The Virtualization Of Post-Production

Productions large and small are saving time and money using Avid’s remote workflow capabilities, writes Charlie Russell, senior segment marketing manager, Avid.

Remote workflows vary from production to production. Some post facilities use remote workflows to streamline their internal workflows; others extend remote workflows to clients. The Avid environment offers strong security, and a flexible range of tools for editors and non-editors alike. Critically, Avid supports shared projects, allowing remote and local talent to work simultaneously on the same project.

Tasks range widely, including logging and organising rushes, hiring remote talent for offline editing, collaboration among local and remote team members, remote collaboration with graphics and effects houses, and in-house / client review and approval - to name just a few. The production's needs and imagination are the limit.

Avid's remote working solutions for post-production are a key component of Avid Everywhere. Running on the Avid MediaCentral Platform, they comprise Avid MediaCentral | UX and the Avid Artist Suite's Avid Media Composer | Cloud and the forthcoming Avid Cloud Collaboration for Pro Tools. These creative tools enable facilities to boost operational efficiencies and productivity.

As the cloud-based, web front-end to the MediaCentral Platform for non-editors, MediaCentral | UX serves as a user-friendly window into a media organisation's content creation, management and distribution infrastructure. Simply by using a laptop or desktop computer that's connected to the internet, a range of media professionals – including executive producers, technical directors, editors, graphic artists, loggers, writers, reporters and web producers – can sign into the portal and access self-contained personalised 'panes' that are designed for tasks associated with various parts of the media production process. Content can then easily be managed and organised for broadcast. It also allows professionals to collaborate remotely with each other, enabling businesses to improve their productivity and operational efficiency.

Media Composer | Cloud gives editors, reporters, and videographers the ability to ingest, edit, and move media fluidly between the story site and production facility from everywhere. It enables any Media Composer editor with an internet connection to connect to an Interplay | Production workgroup. Multiple remote editors can also connect simultaneously, enabling them to combine footage from their location with material on the Interplay | Production system at the home facility. For quick turnaround, an editor can have proxies of finished edits precede full-resolution media uploads and be available to everyone in the facility and the field in one simple, transparent process.

Coming soon to Pro Tools, musicians, engineers, mixers, and producers will be able to collaborate with other Pro Tools users in the cloud with Avid Cloud Collaboration, from anywhere in the world – as if they're all in the same studio working together.

Productions save time, save money, and produce top-quality results faster using Avid's remote workflows. Just as consumers are no longer constrained by how and when they consume content, media professionals are no longer limited to working within the walls of their facility. All contributors across the production and editorial ecosystem can easily collaborate in parallel using common workflows and shared media assets, enabling teams to complete projects faster and more efficiently.

By utilising MediaCentral | UX, production teams can log, review and approve content remotely, saving valuable time by not having to wait for it to be uploaded and reviewed back at the facility. Using Media Composer | Cloud breaks down the walls of the facility for an editor, giving talent the ability to collaborate from any location, anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

Silverglade, one of London's premier post houses and a long-standing service provider for ITV, delivers hundreds of hours of post-produced content for the British broadcaster every year.

The facility was quick to see the benefits of Avid's remote working solutions and MediaCentral | UX is in daily use, enabling Silverglade to drive productivity. When Silverglade's managing director Jason Tomkins first saw a demo he realised the solution's potential. Now ITV is using it daily. To enable this, we worked with Silverglade to integrate MediaCentral | UX with ITV's IT infrastructure.

MediaCentral | UX empowers ITV's production team to log, sort and sync media straight away, eliminating the need for them to use an edit suite at Silverglade's facility for these tasks. All media is ingested into an Avid Interplay | Production asset management system, which manages and coordinates content creation. The flexible workflow allows ITV and other Silverglade clients to pull media from wherever they are – on location or in their office.

With MediaCentral | UX, Silverglade is able to offer clients the ability to work remotely and flexibly. This means when a client comes into the offline edit suite at their facility and sits down with a craft editor, they can pick from rushes that have been quality controlled and start crafting quickly and more efficiently. This enables Silverglade to turn around work in its offline suites more quickly so it can pass more work through the facility and increase its revenue.

This article is also available to read at BFV online.

www.avid.com

(JP)