TL; DR Transform media workflows with Ci’s Custom Actions: trigger external processes directly from Ci’s interface. Streamline publishing, automate speech-to-text, and enhance metadata with AI services. Simple four-step implementation with minimal coding required.

Say Goodbye to Manual Transfers

In today’s fast-paced media production environment, every minute counts. Your post-production team has finalized an urgent promotional video that needs to be published to multiple platforms immediately. But first, they need to download the file, manually upload it to each platform, copy metadata, and verify the upload—all while the clock is ticking toward deadline.

This scenario plays out countless times daily across media organizations, creating bottlenecks that slow down creative teams and delay content delivery. The root cause? Disconnected systems that require manual intervention to bridge gaps in the content workflow.

The Integration Challenge in Media Production

Media workflows present unique integration challenges not found in other industries. Large file sizes, complex metadata requirements, and specialized tools create a fragmented ecosystem where content often gets stuck between systems.

For media technology teams, this creates several critical pain points:

• Content transfer bottlenecks: Moving high-resolution media files between systems consumes valuable time and network resources
• Inconsistent metadata: Manual re-entry of information introduces errors and inconsistencies
• Limited technical resources: Development teams already stretched thin can’t build custom integrations for every workflow

When creative professionals spend more time managing files than creating content, production quality and innovation suffer. Traditional approaches like building custom integration require significant development resources and maintenance and often can’t adapt to changing workflows.

Introducing Custom Actions: Where Ci API Meets Simplicity

Ci’s Custom Actions bridges this gap by allowing your team to trigger external workflows directly from a dropdown menu in the Ci interface. This new capability transforms how your technical and creative teams work together.

Custom Actions uses Ci’s comprehensive REST API to connect your media assets with external applications, cloud functions, and web services. Users can open files stored in Ci directly in external applications with all necessary file information—with just a single click.

What makes this approach powerful is how it balances technical capability with implementation simplicity:

• Reduced Development Lift: While some coding is required, the development effort is significantly reduced compared to building full integrations from scratch
• Security-Focused Design: Granular role-based access controls ensure only authorized users in designated workspaces can trigger specific actions
• Enterprise-Grade Architecture: Built to handle the scale and complexity of major media organizations’ workflows

Administrators can create and manage Custom Actions through a straightforward interface, making them available to specific workspaces depending on workflow requirements. In essence, Custom Actions lets you offer a tailored experience to a diverse set of end users that meets their specific workflow needs.

Real-World Media Applications

The flexibility of Custom Actions enables numerous workflow improvements specifically designed for media production environments:

Streamlined Publishing Workflows

A Custom Action can be configured to publish content directly to platforms like YouTube without any manual downloading or uploading. When a user right-clicks on a file in Ci and selects the Custom Action, the video is automatically published to the destination platform—along with any text headers. This eliminates multiple manual steps and significantly accelerates time-to-publish.

Automated Speech to Text and Closed Captioning

For media organizations that need a speech to text service for editorial workflows or simply need closed captioning for broadcast workflows, Custom Actions can connect content directly to third-party transcription services. Users can initiate the entire process with a single click directly from Ci. Once the transcription service processes the media, users can upload timed-text files to Ci where users can preview Closed-Captions natively in Ci’s Player experience. For post-production workflows, editors can search for keywords and phrases to find the corresponding timecode.

AI-Powered Metadata Enrichment

Custom Actions can send selected files and folders to AI-powered computer vision services that automatically identify objects, people, scenes, and actions within the content. When the outputs are imported to Ci, you dramatically reduce the manual effort required for content categorization. Further, you enable faster discoverability of media files and can transform your aging archive into a monetizable media catalog.

For teams looking for automatic transcription and metadata tagging, Ci offers native integration with Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Rekognition. This built-in functionality automatically tags metadata and makes it immediately searchable within Ci without requiring any manual imports. Depending on your specific workflow needs, you can choose Custom Actions for connecting to specialized AI services or leverage Ci’s native Amazon Rekognition integration for a streamlined experience.

What Implementation Looks Like

Implementing Custom Actions is straightforward:

Step 1: Create your Custom Actions

Administrators configure the Custom Action in Account Settings, defining the destination URL, applicable object types, and other parameters

Step 2: Determine the endpoint

Identify pain points and determine which web services will receive the content information

Step 3: Assign permissions & users

Administrators assign the Custom Action to specific workspaces

Step 4: User activation

End users simply right-click on files or folders, select the Custom Action, and confirm to initiate the workflow

This approach allows technical teams to implement powerful integration with minimal code while providing creative users with a seamless experience.

Experience Custom Actions in Action

Want to see how Ci Custom Actions can transform your media workflows? Our team is ready to show you how this powerful feature can connect your content ecosystem:

• Request a personalized demo: See Custom Actions working with your specific workflow challenges
• Explore the Ci platform: Discover how Ci’s comprehensive media management capabilities go beyond just integration
• Discuss your integration needs: Our solutions team can help identify the highest-impact integration points for your organization

Contact us today to schedule your demonstration and learn how Ci Custom Actions can eliminate the content shuttle between your systems.

Ready to transform how your media teams work with Ci? Contact our team today to learn more about implementing Custom Actions in your environment.