copy written for Sohonet
For more than 50 years, William F. White International
Inc has equipped Canada’s film and television industry with the most
extensive and technologically advanced rental inventory in the country.
Since 2019, it is also Canada’s leading supplier of first
class studio space servicing everything from tentpole features for the content
giants such as Netflix, Amazon, and Disney to experimental proof-of-concept web
shorts from the industry’s rising stars.
Its twelve state-of-the-art studios encompass over 30 sound
stages and more than 1.4 million square feet of production-ready studio space
in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto. WFW Studios offer premium,
full-service facilities with mill and paint shops, furnished offices,
boardrooms and script-reading rooms that crucially come equipped with 10 gig
fibre-optic connectivity from Sohonet.
“I worked with Sohonet while at Pinewood Shepperton, UK and
know how good the technology is,” says Doug Sandland, Director,
Information Technology, WFW Intl Studios. “When I came to WFW four years ago I
decided to reach out to them again.”
“We have 10 gig in every facility for a reason,” Sandland explains.
“We aim to offer our clients anything and everything. It used to be the case
that productions would transport media to another facility but, we decided to
give them the option to keep it in house at WFW Studios. We have multiple
tenants at each studio and with 10 gig we can facilitate all of them to upload
and stream high data payloads for VFX and raw Camera Files.”
What’s more, the group had this even before COVID.
“Lots of things have changed since COVID but we were lucky
we had Sohonet in place. Now demand has gone through the roof. Remote
working is simply part of how films and shows get made now.”
“Filmmakers and producers want the freedom to work away from
set. It means a director or an editor, a colorist or a DoP can be anywhere in
the world and, provided they have an internet connection, we can stream content
to them live from set.”
The Sohonet Media Network (SMN) provides
dedicated, uncontended connection to distributed teams and partners with
guaranteed bandwidth speeds. It enables workflows such as on the fly color
correction by a colorist who could be located tens or hundreds of kilometers
away in their facility. Creative decisions can be made by VFX supervisors and
editors in concert with directors and DPs slashing wasted time and maximising
time on location. Fewer key crew need to travel to set, reducing carbon
emissions and costs as well as keeping everyone safe.
“With this bandwidth we have set the benchmark for the
industry in Canada,” Sandland says. “Many other major studios offer
bandwidth connectivity but few, if any, have our service offer. Having
superfast, secure high bandwidth links is an essential part of modern
production infrastructure and something our clients rely on us to deliver.”
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