A Workflow-controlled Service-oriented Architecture for Cross-Media Storage and Provision

The contribution describes a service-oriented architecture which has been developed to store and provide multi-media content of various types and formats. The content management system is designed as a framework of web services that are controlled centrally by a workflow engine. The content management system offers import, ingest, analysis, hierarchical storage, export and conversion of media files in various formats. Search and retrieval bases on textual metadata that are entered into an entity-relationship model (ERM). Essence can be organized semantically in media objects and Essence packages that are related to media classes and Usage preferences. The workflow engine controls the import, management, export and packaging of media files.