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Andrew Clarkson, colorist and director, talks about the benefits of BrightDrive and Resolve integration at BEAN, Australia’s newest digital post facility. More |
BrightDrive has been installed at Chungnam Techno Park in Korea to create a highly streamlined and efficient realtime postproduction workflow across a range of applications . More |
Welcome to this post-IBC issue of Bright News. Bright Systems made an enormous impact at IBC this year, with the launch of the new BrightClip Data Recording Technology, BrightDrive TxP and Version 3 of Data Management Suite. We also demonstrated BrightDrive with new technologies, making it a compelling solution for a wider range of post and broadcasting applications. More about these exciting new products coming up.
We are delighted to announce that our BrightClip technology has attracted the attention of daVinci Systems, Thomson Grass Valley and Arri who have all agreed to implement it with their products.
In the US, our network of business partners continues to grow. We’ve recently signed up Oceana Digital as a new business partner to cover the NE US. Oceana has years of sales and systems integration experience in the broadcast and post-production markets and we are delighted to be working with them.
Finally, we are maintaining our success internationally as more and more post-production companies discover the value they can add to their digital workflows by choosing BrightDrive as their media sharing infrastructure. Four of our new customers are featured below and there’s also a word from some of our long-term customers who have recently upgraded their systems.
Once again, we thank you sincerely for your interest in Bright Systems.
Antony Harris
CEO
PRODUCT NEWS
BrightClip Intelligent Data Recording Technology Brings Stability and Increased Power to Digital Workflows
Bright has launched BrightClip, a new intelligent data recording technology. Part of the BrightDrive family of shareable media products, BrightClip provides superior disk recording and playback of media within the digital postproduction environment by overcoming the need for disk optimization that frequently burdens facility managers with protracted and often unscheduled downtime. In doing so, BrightClip brings unprecedented stability and predictability to workflows.
Bright will make its new BrightClip data recording technology available to third party application software developers from Q1 2008, and is already working with a number of selected developers to integrate it with their product ranges.
“BrightClip eliminates the need to optimize media clips before they can be used – a process that is recognized as one of the biggest consumers of time in the digital postproduction environment,” said Antony Harris, CEO, Bright Systems, Inc. “The quality of playback performance in disk-based systems is dominated by issues concerning recording quality: the difference between a properly recorded clip and an arbitrarily recorded clip can be shown to degrade by as much as 90% on the same underlying hardware.”
He continues: “Loss of performance with arbitrary recording is inconsistent and can lead to many hours being spent on unscheduled optimizing tasks before work can continue. Consequently, project delivery dates may be missed. BrightClip is an exciting new development that delivers a powerful, cost-effective solution to this problem and further establishes Bright Systems as the leading developer of disk recording technology.”
BrightClip can be set up for use with applications either direct through API, or indirect through an administrative interface. With the API, an application developer has full access to all recording functionality within their application. Alternatively, if an application is not BrightClip-enabled, an administrator can set up or script tasks to create a BrightClip. BrightClip files appear as normal alongside regular project and other files, making their use entirely transparent.
Bright Takes BrightDrive to Wider Range of Digital Post and Broadcasting Markets
Bright is shipping BrightDrive with a range of new technologies designed to increase its applicability within the digital post and broadcasting markets – making it a highly compelling option for higher end post applications, and for broadcasting workflows where large numbers of lower resolution data streams are required. The new technologies also enable Bright to dramatically increase the value of BrightDrive by adding more real-time media sharing functions at a lower price point.
“Bright is constantly developing and refining its media sharing technology to add functionality, accessibility and performance for the benefit of the digital post and broadcasting community,” said Antony Harris, CEO, Bright Systems, Inc. “Now shipping with powerful new functionality, BrightDrive addresses all applications using multiple streams of 4K, 2K, HD444, HD 422, compressed HD, and compressed and uncompressed SD.”
For high-end digital post applications, BrightDrive incorporates new functionality enabling it to play more streams at the same time from the same workspace. For the first time, customers will be able to play 4 streams of 2K from a single workspace. This increases the maximum number of data streams available from Bright’s largest capacity BrightDrive, the PRO16, to 64 streams of 2K, making it the most powerful media sharing system on the market.
For workflows requiring lower resolutions, for example, uncompressed HD 422 to compressed HD and SD applications, the new technology enables BrightDrive to deliver superior disk recording and media playback at a much reduced entry level price.
BrightDrive Transportable TxP Brings Major Cost Savings to Digital Film Processes
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Bright has launched BrightDrive TxP, a new secure, high speed, high capacity portable drive system. With the ability to hold and offload data at speeds up to 20 times greater than standard Firewire and USB, BrightDrive TxP brings major cost savings to all digital workflows involving large volumes of data, by dramatically cutting media transfer times.
BrightDrive TxP uses Bright’s advanced disk recording technology to provide significant advantages over film, tape, Firewire and USB drives. Users are able to transfer media at real-time 2k, or 300 MB per second, enabling them, for example, to back off or upload a 2-hour motion picture in approximately 2 hours instead of the normal laboriously long times currently required.
“BrightDrive TxP represents a major new technology for the motion film and digital post industry,” said Homer Carter, CTO, Bright Systems, Inc. “It has been developed in close consultation with some of our largest digital film customers, and incorporates highly sophisticated media storage and server intelligence. These factors have enabled us to bring to market a solution that promises to have a big impact on the way our customers operate. What’s more, we are able to offer BrightDrive TxP at a price point that makes it an attractive and accessible ‘must-have’ solution for all facilities.”
In addition to offering fast download speeds, BrightDrive TxP uses Bright’s Data Integrity technology to perform automatic checking and verification of the data set at the final destination to ensure end-to-end integrity. It also minimizes time spent ‘transporting’ data between disparate systems when ingesting and offloading.
Each BrightDrive TxP chassis can hold 4 transportable drive capsules each with a 1.5 terabyte capacity, enabling users to ingest or offload up to 2 full-length motion pictures at a time. The system has a compact, high-tech construction with the drives specifically designed to ensure media can be shipped in a safe and secure environment between remote locations.
Bright Ships BrightDrive Data Management Suite V3
Bright has announced immediate availability of BrightDrive Data Management Suite (DMS). Supplied as standard with all BrightDrive shareable media stores, Version 3.0 of BrightDrive DMS includes a powerful new range of usability features and enhancements that enable customers to further optimize the flow and management of media between multiple DI and post-production workstations and processes.
BrightDrive DMS comprises three data management products: Data Wrangler, Data Optimizer and Data Mover. In V3.0, each product features a range of new and updated functions to maximize ease of use, system performance and data delivery speeds.
Data Wrangler V3.0 includes a new set of graphical tools available to operators from within a single, simple to use interface for browsing, searching and previewing media. These new tools facilitate the management of folders and sequences on the BrightDrive infrastructure. Data Wrangler has also been extended to include easy access to all the Data Mover and Data Optimizer functions.
Data Optimizer and Data Mover V3.0 benefit from a new algorithm developed to improved workspace management through advancements in optimization intelligence. Data Optimizer identifies media within any data set, including single clips, and analyzes its physical characteristics. Images are re-laid out, if necessary, in the most logical and intelligent order for optimal playback.
Data Mover V3.0 simplifies the movement of image files between BrightDrive’s shareable workspaces, and between BrightDrive and remote workstations with direct attached storage (DAS). By using of Bright’s advanced image-aware technology, Data Mover is able to recognize the characteristics of image files, and manage them intelligently to provide optimal system performance. Also included are enhanced bandwidth management technology, and a folder-watch function that automatically ‘watches’ for new files rather than having to be initiated manually.
“BrightDrive’s powerful media sharing capabilities are recognized in the international post-production and broadcast community for bringing major benefits to all data centric workflows,” said Homer Carter, CTO, Bright Systems, Inc. “BrightDrive DMS includes powerful new features and software refinements that deliver increased levels of usability to our products and further highlight the BrightDrive range as a mature, feature-rich technology.”
BrightDrive DMS V3 will ship with all BrightDrive systems. Bright’s secure, remote distributed system diagnostics are also included as standard to ensure reliable, consistent and uninterrupted system performance.
CUSTOMER NEWS
da Vinci and Bright Complete New Data-Centric DI Facility at BEAN, Australia
da Vinci Systems and Bright have completed a new data-centric commercials post-production workflow at BEAN Colour Post in Sydney, Australia’s newest digital post facility.
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| Andrew Clarkson, BEAN, Australia |
Set up by leading colorists, Ben Eagleton and Andrew Clarkson, BEAN Colour Post was launched in June 2007 as Australia’s first purpose-built, digital grading facility. The facility’s workflow features tight integration between Bright’s BrightDrive shareable media store and two da Vinci Resolve digital mastering suites, enabling BEAN Colour Post to share media files across networks seamlessly, and simultaneously perform a range of finishing processes on the same media within a fast, flexible, and highly reliable digital environment.
“The Resolve color toolsets offer advanced capability, enabling nonlinear, in-context workflow efficiency we could never previously offer our clients,” said Clarkson. “Resolve’s unlimited layers, reconform capability, and visual signal processing node graph engage the clients in ways they never experienced color enhancement before.”
The new facility offers complete commercial finishing service, including the ability to work with HD 4:4:4 uncompressed video. The da Vinci/Bright solution provides a comprehensive set of state-of-the-art, nonlinear color enhancement tools and real-time sharing of content between multiple operators, without the need to copy files between workstations.
“Resolve and BrightDrive work together with total interoperability, which enables us to achieve a very high level of efficiency and performance,” continued Clarkson. “Using BrightDrive’s powerful media sharing technology, integrated with Resolve’s superior image enhancement capabilities and conform tools, we are able to provide our clients with a full range of first-class digital mastering services and unsurpassed flexibility. Customers can easily explore creative ideas to ensure their finished products reflect the required look and feel, and projects are finished within budget and with the highest picture quality.”
“The combined da Vinci/BrightDrive solution provides unparalleled workflow efficiency in a fast-paced, demanding commercial environment requiring fast access to media across all networks,” said da Vinci Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Service, Peter Glassberg. “It remains the most reliable and compelling file sharing system on the market. We are delighted to have completed another joint installation with Bright that demonstrates the close integration between our respective products and the highly successful partnership between our development teams.”
Peter Lambert, vice president worldwide sales, Bright System, Inc., commented, “Bright and da Vinci continue to provide solutions that give our mutual customers the tools with which they can achieve maximum productivity coupled with superior quality.”
BEAN Colour Post will use BrightDrive to provide the digital infrastructure for media files to be shared between two Resolve systems, giving operators the ability to see the latest versions of each other’s work at any time, as required. Resolve’s direct access, open file system architecture, and its tight integration with BrightDrive mean that all operators can access Resolve files directly from BrightDrive’s shareable media workspaces. This provides a fast and flexible method of working, as it eliminates the time-consuming tasks of downloading files from proprietary direct attached storage (DAS) and transferring data between workstations. If a client needs to change a particular visual effect for example, there is no need to reload data. Workflow is greatly accelerated and customers benefit from a highly flexible and creative service.
Scalable to fit any facility or budget, da Vinci’s Resolve combines the highest image quality with flexible and efficient short- and long-form workflows. With the Resolve digital mastering suite, facilities achieve greater productivity and improved workflow, and colorists experience more creative freedom thanks to an enhanced toolset and a familiar user interface.
BrightDrive is installed at a number of facilities in Australia, including Digital Pictures, The Lab, and Animal Logic.
Filmlab Digital, India, Gets BrightDrive for New DI and Film Restoration Facility
Filmlab, one of India’s most influential motion picture film laboratories, has purchased BrightDrive for its new DI and film restoration facility, Filmlab Digital in Mumbai. BrightDrive will provide the infrastructure and media sharing facilities for a range of projects including full length feature films for Bollywood and international markets. Film Cutter, Film Master and Final Cut Pro operators will be able to work collaboratively using the same media at the same time by sharing files across networks. 2K and 4K media will be delivered in real-time enabling operators to begin work without the need to copy data between workstations. BrightDrive will also provide nearline storage for four restoration seats and two scanners as well as media sharing between Filmlab Digital’s new facilities and Filmlab’s film laboratories.
“Having looked at other systems, BrightDrive stood out for its reliability in the field, its high performance and its advanced technology,” said Henning Hahn, CTO - Digital Imaging, Filmlab. “With it we will be able to provide clients with a very efficient and flexible workflow between our DI systems and lab services.”
CTP Multimedia Center, Korea, Installs BrightDrive for Postproduction Infrastructure
CTP Multimedia Center in the Republic of Korea has installed a BrightDrive shareable media store as the principal platform for its postproduction media sharing infrastructure.
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CTP Multimedia Center is a division of the Chungnam Techno Park, a Government-funded organization for technology-based business, research and training. The Multimedia Center provides postproduction equipment at reduced rates to facilities in the Chungnam area of Korea in order to activate and nurture the local multimedia industry. They have made considerable investment in digital intermediate equipment over the past twelve months and can now offer clients a complete range of systems from digital ingest through to delivery. The BrightDrive system will provide a collaborative infrastructure for these systems, enabling all operators to share and work on the same media files concurrently irrespective of the operating systems being used.
“At CTP we have a wide mix of postproduction and DI equipment using a range of files types and systems architecture,” said H S Kim, Director of Media Center at CTP. “BrightDrive lets us bring all of these systems into a streamlined and efficient workflow where operators have access to the same media in real-time in the knowledge that they are working in a stable environment. We chose BrightDrive because performance and stability were key issues for us and we were able to visit successful BrightDrive users worldwide to see it in use before making out decision to purchase.”
CTP currently has a Digital Vision Film Master, DVS Clipster and Pronto 2K, Discreet Lustre, Flame and Smoke, MTI Correct, and an Apple Final Cut Pro and Shake attached to BrightDrive as SAN clients, and a Render Farm 50CPU and Maya attached as NAS clients.
CTP has praised BrightDrive’s ability to maintain performance levels even when all operators are accessing the same files and the infrastructure is being used at full capacity. BrightDrive enables them to respond to their clients’ individual requirements by allowing shareable storage volumes to be increased or decreased quickly and easily without loss of time for creativity. As well as providing a highly streamlined workflow for clients, the system also gives CTP the flexibility to manage its services effectively.
The BrightDrive system at CTP was supplied and will be supported by BESCO, Bright Systems’ business partner in Korea.
Graal SA, Greece, Chooses BrightDrive to Provide Media Sharing Across All Post Production Workflows
Graal SA, a leading post-production facility in Athens, Greece, has purchased a BrightDrive PRO4 shareable media store. The new system will be used to create a collaborative, real-time media sharing environment incorporating Graal’s existing post-production equipment.
“We chose the BrightDrive system because of its ability to provide flexible, high performance media sharing across all of our post-production equipment,” said Katerina Economou, President and CEO, Graal SA. “Bright also has an outstanding record of reliability within the post-production industry and meets our demanding standards for quality, precision and security. We believe that the BrightDrive PRO 4 is a valuable asset that will enable us to achieve a seamless workflow combined with high performance and service.”
Graal undertakes a range of post-production and DI work and was the first company in Greece to invest in film scanning, colour grading and film recorder technology. BrightDrive will provide a media sharing infrastructure that enables them to compose and secure large projects quickly and efficiently whilst maintaining a high level of flexibility from their current resources.
The new system will enable operators using Graal’s film scanner, DS Nitris, Final Cut Pro, Baselight and film recorder systems to share and work on the same media files simultaneously. The system will be tightly integrated with Graal’s existing storage network, giving them the option to upgrade easily as future requirement evolve.
Facilities in Europe Endorse Benefits of BrightDrive Media Sharing
Many of Bright’s customers in Europe are upgrading their BrightDrive shareable media stores, thus demonstrating an impressive show of confidence in the benefits that can be achieved in post-production workflow through the adoption of a reliable, high performance collaborative media sharing infrastructure.
LipSync in London, UK, CinePostproduction GmbH & Co. KG in Berlin, Germany, Swiss International AB in Stockholm, Sweden, and Chimney Pot in Oslo, Norway, are just some of the post-production facilities located in Europe that have recently completed or are in the process of completing significant upgrades to their existing BrightDrive infrastructures.
LipSync, London, UK
LipSync was one of the first facilities in Europe to install a BrightDrive system. They are currently upgrading by adding a BrightDrive GigE Expansion Interface which will give them 4 additional Ethernet ports and a further 27 TB of nearline storage.
“We have become much busier since we first installed BrightDrive and now need to expand our media sharing capacity in response to our increased workload,” said Norman Merry, Managing Director, LipSync. “Because BrightDrive is based on scalable technology, we can easily add to the system without interrupting our schedules. It has performed consistently well from day one and has enabled us to achieve a highly efficient and collaborative workflow for our DI processes.”
Swiss International, Stockholm, Sweden
Swiss International has been using BrightDrive for 18 months during which they have moved their post-production workflow from a non-real-time environment to an interactive collaborative workflow where real-time and non real-time applications are tightly integrated across different hardware platforms.
Erik Holmedal, Executive Producer at Swiss International explains why they have now upgraded: “Having had much success with BrightDrive’s ability to share media across Ethernet and Fibre Channel, we have upgraded our facility to a higher capacity BrightDrive system and added an extra 4.8TB of online storage which will enable us to move more of our post-production processes into a real-time environment. Since we began using BrightDrive we have been able to significantly speed up the flow of work between the various post-production stages by enabling operators to share media concurrently. Operators can see each other’s work as changes are made in real-time. BrightDrive has reduced our average ‘time to completion’ and enabled us to greatly improve data handling.”
Chimney Pot, Oslo, Norway
The Chimney Pot Group, one of Europe’s foremost post-production enterprises, purchased three BrightDrive shared media systems for its facilities in Stockholm, Oslo and Moscow, in June 2006. They have upgraded their system in Oslo where media is shared between two Digital Vision Film Master’s, Flame, Smoke and a Data Conform.
“Bright Systems has been an outstanding company to work with,” said Bjorn Brudeli, Technical Manager for the Chimney Pot Group. “They provide excellent support services for all our facilities through their local support engineer and via ERA, their business partner in Europe. Their technology is highly reliable with BrightDrive enabling us to achieve significant improvements in the way we work. In Oslo, where the majority of projects involve data-intensive grading, onlining and visual effects, we needed to upgrade in order to add more users to our media sharing environment.”
NEWS FROM RENO
Bright Expands International Support Team
The Bright team continues to expand. Since the last issue of Bright News, new positions have been created and filled in all departments. The Bright support team in particular has grown dramatically in response to the increase in installed systems around the world. Recent recruits include Joe Wojdacz who has joined Bright as Consulting Engineer. Joe is based in Los Angeles making sure that the US West Coast customers continue to get a first class service. Roger Beck recently joined as Senior Systems Engineer for Bright’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business. Based in Germany, Roger also has many years of technical support experience having previously been responsible for overseeing the smooth running of all digital systems at Das Werk – one of Germany biggest post facilities. Bright is also happy to welcome Andrew Gibbons as Technical Support Engineer based in the UK. Finally, Bright has also recruited new staff to support the internal processes that take place in the Reno head office, with Larry Leiss joining as Technical Documentation Specialist, and Leslie Hammill and Richard Scott joining as Operations Assistants.