Metadata has never really got the juices going at IBC or anywhere else, but now at least it is being much more talked about and taken seriously by all participants in the content value chain. This will be reflected at IBC2011, where the fast expanding role of metadata in search and recommendation will be witnessed both in the conference and on the show floor. Even now metadata will not immediately leap out at delegates, since many of the relevant products and discussion topics will be under the heading of media asset management (MAM).

A tour around the show floor and attendance at conference sessions would lead to the same conclusion — that there are plenty of metadata products out there and some important standards knocking about, but nothing that bridges the whole content lifecycle from production through contribution, to final search, discovery and consumption. There is still no universal standard, which is not surprising in the sense that metadata has such different requirements at say the production stage than during final distribution. A standard covering all the bases would be too heavy and unwieldy to implement.

Continued at Metadata looms large at IBC.