interview and copy written for Sohonet
article here
Front Street
Pictures in Vancouver has produced and provided production services on a
broad catalogue of live-action, scripted content across multiple genres for
more than two decades. The company houses a full suite of services including
development, legal, budgeting, and scheduling as well as post-production
facilities and the management of all aspects of delivery for clients who
include Hallmark and Lifetime movies of the week and features for Paramount and
Sony Pictures.
Sepideh Merchant, director of Post-Production, joined the company in 2019 and immediately saw a need to improve upon the already established workflow. Coincidentally, this was a few months prior to the global pandemic that would then force companies to take on a more remote-focused process, which lined up perfectly with the direction Front Street was going.
Trial and Error:
Finding a Reliable Streaming Solution
“When I arrived, a
priority was to upgrade the post-production system from hard drives to more of
a networked storage solution. It was imperative, especially when the pandemic
hit, that we shift to a more remote-focused solution and find a way for us to all
connect to the office from different locations. Through research I found a
remote streaming software that we tried out in order to keep collaborating with
our production and distribution teams.
However, Front
Street found it challenging to find a solution that was simple and reliable
enough for the teams to collaborate with each other effectively.
“The system we were
using proved slightly unreliable,” she reports. “Set up time was very lengthy.
Producers and creative clients were having more trouble than they needed to set
up sessions on their laptop or iPad. The vendor suggested that we purchase additional
hardware to help with the workflow, which we did but it didn’t make much of a
difference and we often had to call tech support.
“Luckily through
word of mouth we learned that Sohonet had a demo of its solution in Vancouver
which I attended. I was immediately hooked.”
Securing a box to
trial proved to be the answer Front Street was looking for.
“The best thing
about ClearView Flex is that it is true plug and play. Clients just need to
sign in and away you go.”
The real test
occurred during production of a Lifetime movie. They began the project using
the existing streaming software and were experiencing familiar trouble with set
up and frame delay.
“The best thing
about ClearView Flex is that it is true plug and play. Clients just need to
sign in and away you go.”
“When we had the
opportunity to work with ClearView Flex we did so side by side with the
streaming software and immediately saw the benefits. ClearView Flex was ahead
by miles. It was so seamless and perfect and a superb experience for our
producers.”
Front Street uses
ClearView Flex extensively for off-line editorial (editing and mixing) for much
of their in-house productions. More recently, Front Street has become among the
first Canadian facilities to employ the NDI-enabled version of the technology.
“We jumped on that
when it was released by Sohonet because we run so many productions through here
that it made sense for us upgrade and thus enable multiple productions to
schedule sessions.
The NDI version
means we can run multiple different productions day to day all connected to one
box.
“It works
beautifully, and we’ve had no issues at all,” she adds.
@Sohonet https://www.sohonet.com/article/front-street-pictures-the-quest-for-a-true-plug-and-play-streaming-solution-leads-to-clearview-flex
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