Since the early 1990s, when the commercial industry first heard the distant beat of Sprint’s Drums, there has been steadily growing interest in connectivity via phone lines and high-speed networks that offer services to the production community. Those early applications—beginning with Mad River Technologies’ VideoFax—focused on review and approval, and collaboration.
Recently, driven primarily by the longform arena’s expanding interest in sending dailies, there has been a renewed interest in the topic, as well as a slew of new applications and services. As a result, commercialmakers now have access to a wide range of services that can meet most any demand at a variety of price points—the trade offs still include speed and image quality.
Asset Management
For the commercial production industry, perhaps the most noteworthy development in this space is a move toward offering new capabilities in an area broadly described as asset management—a complex subject that has developed concurrently with the growing use of digital tools.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) is not a sexy subject, but it is quite possibly one of today’s most critical, as the industry is moving fast toward establishing new tape and data formats for production, postproduction, distribution and archiving. And since asset management—as well as reviews—is fundamentally about access to work, it is not so surprising to see the blending of these applications.
"Review and approval, and collaboration were just genesis features to the overall effort of asset management," agrees Doug Cheek, president/CEO of GTN, Oak Park, Mich. "They are only part of an overall toolset, which could include hundreds of aspects of the production and postproduction processes, everything from talent reports to music rights."
GTN has built a proprietary system that is designed to accommodate those aspects in a scalable and customizable service. Essentially, GTN has developed a software front end for its WAMNET high-speed managed network. (WAMNET is headquartered in Egan, Mich.) The features offered by the system include: asset preparation, metadata management, a managed searchable database of linked assets, storage, keyword search, thumbnail viewing for rapid review, various flavors of play out (i.e. Quicktime), 24-hour access to material, the ability to stream or download media, and a secure login.
"This service has become a growing revenue stream for us," Cheek says, noting that it is used by GTN’s ad agency clients, which primarily handle automotive advertising. "Detroit is the largest advertising market in the world. An agency in New York, for instance, may do three hundred new spots a year. A car advertiser in Detroit may do five thousand to six thousand ads a year. By virtue of the market we are in, the tools have to be very robust."
Cheek emphasizes that GTN did not set out to create and sell a product. "[The system] grew out of the needs of customers. We responded and reacted and filled the need. That’s what made this so successful."
Agency Initiatives
An increasing number of agencies have identified the value of such capabilities. For instance, BBDO New York recently partnered with DAM systems company Artesia Technologies, Rockville, Md., and Nevada City, Calif.-based automated media encoding/delivery firm Telestream to create a custom DAM and workflow automation system (SHOOT, 4/18, p. 19). This service allows BBDO employees to easily access, utilize and repurpose material while working collaboratively with co-workers and clients. Agency creatives can review, produce and distribute commercials from their desktop.
One of the key architects of this system is New York-based Dennis Pannuto, BBDO North America’s chief information officer. He says that his team is currently looking into deploying the service at BBDO offices in North America, and then making the service available worldwide. He reports that they intend to offer their consulting services to clients and other agencies on the creation of a digital workflow.
"This is not only the way the agencies will work, but the way the networks work," Pannuto notes. "This will change the way we broadcast. In four or five years, the use of a physical medium to distribute content will diminish rapidly. [This development] is about more than just connectivity. It is really delivering and managing content."
Pannuto tells SHOOT that BBDO is strongly considering the creation of a separate company dedicated to delivering workflow services, which would be affiliated with BBDO.
Another agency to embrace this sort of technology and application is Saatchi & Saatchi, whose offices worldwide are running on Beam.TV, a London-based service provider for transporting and storing video over the Web (SHOOT, 8/30/02, p. 1). Beam.TV, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Mill, which has offices in London and New York, offers review and approval, as well as asset management associated with archiving. The archiving service offers agency employees random access to reels.
"We started with production collaboration and worked toward asset management because we’ve been asked for it by the agencies," explains Matt Cooper, Beam.TV’s managing director. "Once an asset is in our archive, you can do something with it—distribute it, make reels, or enter award shows." Beam.TV provides the storage.
A Suite of
Applications
Another company to identify the connection between connectivity-based services and asset management tools is Burbank, Calif.-based MESoft Partners, a privately-held software company building what it bills as a "digital media operating system and a suite of supply chain applications." This month, MESoft is launching its new Review and Approval application, designed specifically to meet the needs of the commercial production industry. Earlier this year, it launched Dailies Review and Approval for the feature industry; the first provider of this service is FotoKem Film and Video, Burbank. A broadcast version for TV producers is not far behind.
MESoft CEO Mark Kapczynski explains that the goal of the commercial application is to offer review and approval, as well as such applications as network clearance and electronic press kits. Kapczynski hopes to create a full work environment for the commercial industry, complete with built-in tools for asset management.
MESoft is initially targeting ad agencies, production companies and post houses, but intends to expand its marketing efforts to include major brand advertisers and equipment rental houses to complete the chain. Key clients would install the MESoft server software, and platform agnostic desktop software would be supplied to its clients.
Kapczynski understands that the value of the system grows with the number of connected users, so the pricing is also designed to make the system accessible. Server software runs for $55,000 with an additional $99 fee per client software copy. Kapczynski also intends to create a licensing plan, which will allow for an unlimited number of client users.
Virtual Telecine
A new service that would offer "virtual telecine sessions" is in its infancy at Ascent Media Creative Services, the division of Santa Monica-headquartered Ascent Media Group that incorporates brands such as Company 3 (New York and Santa Monica) and R!OT (New York, Santa Monica and Atlanta). Ascent Media Creative Services is beta testing a service that would offer real-time collaborative applications using video over satellite, enabling real-time sessions over distant locations.
Colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld, president/managing director of Company 3, describes the concept of the system as "virtual telecine," and a way to offer the talents of the company’s colorists in any market worldwide.
A remote telecine session has long been considered a daunting task, as it requires perfectly calibrated monitors and a quality level that is exact. Sonnenfeld reports that Ascent’s developing system, which would require a satellite dish, receiver, calibrated monitor and decoder box at the receiving end, could offer pictures at the sending and receiving end with "no way to differentiate between the two [images]."
Sonnenfeld expects that the cost of using the service would be less expensive than the costs associated with travel expenses for sending a team of creatives to another city. "We were able to make this affordable through Ascent, [which has] a lot of infrastructure [including a satellite uplink facility]," he says.
For a simpler, Internet-based service, Ascent’s Creative Services unit offers Breezeway, which will begin to incorporate the capabilities of its Gateway service. Applications include review and approval, dailies, and real time collaboration. It also makes available what the company calls a "virtual vault," which is the ability to download assets that have been stored. This service will include annotation capabilities. With Breezeway, customers can take advantage of real-time streaming or download on demand.
Another review and approval system that offers expanded applications comes from IOWA, a Santa Monica-based Web developer/ designer. IOWA offers WireDrive, an online client review system (SHOOT, 4/18, p. 19).
Bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ) uses the system to link agencies and other creative vendors to its custom-made WireDrive Client Lounge, enabling feedback, review and tracking of its projects, as well as project management and communication between MJZ’s offices.
G’day Sydney
Overcoming distance is the goal behind Creative Review Tool (CRT), a proprietary service developed and implemented by Sydney-based visual effects and post house Animal Logic, which is located on the Fox Studios Australia lot, and services both commercial and feature production.
This system is software-based and runs on a laptop in order to enable access from anywhere in the world. Essentially, Animal Logic uploads work to an FTP site, and then clients can view work simultaneously with the post house; the annotation is the only part of the service that requires transmission during the meeting. That means the system can be used without requiring expensive high-speed connectivity. In an inexpensive manner, it helps clients get "as close to a meeting experience as possible," explains Bruce Carter, creative director at Animal Logic. Animal Logic and clients typically share a phone call during these sessions.
Carter believes CRT has far- reaching implications in terms of creative direction and pre-visualization opportunities for agencies and directors. "The benefit is more than just being able to look at a job," he says. "It’s a tool to help pre-visualize on-set, access the crew at Animal Logic during production, right through to access from remote locations during post."
Virtual Edit Sessions
The ability to collaborate in real-time from remote distances—to essentially hold a virtual edit session—has been the Holy Grail for companies such as Mad River Post whose offices in Detroit, New York, San Francisco and Santa Monica are connected via its Rosedit videoconferencing system from Santa Monica-based communications companies Interactive Multimedia Artists (SHOOT, 2/16/01, p. 1). This system offers real-time collaboration with editors and clients.
El Segundo, Calif.-based Media. net similarly offers real-time connectivity over a private network. To date, it has been deployed primarily for episodic television and feature projects, including the production of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which linked visual effects house WETA, Wellington, New Zealand, to effects houses in Los Angeles.
Red Car—with offices in Chicago, Dallas, New York, Santa Monica and San Francisco—offers a proprietary system called AVA (SHOOT, 8/31/01, p. 1), which is based on technology developed for the U.S. Navy to facilitate distant education and surveillance activities. Red Car is the exclusive reseller of the software, which is based on Wavelet compression and uses an Internet browser with live-action teleconferencing services. It requires a DSL or T-1 line.
AVA currently links the U.S. Red Car offices, as well as Sydney-based editor Drew Thomson and London-based editor Christophe Williams, both of whom are represented by Red Car in the United States. Additionally, Red Car editor Steve Armstrong is moving to Buenos Aires, where he will also connect with AVA.
Red Car CEO Larry Bridges reports that the company aims to create a ring of suppliers operating in a virtual community. Clients on the network include Clatter & Din, Seattle; agency Dieste & Harmel Partners, Dallas; The Finish Line, Santa Monica; FotoKem Film and Video; editor Jay Evans in Hawaii; Margarita Mix de Santa Monica; Milk & Honey Films, Prague; Young & Rubicam, Irvine, Calif.; Park Place, Hollywood; Smoke & Mirrors, London; and The Orphanage, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Bridges is another who sees a growing demand for connectivity-based systems that can offer asset management tools. However, he notes, "I think you will see them grow based on one factor—a decrease in the price of bandwidth. I think that is still an obstacle."
But that may change, reported Montreal-based industry consultant Francois Gariepy. (Gariepy was chief technology officer of the former Jazz Media Network, one of the earliest collaborative video networks. This visionary system—conceived by industry veteran Richard Cormier—included online support services such as stock footage searches and industry news updates, and was one of the earliest models for these types of systems.)
Gariepy tells SHOOT that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recently adopted a new compression codec called H.264 (a derivative of MPEG-4). "It is likely to completely change the video delivery universe over the next few years," he enthuses.
Gariepy reported that the promise of H.264 is to deliver "broadcast quality" images at roughly 1.5 Mbps—meaning that standard definition television quality imagery can be delivered at lower than T-1 speed. "This has the potential to really enable the promise of cheap video delivery in near real time over IP pipes," he explains. "Since video files are smaller and pipes are faster, it will be easier to store and forward video in near real time or faster than real time."
