Aframe has released the next iteration of its cloud video collaboration platform. Featuring new capabilities based on ideas and suggestions garnered from Aframe’s customer feedback program, the new release enables corporate marketing teams, broadcasters and producers to upload, transcode and store video footage, organize content and collaborate across locations and time zones at every stage of the production media lifecycle.
The fall 2015 release includes expanded file transfer capabilities and format support, new security controls and media library management features, enhanced audio features within the player and more updates that make managing professional video and production assets more efficient, accessible and cost effective.
Customers that have recently joined the Aframe platform include KPMG, Arsenal Football Club, A+E, and Telus International. “Organizations appreciate the opportunity to contribute suggestions to the product roadmap,” said David Peto, Aframe’s Founder and CEO. “We’re continually expanding the platform to address the evolution of our customers’ cloud-based media workflows. This release delivers on key feature requests such as new security controls critical to corporate enterprises and administrators, more flexible transfer of large files and complex media structures, the ability to preview, share and annotate native OP-Atom MXF media directly in the browser, and more,” added Peto.
Key new capabilities include:
Faster, More Flexible File Transfer Experience – Aframe now supports fast and efficient HTML5 file transfer within the web browser; there’s no need for users to install applications or deal with continual Java updates, and they can upload directly from iOS and Android devices. To address more complex folder structure transfers, Aframe’s Desktop app now includes a new settings page that facilitates transfer management through protocol selection and network utilization controls to improve performance.
Audio Track Selection – Aframe continues to add functionality to its comprehensive media player, with the new ability to mute and enable audio tracks present in the original source media while previewing video in the browser; a feature particularly useful for international promotional and re-versioning teams.
Enhanced Media Library Management – A new media library model lets users batch-consolidate media files and copy them from one project space to another, to better support access and retrieval by content collaborators. Combined with cross-project search and organization functions, this new model moves away from strict project-based partitioning to facilitate storage, access and availability of high-value, in-demand assets.
Expanded Format Support on Ingest – Users can now preview, share and annotate native OP-Atom MXF media from Avid Media Composer and Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve directly from their browsers. Digital dailies require no secondary transcode pass prior to upload, and can be delivered directly to editing as well as to production stakeholders for review and approval through the Share Link function. The new release also eliminates a significant pain point with support for spanned clips, presenting rushes/dailies that are part of a spanned selection stitched together as a single proxy, for continuous playback and improved metadata handling.
New Security Controls – Aframe continues to build on its metrics dashboard and user hierarchies, with a new page that enables administrators to configure services for all users within their accounts. From this consolidated management control page account administrators can now create custom roles and abilities for user types and apply them to all or a selection of users, mass-enable/disable features, and manage security settings across all interactions with customer content – providing complete visibility and control over the enterprise account and facilitating compliance with internal security policies.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More