THE
CLOUD
SHOOT MANAGEMENT
EDIT
FACILITIES
VISUAL FX
DAILIES/ CONTENT REVIEW
SOUND
ASSET MANAGEMENT
Ideally, original content moves to the cloud only once. All work from that point onwards is via web interfaces and proxies
It’s vital to consider security measures in use as this is where the hacker’s attack surface is at its greatest.
CONTENT GENERATION Most traditional content generation — such as shooting a movie — does not change as a result of an end to end workflow, the challenge is data movement from set to cloud. Note that in the user-generated content world, this is avaliable and immediate. This can be a powerful tool.
END TO END WORKFLOW USING UBIQUITOUS CLOUD SERVICES
rising level of complexity and volume
brings DCP versioning and mastering to the growing
of content across the cinema platform
party of solutions hosted in the cloud.
has, up to now, been handled in a fairly linear fashion by a mixture of
Adaptable to suit the scale required
traditional, well-known stakeholders,
Cloud computing is useful for a number of reasons,
and new entrants to the industry.
primarily, it is the ability to ramp up scale as demand
More and more companies are
requires. This solution is a no-brainer for an industry such as
turning to cloud-based solutions in
ours, where the product is essentially a time-honoured
order to facilitate this rapid expansion
creation of large amounts of data which needs to be
of content complexity, and “the cloud”
processed and then delivered. Secondary to this is speed; if
is now an often-raised subject in the
more machines can be harnessed to achieve scale then
technology circles of the industry. So
more machines can also be utilised to speed up a workflow.
what is this “Cloud” of which we speak?
An example of this is Sundog Media Toolkit’s DCP Engine which can perform the task of wrapping a new DCP in a
Nebular networking…
substantially reduced timeframe, compared to on-premise
Quite simply, cloud computing is a
machines, yet it doesn’t stop there, because any versioning
network of remote servers hosted on
job can be run hundreds of times simultaneously, with
the internet. These servers are held,
negligible loss of time overall. In other words, cloud services
typically, in secure data centres—
allow the production pipeline to expand when the demand
warehouses with huge banks of
for all the exotic flavours in the version explosion is there,
machines blipping and whirring away,
rather than having to extend a deadline or farm out work
doing what they are designed to do.
due to capacity issues.
The use of cloud platforms in the
Cloud computing is an efficient resource and the costs
motion picture industry is in its relative
associated reflect this. When companies migrate to cloud
infancy, though there are a few well-established uses
computing and storage, capital expenditure budgets can
already,
platforms
be reduced significantly, with an on-demand op-ex model.
distributing content to cinemas, such as those from Gofilex
When we look at cinema and its growing relationship
notably
the
electronic
delivery
and UniqueX. Both utilise data centres and cloud services. In the film and television industry adoption is, however, growing
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In an end to end cloud environment facilities don’t go away creative teams still need somewhere to work. However they become more flexible and, with appropriate controls, individuals can work from the office, home or the beach with equal ease.
apace,
with
emerging
technologies
with the cloud, we can see some highly compelling cases for further enterprise and collaboration. The overall
and
adoption in the post-production and mastering worlds will
applications hitting cloud services such as Aspera and
see timelines shrink, content delivered quickly, dynamically
Signiant which offer fast and secure file delivery; cut in
— that is, with a higher level of accuracy than currently
BeBop and Aframe with professional editing platforms;
exists, and, potentially, on demand. Metadata will provide
GrayMeta uses AI and machine learning to extract and
more intelligence on content — or in content — which in
create metadata; Foundry (Nuke) with powerful VFX
turn will allow more automation, localised advertising,
rendering, and our own Sundog Media Toolkit which
‘augmented reality’ and marketing opportunities. www.cinematech.today