Dalet Flex Core: Assets: AS-02 Package Asset

AS-02 is a media master packaging standard developed by AMWA. It is similar to IMF but utilises metadata stored in MXF files to describe the different versions derived from the underlying essence components. An AS-02 package consists of a number of file items organised in a standardized directory structure.

Flex Enterprise supports AS-02 packages as genuine Flex Package Assets. The AS-02 MXF version files in AS-02 packages are represented as a new Flex AS-02 Version asset, which holds a composition of Flex Sequences. These new object types support standard Flex features and baseline actions (e.g. metadata handling).

Sample Package Structure

AS-02 is a component-based format. A single essence component file will exist for each video, audio and data element. A version file in MXF format represents individual versions. Customized metadata and application specific files may be stored within the folder structure in defined locations.

AS-02 Import Plugin

Flex AS-02 Import is a JEF plugin to import “in place” (no copy) packages from configured FILE and S3 locations. The plugin creates Flex AS02, Flex AS-02 Version (MXF version file), Flex Media assets (MXF, images...) and extracts technical metadata, including the EssenceDescriptor data.

It carries out the following steps to import an AS-02 package into Flex.

1. Parse manifest file (manifest.xml) to create the AS-02 Package Asset - the manifest file contains references to all the files within the package. Flex will parse the file to create the AS-02 asset with the files in the package as members of the asset.
2. Create member assets
   - shim.xml (as text asset)
   - essence components (as media assets)
3. Extract technical metadata - technical metadata for the media assets created in the previous step will be extracted
4. Parse and create AS-02 version asset and create proxy for preview - create AS-02 version asset and the related composition asset track, asset track, sequence, and placed media region