The Future is Meta: Metadata, Formats and Perspectives towards Interactive and Personalized AV Content

Abstract: The production of media content has undergone tremendous changes in recent years. Multiple daily content updates are just as common for some platforms as is processing the provided content specifically for their target audiences. Such features are made possible through metadata, which make information accessible by categorizing it. In conjunction with AI-supported tools, metadata are shaping the future of audio-visual content production, distribution and consumption. It allows editors to effectively search through archives like in the Tailored Media Project, broadcasters to provide content that is adapted to users' surroundings like in the ARD Audiothek unterwegs project, or give users the ability to experience audio-visual content from different perspectives like in the ORPHEUS project. Although these projects provide comprehensive insight into the potential of metadata, their integration in existing infrastructures meets several limitations. For example, content-related metadata may initially be generated at some point during the production process but will then be lost at later stages due to current standards and incomplete software implementations. In our contribution, we will discuss requirements and potential approaches and give an outlook on possible fields of application and use-cases.