Media Glossary & Terminology

Ever wonder with all the terms being used in the Media industry? Here is a sneak peak of all the glossary.

Item	Description
Analog	Media software which has a physical quality and presence.
Asset	Uniquely identifiabse container for a file with descriptive metadata and, depending the asset class, a processing workflow
Asset class	Specification of an asset to identify certain characteristics based on their asset kind
Asset description	A descriptive attribute for a file
Asset kind	Asset characteristics with mimetype. etc
Asset Management System (AMS)	Manages database library of VOD Assets and associated metadata
Barker	A promotional loop video played within a window in the On Demand GUI
Broadcasting	Refers to content carried over air waves. Usually designed to appeal to a broad audience segment.
Closed Captioning (CC)	Embedded technology to provide scripted support of the program
Cloud Computing	Internet-based computing accessible through a web browser and that uses data farms to store and make available software and information in real time.
Commercial	For profit. Also, paid announcements produced for targeted audiences to sell products or ideas. The economic force that finances commercial media.
Connote/Connotation	A description of value, meaning or ideology associated with a media text that is added to the text by the audience.
Content preparation	Conform, check and format content and localisation
Contributor	Any content provider (studio, distributor, content owner) who contributes to AMS
Copyright	The laws that require compensation for the use of property and information owned by artists, writers and media producers.
Creative Commons	A non-profit organization that seeks to expand how creative work is available for others to use legally.
Delivery DD (Due Date)	Planned schedule for delivery of the ingested, fully prepared package which results in lob prioritization for asset processing (QC, transcoding, etc ) and actionable items (if assets haven’t been contributed to AMS yet)
Delivery Request	An order of products for a platform, which results in preparatory work to meet the specifications of that platform resulting in a search for reusable metadata (from the title version) and files or the request for contribution to start the ingest process to complete the delivery request.
Delivery Request Locked	Certain parts of a delivery may be locked when it is in progress. Updates are possible to a certain extent (restrictions based on certain criteria). These criteria may be subject to change.
Delivery SD (Start Date)	Start of window in which deliveries can be submitted to a platform. Particularly useful with certain outlets who have a max per day.
Digital	The storage and transmission of information by reducing it to digits and then reassembling it for an exact reproduction.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)	A system that seeks to protect the copyright of data circulated via the Internet.
Director	The person responsible for the overall look of a video or film product. Directs the action behind and in front of the camera. Sometimes directs the editing process.
Editing	The process of arranging, assembling or excluding images, text and sound to produce a completed media product.
Editor	The person responsible for assembling the various parts of a media product.
Fair Use	The legal guidelines which exempt educators from certain copyright restrictions. Fair use of educational materials allows some media products to be used to a limited degree in the classroom.
Filter	Easy to use GUI to easily segment data into smaller subsets
First Release Date	Original release date. used for Year
Gatekeepers	Those in control of the flow of information. The gatekeeper can choose to accept or reject a piece of information for public consumption. Newspaper publishers, editors and reporters, television producers, press secretaries, government spokespersons, radio station owners and broadcasting executives have all been cited as examples of media gatekeepers.
Genre	Specific kinds of media content, e.g., drama, entertainment, information, news, advertising, etc. Each category is defined with traditional conventions, but categories may overlap as in “docu-drama” or “info-tainment.”
Genre	A category of media texts characterized by a particular style, form or content.
GUI	Graphic User Interface, the application of UpperEast as a user sees and uses it.
Ingest	Manual or automated intake of content and metadata
Ingestion	The process of receiving assets from a contributor, successfully entering those assets into the AMS, and preparing them according to the specification of the delivery platform to make them available as a delivery package.
ISAN	International Standard Audiovisual Number – Unique ISO Identifier for Audiovisual Content for audiovisual works and versions thereof.
License ED (End Date)	End of the window in which the product can be leased or rented
License SD (Start Date)	Start of the window in which the product can be leased or rented
Logo	The copyrighted symbol used to represent a corporation, company or individual.
Mash-Up	A song, video or website that is the result of combining multiple songs, videos or websites.
Mass Media	Mass media are channels of communication through which messages flow, produced by a few for consumption by many people. As the messages go through the channels, they may become distorted. When people receive mass-media messages, they have no opportunity for immediate feedback with the producers of the messages.
Media	Vehicles that carry messages. Common media channels are televisions, radios, telephones and newspapers.
Media Targets	Audiences are media targets. Audiences are targeted, sold and delivered to advertisers by media agencies. Groups are targeted on the basis of demographics, media-use patterns, ZIP codes, and polling by those who wish to sell or persuade.
Metadata	The information used in describing assets. Metadata is descriptive data associated with a content asset package or file. It may vary in depth from merely identifying the content package title or information to populate an EPG to providing a complete index of different scenes in a movie or providing business rules detailing how the content package may be displayed, copied. or sold.
Metadata language	Localisation of the metadata, e.g. in which language a synopsis is written
Metadata preparation	Conform, check and format metadata according to the specification of the delivery platform.
Mezzanine	Working copy of video asset of sufficient quality to generate the highest output, small enough to move around, archive, and work with, in order to free up resources once all major edits and processing are completed.
MIME Type	http://www.freeformatter.com/mime-types-list.html#mime-types-list
MOD – Movies On Demand	Impulse viewing of a selection of movie programming with full pause, fast forward and reqind functionality for a per transaction charge. Also in use : TVOD
Movie version (Release version)	A particular version, or aggregation of elements that affects the content of an audiovisual work. For example, any editorial change that affects the content of an audiovisual work (e.g. artistic content. editing, technical format, distribution) and which requires separate identification for the use or exploitation of that specific content can be treated as a new Version. Example Director’s Cut.
Narrowcasting	Producing and designing media content in order to target a highly specific segment of the audience. Narrowcasting is often practiced by magazines, radio stations and cablecasters. Opposite of broadcasting.
Objective	The ideal that the media producer or reporter is representing a balanced viewpoint on issues. The ideal that media producers are fair, accurate, unbiased conduits for information. Opposite of subjective.
Onboarding (operational)	Entering new publication (delivery) platforms or (ingest) contributors to AMS
Order ID	Unique order identification for tracking purposes
Podcasting	A method for delivering audio or video files to users who subscribe to them.
Preview	Something that a content provider produces to promote a particular piece of content Previews are usually 30 seconds to 1 minute long, and are most often excerpted from Trailer material (see definition) provided by the studios for that asset.
Prime Time	That part of a radio or television schedule expected to attract the largest audience.
Producer	The final authority in the electronic media production process. Sometimes the producer is the person who raises the money to produce media products.
Product Placement	A process that advertisers use to have their brand or product appear in TV shows, movies and video games as part of the production.
Provisioning (asset)	Platform, regional and localisation preparation to expect assets to enter into a workflow
Ratings (Movie/TV)	Ratings of content for age limits and warnings for content, to advise parents regarding suitability of programming for children.
Reasons (Movie/TV Ratings)	A specific reason for the indicated advisory, e.g. nudity, language, violence
Region	A geographical, platform defined region that has specific language destination profiles e g Benelux (nl. fr, de) or The Netherlands (nl-NL)
Rendition	Transcoding to a compressed format, multiple renditions exist for multiple bitrates.
Rights owner	Studio that owns the (original) copyrights
Schedule delivery	Scheduler for publication of a delivery to the respective platform once full compliance has been met (validation of content and metadata according to the specification of the platform)
Send Delivery (publish)	Publication for a delivery to the respective platform once full compliance has been met (validation of content and metadata according to the specification of the platform)
Short synopsis	A brief version of the movie title (for display) of max 256 chars.
Show type	Series, Sports, Music, Ad, Miniseries, Movie, Other
Sound Effects	Special effects using sound to suggest a story element such as background, time, place, character, etc. Also used to heighten and intensify action or evoke an emotional response.
Special Effects	Sound or video used in the editing process to heighten drama or suggest a time, place or story element. Often used as a transition.
SVOD – Subscription Video On Demand	Impulse viewing of a selection of programming with full pause, fast forward and rewind functionality for a flat monthly charge. Also in use “Premium On Demand”
Synopsis	Full summary of title of max 4096 chars.
Technical metadata (metadata)	Descriptive data about technical specification of a file, for example a framerate, duration, crop marks, etc.
Trailer	Trailers promote a particular piece of content and range from about one to three minutes in length. They are typically produced by the studios. Depending requirements, they may or may not be encrypted.
Type	Type of title version, e.g. movie or episode
UPC	Universal Product Code (UPC) is a 12-digit bar code. Used extensively for retail packaging in United States.
User Generated Content (UGC)	Online content, including text, graphics, video and audio, found on websites and blogs that individual users create rather than traditional producers, such as commercial broadcasters and production companies.
Version (movie)	See “Movie version”
Vertical Integration	The process by which a media company acquires another elsewhere in the production process.
Video On Demand	On Demand is an entertainment service that allows viewers instant access to content such as movies, cable series, original programs, educational programming, premium channels, news, sports and more. Programming from the content provider is delivered by the consumer’s cable operator. The On Demand content can be free, subscription based, or paid for on a transactional basis. Consumers control what they watch and when, with features such as play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, stop and resume. Also more generally: On Demand
Year	Year of release

Abbreviation used in Media industry

ABBR	SHORT FOR
ACL	Access Control Level
ADI	Asset Distribution Interface
AVOD	Advertising Video on Demand
CA	Conditional Access
CC	Closed Captioning
DD	Due Date
EME	Encrypted Media Extensions
GOP	Group of Pictures
GUI	Graphic User Interface
HDS	Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming
HLS	Apple HTTP Live Streaming
ISAN	International Standard Audiovisual Number
MIME	Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (aka Internet Media Type)
MOD	Movies on Demand
MPEG	Motion Picture Expert Group
MPEG-DASH	Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP
MSS	Microsoft Smooth Streaming
NTSC	National Television System Committee
OID	Order ID
PID	Program Identification
STB	Set-Top Box
SVOD	Subscription Video on Demand
TVOD	Transaction Video on Demand
UE	UpperEast
UPC	Universal Product Code
VOD	Video on Demand

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CI and CD are two acronyms that are often mentioned when people talk about modern development practices. CI is straightforward and stands for continuous integration, a practice that focuses on making preparing a release easier. But CD can either mean continuous delivery or continuous deployment, and while those two practices have a lot in common, they also have a significant difference that can have critical consequences for a business.

We will see in this article what these three practices mean and what’s required to use them.

What are the differences between continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment?

Continuous integration

Developers practicing continuous integration merge their changes back to the main branch as often as possible. The developer’s changes are validated by creating a build and running automated tests against the build. By doing so, you avoid the integration hell that usually happens when people wait for release day to merge their changes into the release branch.

Continuous integration puts a great emphasis on testing automation to check that the application is not broken whenever new commits are integrated into the main branch.

Continuous delivery

Continuous delivery is an extension of continuous integration to make sure that you can release new changes to your customers quickly in a sustainable way. This means that on top of having automated your testing, you also have automated your release process and you can deploy your application at any point of time by clicking on a button.

In theory, with continuous delivery, you can decide to release daily, weekly, fortnightly, or whatever suits your business requirements. However, if you truly want to get the benefits of continuous delivery, you should deploy to production as early as possible to make sure that you release small batches, that are easy to troubleshoot in case of a problem.

Continuous deployment

Continuous deployment goes one step further than continuous delivery. With this practice, every change that passes all stages of your production pipeline is released to your customers. There’s no human intervention, and only a failed test will prevent a new change to be deployed to production.

Continuous deployment is an excellent way to accelerate the feedback loop with your customers and take pressure off the team as there isn’t a Release Day anymore. Developers can focus on building software, and they see their work go live minutes after they’ve finished working on it.

How the practices relate to each other

To put it simply continuous integration is part of both continuous delivery and continuous deployment. And continuous deployment is like continuous delivery, except that releases happen automatically.

Continuous Integration vs Continuous Delivery vs Continuous Deployment

What are the benefits of each practice?

We’ve explained the difference between continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployments but we haven’t yet looked into the reasons why you would adopt them. There’s an obvious cost to implementing each practice, but it’s largely outweighed by their benefits.

PRACTICE	WHAT YOU NEED (COST)	WHAT YOU GAIN
Continuous integration	Your team will need to write automated tests for each new feature, improvement or bug fix.You need a continuous integration server that can monitor the main repository and run the tests automatically for every new commits pushed.Developers need to merge their changes as often as possible, at least once a day.	Less bugs get shipped to production as regressions are captured early by the automated tests.Building the release is easy as all integration issues have been solved early.Less context switching as developers are alerted as soon as they break the build and can work on fixing it before they move to another task.Testing costs are reduced drastically – your CI server can run hundreds of tests in the matter of seconds.Your QA team spend less time testing and can focus on significant improvements to the quality culture.
Continuous delivery	You need a strong foundation in continuous integration and your test suite needs to cover enough of your codebase.Deployments need to be automated. The trigger is still manual but once a deployment is started there shouldn’t be a need for human intervention.Your team will most likely need to embrace feature flags so that incomplete features do not affect customers in production.	The complexity of deploying software has been taken away. Your team doesn’t have to spend days preparing for a release anymore.You can release more often, thus accelerating the feedback loop with your customers.There is much less pressure on decisions for small changes, hence encouraging iterating faster.
Continuous deployment	Your testing culture needs to be at its best. The quality of your test suite will determine the quality of your releases.Your documentation process will need to keep up with the pace of deployments.Feature flags become an inherent part of the process of releasing significant changes to make sure you can coordinate with other departments (Support, Marketing, PR…).	You can develop faster as there’s no need to pause development for releases. Deployments pipelines are triggered automatically for every change.Releases are less risky and easier to fix in case of problem as you deploy small batches of changes.Customers see a continuous stream of improvements, and quality increases every day, instead of every month, quarter or year.

One of the traditional cost associated with continuous integration is the installation and maintenance of a CI server. But you can reduce significantly the cost of adopting these practices by using a cloud service like Bitbucket Pipelines which adds automation to every Bitbucket repositories. By simply adding a configuration file at the root of your repository you will be able to create a continuous deployment pipeline that gets executed for every new change pushed to the main branch.

A continuous deployment pipeline with Bitbucket

Going from continuous integration to continuous deployment

If you’re just getting started on a new project with no users yet, it might be easy for you to deploy every commit to production. You could even start by automating your deployments and release your alpha version to a production with no customers. Then you would ramp up your testing culture and make sure that you increase code coverage as you build your application. By the time you’re ready to onboard users, you will have a great continuous deployment process where all new changes are tested before being automatically released to production.

But if you already have an existing application with customers you should slow things down and start with continuous integration and continuous delivery. Start by implementing basic unit tests that get executed automatically, no need to focus yet on having complex end-to-end tests running. Instead, you should try automating your deployments as soon as possible and get a to a stage where deployments to your staging environments are done automatically. The reason is that by having automatic deployments, you will be able to focus your energy on improving your tests rather than having periodically to stop things to coordinate a release.

Once you can start releasing software on a daily basis, you can look into continuous deployment, but make sure that the rest of your organization is ready as well. Documentation, support, marketing. These functions will need to adapt to the new cadence of releases, and it is important that they do not miss on significant changes that can impact customers.

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