Create Once, Deliver

OftenBy Christine Bunish A variety of solutions abound.

It’s routine for content creators today to ask post houses to take their TV programs, features or commercials and spin-off numerous deliverables for broadcast, Websites and Web portals, Video On Demand (VOD), social media and handheld devices. Repurposing assets for different platforms can be a complex process, however. “There’s no one perfect solution and file type for everyone,” says Michael Rebel, manager of digital media operations at Modern VideoFilm. “No one file type will support every deliverable.” While industry groups are striving for a standard, solutions currently vary.

Fotokem’s NextLab Mobile is a dailies and asset management system that works well with a variety of formats.

24 Post • October 2011 www.postmagazine.com entertainment television at Burbank-based Deluxe (www.bydeluxe. com). “Customer demand is more and more dictating how content is made, distributed and consumed. Today, people tell content owners how and where they want to watch content and they, in turn, tell service providers how they want it delivered.” That has meant moving beyond the old model of getting a feature fllm into the theater or a show on television then warehousing it. “As the timeline of motion picture and TV consumption has matured, there’s been more deliverables demanded — foreign versioning and pan-and-scan versions for television,” he notes. “Then home entertainment came in and cable with hundreds of potential outlets all requiring slightly different deliverables. Recently, small-screen distribution has exploded in a variety of ways: Internet, cell phone, iPad, game boxes. We seem to be moving to a windowless world of simultaneous delivery on a multitude of devices.” And that has resulted in “a massive increase in digital headaches and opportunities.” The headaches are spawned by a “Wild West” landscape of deliverable specs, the necessity for proper asset management, the need for sufficient storage and the issue of automation. Price pressures also play a role: the expectation that “digital [post workflows] will be cheaper versus the need to be able to make MODERN VIDEOFILM expenditures in technology that enable us to respond” to changing At Burbank’s Modern VideoFilm (www.mvfinc.com) some TV pro- customer demands, says Ainsworth. “We have to figure out new gramming clients not only require multiple deliverables within the post ways to work better and more efficiently with shorter turnaround production process — such as proxy files for audio houses, captioning times and less money.” facilities, and executives, directors and DPs — but also need episodes He reminds us that, “More and more deliverables have been added quickly available on Web portals via Apple iTunes, Hulu and Netflix, in every stage of [a production’s] life,” with post production starting on and clips prepared for YouTube and social media sites, and versions the set for many projects. At that stage “some deliverables are transi- Modern’s Michael Rebel: created for international markets. tory and some become components of the next stage with files being The studio, which works To turn clients’ assets into multiple deliverables, Modern VideoFilm rendered to become part of the editorial and VFX process. Then edi- on TNT’s Franklin & Bash, chooses uncompressed DPX files for its file-based post production torial and VFX become part of making master deliverables: archival uses DPX files for its post workflow. “From uncompressed DPX files you can go to tape and cre- elements and a universal file or physical format for conducting all kinds production workflow. ate the major file types needed for most deliverables,” says Michael of distribution activities.” Rebel. “DPX files are a good base to start from since there is no To be nimble enough to meet customers’ varied digital distribu- compression, and you can get to any deliverable, even if indirectly.” tion specs, Deluxe taps a number of different tools, from propri- Typically, a DPX file serves as the mezzanine, or mastering, file etary transcoding packages to off-the-shelf solutions from Digital stored in the digital library. Modern VideoFilm also makes a sub-master Rapids, Inlet and Harmonic. Deluxe has established a proprietary mezzanine file — a high-quality Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) file — to pipeline for moving content among its units as content moves store for mastering and to meet immediate needs for VOD, Web por- through its various windows. tals and international deliverables. Although videotape remains “a pretty robust physical distribution The company employs an array of tools for the process. Digital medium, digital is still a work in progress” from a format standardiza- Rapids’ StreamZ and Transcode Manager are used to capture or trans- tion perspective, Ainsworth points out. “Some standards-making bod- code ProRes mezzanine files to client deliverables. Transcode Manager ies are working on it: SMPTE, the ETC, the Academy. They seem to be also transcodes ProRes files for the Web, converting ProRes to AVC getting closer to an acceptable format that can act as a true distribu- H.264. “You get good quality-to-file size with that codec,” says Rebel. tion or archival master. Once you get something that everyone can iTunes works natively with ProRes files. accept, you’ll start to see the Wild West go away.” A versatile DVS Clipster converts DPX files to ProRes mezzanine The rise of choice for consumers and the increased demands on files. DPX sequences can go straight to tape with Clipster and a Spect- post houses to “manage more of the life cycle of content on behalf of Soft Rave DVR working directly off a StorNext SAN. In addition, the the owner” drives innovation, he notes. “Delivering more efficient QC bay can control Clipster like a tape machine for quality-control workflows to accomplish what we need to do benefits everyone in checks of DPX sequences. the long run — the customer, the post vendor and the consumer.” Other key components of the post workflow are Autodesk Smoke for editorial, Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve for color correction CRAWFORD MEDIA SERVICES and Autodesk Inferno for VFX. All run off the StorNext SAN. “The file- At Atlanta’s Crawford Media Services (www.crawford.com), senior based world is changing so rapidly — it’s very fluid,” says Rebel. “These editor/technical director Ron Heidt traces the evolution of deliver- applications are constantly adding capabilities to support new needs.” ables for spots and TV programming from the era of tape dubs to Among the shows taking advantage of Modern VideoFilm’s file- today’s “countless deliverables,” many of them file-based and all with based workflow are Desperate Housewives, Pretty Little Liars, The Lying different specs. Game, The Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, Torchwood and Franklin & Bash.. On the TV programming front, the massive earthquake/tsunami/ nuclear disaster that hit northern Japan last March and affected the sup- DELUXE ply chain for videotape stock has triggered a change in show deliverables. The need for multiple deliverables is all about “the rise of choice,” “The delivery format of choice had been HDCAM SR, but with that and according to Gray Ainsworth, executive VP/GM, media services and other tape stocks hard to come by in the aftermath of the disaster,

www.postmagazine.com Post • October 2011 25 Create Once, Deliver Often

is a huge growth part of our business,” he MediAffinity will pull the source asset, trans- notes. “Using our Web-based asset manage- form it as needed, package it with the required ment system, we take clients’ assets, convert metadata and push it to Apple, for example, them to a digital format for archiving and then confirm its receipt and report back to give them a way to manage those assets the customer,” he explains. “MediAffinity is from anywhere. We’re also focused on auto- designed for agilty: If there’s a new player in mated transcoding and delivery using tools the market or a customer wants to deliver in such as Vantage and Rhozet, which allow for some new way, we don’t have to develop a customized workflow solutions. Our new workflow. We just have to add a new approach is to provide various file delivery output spec and delivery destination to the formats on-the-fly as companies ask for existing workflow template.” them. Once the desired transcodes are Deliverables encompass a wide breadth of defined from the master we can automate platforms with feature films burned to DVD, the process to various deliverables.” versions produced for foreign-language subti- Crawford delivers some reality TV shows tling and dubbing, and trailers pushed to Rot- and PBS programming to Hulu, YouTube and ten Tomatoes and the social networks; TV iTunes. Its Great Museums series for American programming needs HD and SD variants for Public Television from Echo Pictures has been Hulu and other VOD services. Customer to delivered to Hulu and iTunes for the last four customer, “the end points are numerous as years. “Everyone has different requirements are the methods by which to push the assets,” for slates and commercial blacks,” says Heidt. Harmsen says. “It becomes quite a complex “Hulu recently changed its requirements for network to manage.” Technicolor leverages its how commercial blacks are put in.” Technical Production Network, “the pipe that The need to accommodate such changes interconnects all our locations,” to move to the final master has merged editorial and assets among its offices worldwide. transcoding, in some cases. “One of our Harmsen reports that the major studios encoders also runs a Final Cut system so she and some servicing entities are spearheading can change blacks and slates in a QuickTime an effort to standardize a mezzanine file for- networks began taking files,” says Heidt. “We’re storage master with an editing program,” mat. Currently, all mezzanine file formats “have delivering a CBS show we’re working on now Heidt reports. “If we could edit out blacks pros and cons,” he says. Some Technicolor on the tape stock we have, but the network within the transcoding process, we’d do it, but clients give the company “a lot of latitude” to Deluxe’s Gray told us that they accept three or four different those tools don’t exist right now.” Ainsworth: “More and formats for file-based delivery. He believes that file-format stan- more deliverables have “The fact that we finish most of our pro- dardization is nowhere in sight, so been added in every gramming at 24p gives us a universal produc- Crawford is “building a workflow to stage of [a production format that makes it a lot easier to get to deliver any deliverable clients need tion’s] life,” starting on 1080i or 720p — something that’s helpful to make.” set for many projects. with files as well as tape.” Crawford’s roster of national, regional and TECHNICOLOR local commercials are almost always delivered Burbank-based Technicolor (www. as files today, Heidt reports, even for traffick- technicolor.com) prides itself on ing systems such as DG, SpotGenie and being “agile and flexible” enough to Extreme Reach. “Few, if any, are on tape any- react to constant changes in deliver- more. And we store all of our masters as files: able requirements, says VP of distribution The Memphis Grizzlies rely on AmberFin iCR. We archive every spot or show as a file services Jed Harmsen. “Intra-market specifica- instead of on HDCAM SR or D-5.” tions are changing day to day, and every so select a mezzanine file format that’s “as effi- Archiving formats vary depending on the often there’s a new avenue or app that con- cient and high quality as possible for their post platform. Most editorial is performed on tent owners want to get to. You have to be given project. We’re doing a lot in ProRes 422 Avid systems and finished shows or spots are able to traverse these paths with as much (HQ) and ProRes Quad Four (4444), but archived as QuickTimes within the Avid agility as possible.” customers also really like to use an open codec, typically DNxHD 175x, 10-bit Technicolor’s own MediAffinity product is source like JPEG 2000, a royalty-free codec. 1080/24p. Content finished on Apple’s Final the “one-to-many management and work- Others [follow] a file format from their work- Cut Pro is usually archived as ProRes 422 flow automation tool that takes assets from flows, like Cineform. (HQ) files. “Traditionally, you store masters to post, or that we’ve received from a post “While we champion the effort to try to give you the easiest way to get back out to house, to the client’s order for deliverables,” standardize the mezzanine file format, we another format once the deliverables have says Harmsen. “MediAffinity automatically don’t want to dictate how customers have to been decided,” Heidt explains. takes the source content and pushes it out to work,” Harmsen says. Transcoding is performed with Final Cut transcoding and transformation engines to Studio’s Compressor, Sorenson Squeeze, create the deliverables.” FOTOKEM Telestream Vantage and FlipFactory, and Har- Pre-existing or custom workflow templates At Burbank’s FotoKem (www.fotokem. monic Rhozet. outline delivery specs and the method by com), senior VP Rand Gladden notes that while “Archiving and storage of file-based media which to achieve them. “An order will come in, “most everyone has accepted the fact that file-

26 Post • October 2011 www.postmagazine.com based delivery [of content] is the proper solution going forward” the shortage of HDCAM SR tape stock following Japan’s trio of disasters changed the dynamic. “It propelled the delivery of file elements for longform and shortform television into becoming a reality very quickly. Additionally, we have maintained a leading role in the creation of archive and delivery files from library content pushing out to platforms like Hulu and Netflix. “Although the post production business ger to encode but produces a higher quality dailies and asset management system devel- Crawford works on the tries to drive technology as much as it can, the image for proponents such as DirecTV, and oped by FotoKem’s in-house software team. Great Museums series. industry itself is slow to change,” he observes. ProRes 422 (HQ), which has proved to be “a This system is deployed on location as a They deliver to Hulu and “It generally requires a significant technology pretty robust file for acquisition and delivery.” mobile solution for production as well as in iTunes. advancement or a disaster to push it in a new With “no one common solution” for mul- the cutting room to ingest data, process and direction. We’ve all been testing file-based tiple deliverables, FotoKem provides a com- sync, archive to LTO-5 tape and push out to delivery for some time. Now we have to plete package of services to help clients meet the required file formats. make it work. And we have.” their needs. “We have developed tools to use “Every time there’s a new camera format Brian Drown, director of engineering at both in pre-production as well as the man- we can easily integrate it into our software Keep Me Posted, a FotoKem company, reports agement of media from beginning to end, and establish a complete workflow for a full that clients need an array of deliverables for from acquisition to final distribution and dailies and finishing process,” adds Drown. broadcast, from Sony XDCAM i-frame-fla- archiving,” says Gladden. Typically, once creative editing has been vored MPEG-2 to MPEG-4, which takes lon- Tools include FotoKem’s NextLAB Mobile completed and content arrives at FotoKem, an Avid-centric workflow is followed for “efficiency in editing, color correction and titling,” Repurposing material for says Gladden. “There’s not a lot of transcoding from one platform to another, which takes multiple platforms, areas time and can introduce problems.” FotoKem’s Media Services Group employs ULVER CITY — Issues involved in multiple platform delivery extend far beyond an “all-flavors approach” to encoding soft- C those related to just formatting programming for the various delivery specs ware, adds Gladden, including Sorenson required. Distribution of content today is a global enterprise. Whether you’re talking Squeeze, Digital Rapids’ StreamZ, Harmonic about a TV show being posted online within hours after its initial airing or media that Rhozet ProCoder, Final Cut Pro, Apple Com- bypasses traditional broadcast channels altogether, the rapidly growing expectation is pressor and many others. that programming will go out to an international audience concurrent to, or almost Turnaround time for some deliverables has immediately after, its domestic premiere. Gone are the months-long windows to local- become increasingly critical. To meet the con- ize content with the appropriate subtitling necessary for every territory in the world. tracted demands of day-of-air episodic deliv- SDI Media (www.sdimedia.com), headquartered here, has specialized in localizing ery for MPEG-based Netflix and QuickTime- content — dubbing, subtitling and otherwise repurposing theatrical and broadcast con- based iTunes, FotoKem “conforms content to tent for territories worldwide — for over 25 years. In order to accommodate client the end format needed, adds the required demand to repurpose material for multiple territories and the growing number of plat- metadata and pushes it out via a private link forms within days, or even hours, the company has recently unveiled a new service, SDI to Netflix and Apple’s proprietary delivery SubStream. SDI’s new service is designed to significantly streamline the process of system literally within a two-hour window delivering subtitled versions of content localized for multiple territories and in any after receiving the order,” reports Chauncy number of formats — to online platforms more quickly and efficiently than has previ- Cummings, director of technology in ously been possible. FotoKem’s Media Services Group. SDI SubStream leverages SDI’s proprietary subtitling systems and workflows, in con- File-based delivery has allowed for interna- junction with plug-in technology, to link to the online video player and directly refor- tional trailer work to meet requirements for mat and display multiple subtitle streams across a single video file. day-and-date release, notes Gladden — “Traditionally,” SDI’s CEO, Walter Schonfeld, explains, “when content was only being something that wasn’t possible in the era of repurposed for television broadcast and there were significant windows to do the film negatives and printing. “We’ve cut out a work, the program and the subtitling files would go to a post house which would have lot of steps with file-based delivery solutions. to generate separate versions of the show, complete with subtitle burn-ins, for each We can get a full-resolution trailer out to territory. Today, broadcasters want to post their material for catch-up TV, VOD, stream- dozens of countries in a few hours as a Digital ing and mobile devices, often within hours. It’s not practical to “bake in” the subtitling Cinema or DPX file.” FotoKem’s proprietary information for every territory anymore, and even if it were, the costs of individual Web-based globalDATA software moves files versioning make it impractical. quickly anywhere in the world for production “By separating the show from the subtitle files,” Schonfeld sums up, “SDI is able to and final distribution. significantly increase efficiency, compress schedules, avoid issues of versioning complex- FotoKem still opts for a tiered storage ity, and vastly reduce the amount of actual media and manipulation necessary to publish system of production content, nearline content quickly throughout the world.” continued on page 47

www.postmagazine.com Post • October 2011 27 SPECIAL REPORT DELIVERABLES

[ Cont.from 40 ] [ Cont.from 27 ] storage and LTO-5 or individual files over and over again.” even HDCAM SR offline storage. This During basketball season the depart- Figure 3. Projections for Post Production Shared tiered model allows content to be ment reviews low-resolution NBA game and Direct Attached Storage “quickly retrieved and back online for footage nightly and selects clips for possi- 1,600,000 additional distribution at a later date,” ble use in future deliverables. “We choose says Cummings. highlights from a particular game and the 1,400,000 FotoKem has provided work for the NBA network then downloads them to 1,200,000 feature Contagion and television’s our server. The location is actually an 1,000,000 Homeland, New Girl, Californication and AmberFin watch folder, which automati- Necessary Roughness 800,000 . cally outputs the file formats needed and sends an e-mail when the job is done. By 600,000 MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES the time our editors come back in the Total Capacity (TB) Total 400,000 In the broadcast department of the next day, everything is done and waiting 200,000 NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies (www.grizzlies. for them.” The system also speeds up the

0 com), the need to produce multiple deliv- process of delivering post-game locker 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 erables from assets is constantly increas- room interviews for the NBA Website. NLE Networked Capacity (TB) 140,000 163,097 190,257 224,409 270,020 340,204 431,857 564,326 751,929 ing, according to director of broadcast “We get an HD feed from the truck that NLE Local Capacity (TB) 313,220 334,700 359,195 388,669 432,308 493,230 556,645 613,073 661,123 operations Brett Smith. The department goes directly to AmberFin. By the time archiving a Petabyte (PB) of digital ter, distributing that content will be a big is responsible for producing content for the feed is finished encoding, it has content for 20 years is in the first year user of digital storage capacity, network in-arena shows, creating TV spots, pro- already started uploading to the Website. (the initial storage equipment purchase). bandwidth as well as processing power. ducing features and special coverage for We can complete eight interviews in As the figure shows, if we assume a stor- the team’s regional sports telecasts, pack- under two hours,” Smith notes. age equipment refresh every five years SOURCES aging presentations for the sales and He credits the system’s ability to pre- the cost of storing the PB after 20 years The material published here is marketing group, and supplying all video build templates for AmberFin iCR to the is only a few thousand dollars a year for extracted from the 2011 Digital Storage content for the Grizzlies’ Websites. specs of the end user or platform — 1080i HDD array storage and close to $1,000 for Media and Entertainment Report Source and distribution formats run MPEG-2, DNxHD, XDCAM and more. “I per year for tape. from Coughlin Associates. The 160-page the gamut. Original content is acquired in can grab an NBA 1080i MPEG-2 file and if As a consequence of lower costs for report includes 78 figures and 55 tables 720p while highlights and feature feeds I want it to become a DNxHD file or an capturing, production and post produc- and covers digital storage for all aspects from the NBA come in as 1080i MPEG- XDCAM file I simply use the template I tion and finally archiving content, we of professional video capture and cre- 2 files. Broadcast distribution is XDCAM prebuilt,” he explains. “The system doesn’t expect about a 2.4 times increase in the ation, editing and post production, con- HD, but in-arena displays are SD and care what file format it ingests. It just wants archived content produced in profes- tent distribution, analog-to-digital con- then there’s Web content. Smith and his to know what you need to output.” sional digital media and entertainment version as well as archiving and preserva- five colleagues, two of whom are pro- Smith is impressed by the system’s per year between 2011 and 2016 with tion. This report is available from Cough- ducer/editors, have their hands full. handling of slo-mo footage — something about 830PB of new content projected lin Associates. More information and Despite those challenges, the process is that’s ubiquitous in sports. “It’s less jittery to be archived in 2016. order forms for the report are available surprisingly pain-free thanks to an Amber- than with other systems I’ve seen,” he says. Having such a repository of rich con- at: http://www.tomcoughlin.com/Techpa- Fin iCR system. The department originally “Our producer/editors are really quality tent will help feed the growing tail of pers/2011%20M&E%20Storage%20 turned to AmberFin when it was looking oriented, and they had constantly com- content available to consumers and Report%20Brochure,%20051611.pdf. to transcode to its Avid Symphony and plained about the look of slo-mo on the enables new monetization methods for Nitris DS systems, and now an AmberFin Internet. Now, they’re really happy with it.” content creators and content owners. Tom Coughlin is a storage analyst and iCR is the hub of its workflow, used for AmberFin iCR has proved to be invalu- Clearly making, keeping and, for that mat- consultant. ingest, transcoding, review, SD-to-HD able to the Grizzlies’ broadcast depart- upconverts and soon lay off to archive. ment. “It’s been like having a couple more Figure 4. Total Costs for Storing 1PB of Content for 20 Years Smith likes the ability to set up watch employees,” says Smith. “It reduces our with five-Year Equipment Refreshes folders, which enable any files loading in production time; frees our producer/edi- the folders to automatically be output to a tors to produce and edit; works seam- pre-determined file format. “You can have lessly with our existing Avid editing, stor- $1,000,000 HDD one for DNxHD, one for the Web, one for age and sports production workflow; and SD,” he says. “There’s no need to go back reduces the content-to-Web lag time we Tape in and reset parameters and work with experienced in the past.” $100,000 “PUSS IN BOOTS”

$10,000 [ Cont.from 17 ] I’m half way there. I can modify those sounds.” POST: You work out of Warner Bros — what tools are you using there, and what did stimated Cost for 1PB

E you use when recording sounds? KING: “We recorded either directly into Pro Tools or on Sound Devices hard

Annual drive recorders using a variety of mics, including a Neumann 191 that I used for the wagons. I also used DPA and SAS mics to capture low-end rumple. “I used Logic and Kontakt as my main sound design tools, and editing and doing further manipulation in Pro Tools V.9. Everything is on Pro Tools — ADR, Foley — 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023 2025 2027 2029 everything. We are mixing at Fox, and as most places in town are now, we are recording to Pro Tools recorders.”