We live in a new world today in the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry. The goal of this book is to take a look at the technologies and methodologies that help address this change. The primary subject is the application of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to the media enterprise. SOA is an architectural style and approach in which functionalities of the business are viewed as services that are discrete and reusable throughout the enterprise. Business Process Management (BPM) is another major subject discussed. It is a collection of methodologies and technologies that allow enterprises to analyze, describe, and automate these services into flexible business processes. We also take a detailed look at Web services. This book will examine in some detail all of the key subjects associated with service orienting a media enterprise.
The intended readers include management and engineering professionals from both the IT side of the house as well as the engineering or technology departments. For the reader with a media technology background, many of the topics discussed may be new or of recent interest. This book will provide a foundation in terminology that is familiar, while pointing the way to more detailed examination of the topics.