NPR

Maximizing Media Storage with a Custom Asset Management Solution

Orases helps a leading media company improve business operations

NPR is a trusted voice in public media, distributing award-winning journalism and cultural programming to more than 1,000 public radio stations nationwide and reaching nearly 15 million listeners. Its portfolio spans breaking news, in-depth public affairs, narrative storytelling, and cultural content, positioning NPR at the center of the public media ecosystem and across nearly every major audio format.

Client

National Public Radio

Project Name

Asset Management System

Services

The Challenge

Decades of media files lost in a legacy system.

Before partnering with Orases, the organization lacked a cohesive strategy for storing and managing media files across its network. As a result, it spent significant time and money maintaining a one-tier storage system that delivered limited return on investment and exposed risks related to content organization and rights management. To address these challenges, the organization needed a modern data management solution that could efficiently organize, secure, and retrieve media assets. Its IT team ultimately determined that a cloud-based, multi-tier storage system with an intuitive user experience was required to modernize their media infrastructure.

The Solution

Optimize and Grow – Creating flexible and scalable storage solutions.

Orases designed and built a custom digital asset management platform to address these challenges. The solution introduced a three-tier media storage architecture that enabled teams to upload assets, apply metadata, and quickly locate files through advanced search. By developing a tailored platform rather than relying on an off-the-shelf product, the organization gained the precise functionality needed to integrate with its existing infrastructure. Given the organization’s scale and extensive media library, a custom-built solution was essential to modernize storage operations and achieve a meaningful return on investment.

Project Management and Delivery

Orases was engaged to design and build the system from the ground up, incorporating robust data management capabilities, including metadata-driven asset properties, reporting, and time-based tracking, to ensure measurable ROI. To deliver the project on schedule, Orases followed a disciplined Scrum methodology, providing structured planning, regular deliverables, and transparent progress at every stage. The organization participated in bi-weekly Scrum meetings to ask questions, review updates, and provide input. Through consistent, collaborative communication, the organization worked closely with Orases throughout the engagement, remaining actively involved in the development process from start to finish.

Solution Features:

3-tiered storage process to organize media files by current, relevant, and archived. The search capabilities built into the platform provide a simple, user-friendly interface that helps employees find what they need quickly.
The platform had modernized distribution capabilities, drastically improving collaboration and productivity within the organization.
Managers could store rights to media pieces to help the organization stay within regulatory guidelines and reduce potential revenue loss.

Results

Store, tag, find—all in a few clicks.

The completed custom Asset Management Platform enabled the organization to unlock greater value from both legacy and current media assets, driving operational efficiency and optimizing database storage. Orases partnered closely with the organization’s team to ensure users were fully trained on the platform’s features and capabilities, allowing for a seamless launch and immediate adoption.

Through efficient communication and strong project management, Orases delivered the solution well under budget, saving the client more than $20,000.

The system eliminates the need for supplemental storage solutions and significantly improves efficiency when uploading and retrieving media and news files. Its scalable, flexible architecture supports the organization’s continued growth and thought leadership without requiring future platform overhauls.