Introduction

Welcome to the release of eMAM 5.6, the latest version of our industry-leading media asset management platform. This release introduces powerful new features, key enhancements, and integrations designed to optimize workflows, strengthen accessibility, and enhance user experience. eMAM 5.6 continues to address the growing demands of media organizations worldwide while ensuring compliance with modern standards.

Key Highlights

Here are some of the key highlights of eMAM Version 5.6:

1. New Features

We've added new features eMAM which allow greater flexibility and control in your media and asset management workflows.

1. Introduced a new version of “eMAM Client”

eMAM Client is a user-friendly interface designed to help users browse and search efficiently. The new eMAM Client is a lightweight and secure platform, built in alignment with modern security standards . A key highlight of the eMAM Client is its strong commitment to accessibility and WCAG 2.1 compliance (Level A and AA). The application has been thoughtfully developed to support users with diverse abilities. Features such as keyboard navigation using the Tab key enable seamless access to interface controls without requiring a mouse, offering critical support for visually impaired users.

It is also compatible with popular screen readers like NVDA, ensuring that on-screen content is accessible through auditory feedback. Additionally, usability is enhanced with contrast-friendly themes like Aquatic and Desert, which provide better visual clarity for users with low vision or color perception differences. eMAM Client also support SSO authentication.

The new eMAM Client is a lightweight and secure platform, built in alignment with modern security standards. While the current version offers limited functionality, it provides a solid foundation for accessible and secure media asset management across teams.

Below are the core features available in the current release:

• Asset Browse: Easily browse through all ingested media assets including Video, Audio, Image, and Other file types.
• Category Navigation: Browse assets organized under Categories and Subcategories for efficient content grouping and retrieval.
• Search: Quickly find assets or categories using keywords in eMAM. Auto-suggestion support to help refine search results as you type
• Asset Preview & Metadata: View metadata and preview media content.
• WCAG-Compliant Accessibility:

• Navigate the interface using only a keyboard (Tab/Shift+Tab) without the need for a mouse.
• Screen reader support using tools like NVDA ensures inclusive access for visually impaired users.
• Theme contrast support (e.g., Aquatic, Desert) improves visibility and readability for users with low vision.

Figure 1- eMAM Client Home page

Click on Categories, displays all the categories and subcategories created in eMAM.

Figure 2- Category tab displays all categories

It displays all the subcategories and asset inside each category in the eMAM system.

Figure 3- Category and its subcategories

Click on the asset thumbnail opens a new window on the right. Asset preview player window with asset details.

Figure 4- Click on the asset thumbnail opens a new window on the right

2. Introduced “Index files” option in eFeeder: The “Index Files” option is a new feature in eFeeder that can work for all types of files. It can also detect R3D files and process separately. With this new option, eMAM can index the files from the existing storage location or copy to a storage location without renaming it to UUID filename. Index file option is using the existing sidecar XML ingest option.

Figure 5- Index Files option in eFeeder

Figure 6- eFeeder camera card detection options

• Browse the source folder
• Choose any of the two:

• Index from source: eMAM system only indexes the metadata and reference of the file in its original location (source path).
• Copy and index: eMAM system copies the file to its designated storage location (e.g., SAN/NAS/cloud), then indexes it.

Figure 7- eFeeder choose ingest profile as XML ingest

Figure 8- XML sidecar file created

3. Support for spanned R3D clips: eMAM now supports spanned R3D clips as a single asset with preview instead of ingesting the clips as separate assets. Related clips are available under Essence widget. This ingest option is incorporated into the new “Index Files” option inside eFeeder. It can create a single R3D spanned clip for the selected RDC folder. 

When a user drags and drops a folder, and it detects an RDC folder with R3D files in it, it will create the sidecar XML behind the scenes, and it will use the sidecar XML profile to copy the created XML to the sidecar XML folder. 

Figure 9- eFeeder Index files option

4. Introduced “People”  Widget: A new “People” widget has been introduced which will display faces of all the people from AI (Video Indexer) indexed assets. This option can be used to train the Azure Video Indexer face model. When a person's name is manually renamed from the widget, Microsoft Azure Video Indexer internally trains on that face and associates the visual features with the given name. This will be stored in the Microsoft Video Indexer’s  account face model database. Subsequently, uploaded videos are checked for matching faces, and matches are automatically labeled using the stored training data.

Figure 10- “People” widget display faces

1. Clicking on any of the faces will retrieve and display all the assets in the Browse widget where this face was detected.

Figure 11- Clicking on any of the faces will retrieve and display all the assets in the Browse widget where this face was detected

2. Click on edit icon will open up a new window with details of that person. You can manually edit the unknown faces detected and enter that person name.

Figure 12- Edit person details

Figure 13- Person name successfully changed

3. You also have option to delete similar faces detected.

Figure 14- Delete face

4. Option to sort and search inside the People widget.

Figure 15- Option to sort and search inside the People widget

5. Click on any person in the People widget will highlight that person in the Insights widget.

Figure 16- Click on any person in the People widget will highlight that person in the Insights widget.

6. Added option to delete the person in the People widget.

Figure 17- option to delete the person

5. Introduced option to Translate transcripts

eMAM 5.6 has introduced AWS Translate option in the Transcript widget using which users can translate the transcripts in the Transcript widget and also translate all the edits made in one language can be updated to other languages too.

Figure 18- Translate button in Transcript widget

Figure 19- Choose the language and translate profile to translate

2. Integrations

1. ServiceNow Integration: eMAM is now integrated with ServiceNow. You can search for ServiceNow events, preview the details, and create category structure and placeholders in eMAM with the selected metadata from ServiceNow and export to eMAM.

Figure 20- Service Now window

Figure 21- Send to eMAM from ServiceNow

2. EVS Sports Metadata: eMAM is now integrated with EVS Sports.  eMAM can ingest and process the media and XML coming from the EVS platform. EVS metadata is available inside eMAM for search.

Figure 22- import EVS Game and timecode-based Metadata

3. Enhanced Features

1. eMAM Director

1. Introduced List View option for eBIN.

• Assets can be dragged and dropped from the Browse widget,
• Ability to reorder assets by dragging up and down the row.
• Click on delete icon to delete asset from the queue.

Figure 23- eBIN List view

2. Introduced option in Marker search to search for Marker Metadata.

Figure 24- Marker metadata search

3. Added a confirmation popup before removing assets from a Category.

Figure 25- confirmation popup before removing assets from a Category

4. Introduced a confirmation window to confirm archive and restore from Project, Category and Browse widgets.

Figure 26- Confirmation window to confirm archive and restore from Project, Category and Browse widgets

5. Reset the player audio channel to "Stereo" by default when switching between video assets.

Figure 27- player audio channel set to "Stereo" by default

6. Introduced “Topics” “ Entity” & “Summary” as parameters under Manage Filter for searching assets tagged using Deepgram.

Figure 28- “Topics” “ Entity” & “Summary” as parameters under Manage Filter

7. Introduced option to show/hide OCR text in the Transcript widget.

Figure 29- show/hide OCR text

8. Introduced “Select all” option for Subclips and Markers which is checked by default.

Figure 30- “Select all” option for Subclips and Markers

2. eFeeder

1. Added option to set the Chunk Size in eFeeder UI for the filestream uploads. Now users have option to set the chuck size for S3 uploads.  These parameters can be adjusted based on the internet bandwidth available to the user’s workstation to improve the upload speeds.          

Figure 31- set the Chunk Size

2. Introduced an option to set a maximum limit on the number of rows that can be exported as csv file.

To overcome timeout issues when exporting asset details from Browse widget, you can set the limit with the new parameter in eMAM Gateway config  "ExportAssetsMaxCount"

C:\Program Files\Empress Media\eMAM Gateway\web.config

Figure 32- eMAM Gateway config

Note: Default value: <add key="ExportAssetsMaxCount" value="10000" />

4. eMAM Panel Enhancements

Several improvements have been added to our eMAM extension panels, providing you with more features and functionality within the Adobe ecosystem which will help you streamline your workflow and access your files more easily.

1. Avid Media Composer Panel

eMAM is now integrated with Avid Media Composer. You can link assets and categories & export them as sequences using eMAM panel.

1. Download Avid Media Composer from eMAM Director, My Account page> Apps>Extension Panel for Media Composer

Figure 33- Download Avid Media Composer from eMAM Director

2. Launch the Avid Media Composer application and click on Tools>eMAM to open eMAM panel.

Figure 34- Click on Tools>eMAM to open eMAM panel

3. Provided the text box options "panel domain" and "allowed domains" in the manage Apps section.

Figure 35- text box options for "panel domain" and "allowed domains"

4. Introduced “Import” option to import assets from eMAM to Avid MC panel.

Figure 36- “Import” option to import assets from eMAM to Avid MC panel

Figure 37- Import options window

5. Recreate markers and subclips when media is linked from eMAM to Avid Media Composer.

Figure 38- Markers and subclips recreated in eMAM

6. Display server name on the login page.

Figure 39- eMAM panel login page

2. Adobe Premiere panel

1. Included After Effects files for export.

Figure 40- Panel settings- Include After Effects files during export

2. Introduced option to set Import option as default in the Settings page for project, bin, category and asset import.

Figure 41- Panel settings- Import options

Link: Links files directly to eMAM storage for online editing. Require editing machines and storage to be on the same internal network. Ideal for workflows within a physical office environment.

Localize: Downloads files from eMAM storage to local storage. Ideally when the editing workstation lacks direct access to eMAM storage (e.g., object storage like S3) or for offline editing workflows.

Stream: Loads media directly to Premiere from AWS S3 and HTTPS sources, avoiding initial download delays. Requires Media Reactor plugin configuration. Ideal for remote and cloud-based editing workflows.

3. Introduced Link proxies option: eMAM panel now supports option to link proxies with eMAM assets. On click on Link Media, eMAM will detect the files that already exists in eMAM storage. 

Figure 42- Link Media- eMAM will detect the files already exists in eMAM storage

On click on Link button, now in addition to relinking, it will now fetch the proxy details also and attach the proxy. 

Figure 43-Backend processes after clicking on Link button

Once the proxy is available and linked, click on Ok. Now again if you click on Link Media button, since panel already detected the assets as eMAM assets. So now only proxy will be attached. 

You can toggle between original and proxy media in Adobe Premiere Source monitor

Figure 44- Toggle between original and proxy media

4. During category import, category structure is created as bin under the selected bin inside Premiere In Category tab, we can select a category and import that to Premiere, it will create a bin in Premiere with the same name as that of the selected category and will have the child elements and bins inside the selected category. 

However, if there is a bin in the Premiere project, and user selects that bin before the Category import, the same category bin structure is created inside the selected bin in the Premiere project.

5. Improved Exists in Source Feature: eMAM now supports "exists in source" with "Dynamic-Relink " for file attachments. eMAM prompts user when media is already in eMAM. Using Link & Export users can link with media already in eMAM hence eliminate changes of duplicate files

Figure 45- Link & Export- link with media already

3. Adobe After Effects Panel

1. Introduced a new button 'Rename UUID' in the current Project tab. 

Click on this button will rename all eMAM UUID names to corresponding eMAM title in the assets.

Figure 46- Rename UUID to rename all eMAM UUID names to corresponding eMAM title in the assets

2. Introduced option to set Import option in the Settings page for project, bin, category and asset import.

Figure 47- Import option in the Settings page for project, bin, category and asset import

5. Super Admin Changes

1. Introduced new parameters for Video Indexer ARM authentication changes.

• Tenant ID 
• Client ID 
• Client Secret 
• Subscription ID 
• Account ID 

Figure 48- new parameters for Video Indexer ARM authentication

2. Included basic metadata fields in workflow metadata mapping.

Figure 49- basic metadata fields in workflow metadata mapping

3. Included Element Type as a variable in the workflow conditions. 

Figure 50- Element Type as a variable in the workflow conditions

• Normal: All assets other than sequences and project assets.
• Sequence: Sequences
• Project: Project assets
  

4. Included ProjectName and ProjectID as a variable in Delivery FileName parameter drop down.

Figure 51- ProjectName and ProjectID as a variable in Delivery FileName parameter

5. Introduced Amazon Translate as the new AI profile option in Super Admin

Figure 52- Amazon Translate as the new AI profile

6. Other General Changes

1. Extended asset & category “Link” option for S3 and other storage types.
2. Supports Stitch and deliver using EGL (Telestream EDL) file.
3. Changes in workflow to insert the SQS entry for cloud delivery.
4. Changes to recreate proxy using Elemental MediaConvert ingest profiles.
5. Changes in Preview player to load the original file if the proxy does not exist.
6. Improved the loading performance of the project widget.
7. Changes in Super Admin to improve embedded metadata loading in Delivery profile & workflow modules.
8. Included “Attachment”  option in the sidecar XML and ingest manager. Sample format for attachment in XML.

<associate file-type="attachment" file-action="copy" file-name="hd_wallpapers_forbackground_2015.jpg" file-path="G:\Test Assets\Images" />

9. Changes in lambda transcoder to replace Wand library with Pillow library for image processing.
10. Rebuilt lambda transcoder in lambda python 3.11 runtime. 
11. Changes in eMAM Director to resolve Cross-site Scripting (XSS).
12. Changes in Delivery service to support / and \ with _ for S3 duplicate delivery | Transcoding delivery. 
13. Adobe Premiere & After Effects panel compatible with Adobe 2024 updates. 
14. Super Admin changes to remove unwanted configurations.
15. Implemented high level S3 SDK in efeeder.
16. Download manager changes to support the S3 transfer acceleration.
17. Included variable for eFileProxyPath, eFileUUID in Delivery profile command line arguments.

Conclusion

eMAM 5.6 is a comprehensive upgrade designed to enhance media asset management capabilities, accessibility, integration workflows, and overall system performance. We thank all users and partners for their continued feedback and collaboration, which have helped shape this release.

For more information and assistance, please contact eMAM Technical Support at support@emamsolutions.com

Thank you for choosing eMAM!