our content, assisting our global teams. New workflows have been rapidly iterated and integrated to meet our evolving needs by the Blue Lucy team.”

Julian Wright, CEO of Blue Lucy added, “BLAM’s low-code / no-code workflow configuration model makes it a particularly attractive solution for businesses with rapidly changing objectives to support new revenue lines such as FAST channels We’re really pleased that BBC Studios has seen such a rapid return on their investment in BLAM in recent years and we’re looking forward to continuing our work with their team.”

Read the case study here

By 0 Comments

Blue Lucy wins Blue Ant Media contract for media supply chain automation

International production studio, rights business and channel operator, Blue Ant Media, has chosen Blue Lucy’s BLAM platform for media supply chain automation. Continue reading →
By 0 Comments

It’s time to hit refresh on the product roadmap

We’re always being asked about our roadmap, when really what most people want to know is what features or integrations we’ve got planned.  Continue reading →
By 0 Comments

Post NAB Thoughts

April 2024: It’s been a week, and we’ve all now seen everyone’s takeaways on the trends that emerged at NAB. Here at Blue Lucy Towers we like to do things differently, so here are 6 ways in which we’re bucking the trends and defying the key findings which were shared at the show.


“The market is tough”


This was the opening statement both at Devoncroft Partners’ Executive Summit and again at IABM’s State of the Industry Briefing. We agree. It is tough out there, but vendors who are focussed on solving real problems will thrive, and help their customers do the same. 2023 was tough for us too, but we grew our customer base by 25%.


“Vendors are overbuilding their applications”


We heard this a lot at the sessions we attended. Don’t get us wrong. What we do is clever, and our customers can really get down in the weeds configuring, scripting, and designing complex workflows if they want. But our low-code no-code approach means that users of all skill levels can quickly build operational workflows to integrate media systems and rapidly deliver business value.


“File delivery is too expensive and too slow”


Major M&E players confirmed the relentless pressure to get more files delivered faster, cheaper and at better quality. This is tough when usage is metered, but Blue Lucy’s solution is offered at a fixed monthly cost regardless of throughput. After all, that’s how our customers sell their subscriptions. And with no markup on supply chain integrations, they can choose the vendors that best fit their business needs, confident in the knowledge they’re not paying a platform tax to use them.


“Too many workflows involve ‘people doing stuff’”


It’s true. And that’s why automating repetitive tasks to speed things up and reduce errors is fundamental to what we do. AI has an important role to play, but we also know how some processes will always need the personal touch. Our BLAM platform has a task-management orchestration capability so that essential manual work can be prioritised and materials presented to users, allowing more time to dedicate to creativity.


“Media Orchestration and MAM are still considered separate functions”


It’s 2024! As far as we’re concerned metadata, media management and orchestration are inextricably linked functions in a joined-up operation. Our clients want to keep control of their assets throughout and beyond any delivery process. Our platforms are designed to allow exactly that.


“The industry is spawning more and more platforms and enterprise buses”


100% agree. Here in the UK we often question why you can wait ages for a bus, then they all come at once. With so many vendors claiming to have an Enterprise Service Bus, we’re definitely at the point of needing an intelligent solution to manage all of these integrations. And guess what? We’ve got one – we provide and champion open integrations, not walled gardens.

By 0 Comments

Blue Lucy Expands Senior Management Team

Blue Lucy, has hired accomplished industry expert Alison Pavitt as chief marketing officer. Continue reading →
By 0 Comments