my interview / words copy written for Sohonet
article here
Sohonet says its
reason for being is connecting storytellers. And in fact, they've connected
thousands of companies and over 100,000 creators working across the globe.
"We work
alongside studios and post teams to build a range of tools that remove
technical obstacles in their workflows, so nothing gets in the way of creating
great content," explains Sohonet's Chuck Parker, who joined the Sohonet board
in 2013 and has been full time as chairman and CEO since 2014. "We are
committed to our vision of revolutionizing the way storytellers create content
by making collaboration more seamless and secure."
We reached out to
Parker to find out how Sohonet is evolving with the industry, where their drive
to empower creatives came from, and more…
How did Sohonet
start, and how has it changed over the years?
The heritage of Sohonet is contained in our name. In 1995, a few friends in
post met at their local watering hole in Soho [London]. They represented five
computer graphics companies, and they needed to find a way to send large
digital files to each other quickly and securely. They also knew that if they
didn't make it, nobody else would. And so Sohonet began.
At that time, the
state-of-the-art was ATM. Following an MBO in 2001, Sohonet took on its first
significant investment in 2012 and grew its service offering on the West Coast
of the US. Since our early, experimental days, we've grown our media network into
a multi-Emmy Award-winning global powerhouse and the largest private network
for the M&E industry.
In 2014, Sohonet
launched its first software products with our accelerated file transfer
tool FileRunner. We then released ClearView Flex in 2017
and ClearView Pivot in 2020 — for sub-100ms latency remote
collaborative over-the-shoulder experiences. The pandemic accelerated the way
the industry viewed tools like these, taking them from a "nice to
have" for occasional use to an essential and embedded part of everyone's
working life.
Sohonet acquired
5th Kind earlier this year. Why was this an important move for you, and what
does it bring to your users?
There is a
convergence happening in the industry. As both production and post workflows
move to the cloud, the ability to manage production assets at scale with people
in many different places will require a more sophisticated toolset. We believe
the correct approach is production asset management (PAM) and that there are
several improvements we can make for storytellers in how they collaborate.
Even five years
ago, everything from set to post would happen in the four walls of a building
on a hard drive and tape. Asset management was a physical job that constrained
the flexibility for creative labor and meant that clients had to come onsite in
person.
The pandemic turned
that on its head. It's normal now to have teams distributed across different
cities and multiple time zones working on a shot together, grading or mixing it
remotely as if all the creatives were in the same room. There are tools that solve
that as a point solution — ClearView Flex being a great example — but the
minute that session is over that workflow goes back to its disconnected state.
The right PAM
approach means those assets can move securely to review and approve and then
onward, so that every workflow is in sync. For instance, when editorial is
complete, the asset can flow to a dubbing specialist for final mix, VFX shots
can flow back into the process, and assets are available to streamline
integrated marketing for trailers and press kits or merchandise development and
integration with retail.
With the converged
trends of post moving to cloud, virtual production and remote collaboration, it
is critical for the industry to embrace a secure, synchronized, data-first and
superfast workflow.
You previewed
several 5th Kind product integrations at IBC. How is that going, and are there
plans for further integrations into your existing portfolio?
Yes, we have
created two derivative products from that portfolio. Storylink is
production asset management for studios, large-scale productions, franchises
and multi-season episodics, and ClearView Rush is a review tool for
dailies.
And there are
indeed plans for further integration. For instance, when a director or DP can't
attend a live ClearView session, we plan to enable the session to be recorded
so that the key creative can make their notes offline and share back. We
anticipate having that ready early next year.
Our file transfer tool FileRunner is also
being integrated into Storylink to enable a smoother flow of data in and out of
the system securely and at speed. We actually showed this on our stand at IBC
in September.
Can you tell us
a little more about who's using Sohonet, and what they're using your tools for?
There are three
elements to Sohonet's business. One is first-class managed production services.
These are essential on-set communications, such as phones, internet, Wi-Fi and
connectivity, for which we are partnered with 300 premium stages around the world,
including Pinewood, Trilith and Shadowbox. We also service another 400 stages
with scalable connectivity, essentially connecting those premium stages to
every large distribution studio from Disney brands to Warner Bros. Discovery
brands, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, NBCU, Paramount and more.
The vast majority
of VFX and post houses in the industry are connected to our network. That means
industry participants can push large scale data, meaning multi-Terabyte plates
for VFX, with confidence and with speed. And half of our business comes from a
very wide range of production companies, VFX and post houses that use our
collaboration solutions for remote flexible work. The primary relationships
that 5th Kind has built for its products are with Marvel, Universal and Warner
Bros. Discovery, as well as forward-leaning gaming companies like Riot Games,
which are creating episodic and feature content from their existing IP.
Any sneak peeks
for our readers? Can you share a bit about your product roadmap for the next
six months to a year?
Our product
roadmap for the next six months to a year is centered on redefining and
streamlining collaboration workflows for media pros. We've already unveiled
several important updates at IBC. And looking ahead, we are highly focused on
integrating the user experience and security across our product portfolio,
making it easier for storytellers to quickly find, access and manipulate
assets. This approach aligns with our mission and will add substantial value to
our offerings in the coming months.
Our industry is
readying to emerge from a challenging period. How are teams looking to bounce
back from the strikes and ensure a swift recovery?
It feels like
there's a similar energy to the post-COVID surge, but instead of staggered
lockdown endings worldwide, we're now starting to see everyone planning in
parallel for the return of production. While the return to work after the
strikes is going to have some similarities to the pandemic, it's a
fundamentally different situation. The pandemic emphasized remote work and the
development of new production protocols, whereas the strikes brought
productions and post production to a standstill. There's no fear about
returning to work; everyone is eager to rush back to sets, editing rooms and
facilities. Producers and post managers must be prepared for this, and all
stakeholders in the industry are going to be striving for a smooth and rapid
re-engagement to regain full speed, a commitment shared by everyone at Sohonet.
The big remaining uncertainty for all of us is how will the returning
production volume compare to the pre-strike levels? Adding to this uncertainty
is the state of post production supply, with many VFX and post companies forced
to significantly reduce their workforce.
Looking further
down the road, what trends are you following? And what does the broader future
look like for Sohonet?
As you can
imagine, the team here at Sohonet has been dreaming of and planning
for our industry's cloud journey for quite some time. We believe our unique
capabilities will allow us to combine high-speed connectivity from 700+ stages
with our products that will enable the transfer of original camera files from
the set to the cloud, allowing productions to work seamlessly and securely
while saving time and money.
We are excited
about the future and the role we're going to play in it. We look forward to not
only connecting talent to tools and to each other, but to also helping the
industry unlock the power of the massive amounts of data and metadata that are
produced in today's content workflows. As our industry reinvents itself in an
era of powerful new tools and the collaborative creative possibilities of the
cloud, we are ready to continue to literally connect the dots.
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