DMC Digital Opts For Avid Unity

SYDNEY

Sydney post-production house DMC Digital has become the country's first company to install the latest version of Avid's recently-released shared storage system, Avid Unity LANshare. Designed for small editorial workgroups, the Ethernet-based Avid Unity LANshare V3.0 delivers the best of the Avid Unity shared storage technology at an entry-level price. In addition to Avid Unity LANshare, DMC also runs five Avid Media Composer editing systems.
According to Paul Meredith, Operations Manager at DMC, “These days when clients are deciding which post-production facility to go with they take a close look at the technology that will be used in the editing process.
“Avid Unity LANshare is well-recognised as a system that enables businesses like ours to get more done in less time, thereby saving clients money while helping ensure a first-class job. These capabilities give us a clear competitive advantage and is why we are leveraging our implementation of the system to attract new business.”
Prior to installing Avid Unity LANshare, editors and other staff at DMC spent a lot of time in the unproductive task of managing media, for example transferring disk drives from one location to another. Also, only one DMC editor could work on a project at any one time. In particular for projects that required a fast turnaround, this proved an ongoing frustration.
“Although the typical project required the involvement of more than one editor we were hamstrung by our inability to enable several editors to collaborate on a project in real-time,” Paul said. “In a high-pressure industry where short project cycles are the norm, we were eager to find a cost-effective solution. I’m thrilled that Avid Unity LANshare has eliminated this problem, allowing several editors to simultaneously work on, and share, media files.”
DMC tool full advantage of the workflow-enhancing features of Avid Unity LANshare when it was commissioned for post-production of Auction Squad, a weekly Channel 7 lifestyle program that chronicles the sale of residential properties from ‘makeover’ through to auction. Auction Squad is filmed and edited in three stages, sometimes four to five weeks apart.
“The first part of Auction Squad is the house makeover component which, once shot, is edited by us then stored on the Unity system until several weeks later when the second element of the show – the house ‘open day’ (where prospective purchasers inspect the property) – is filmed," said Paul.
“Once the editing of the open day is complete that footage is stored on the Unity until several weeks later when the third and final part of the program – the house auction – is shot. The tapes of the auction sequences are then provided to us for editing. From this point forward it’s all hands on deck to ensure a fast turnaround. The capabilities of the Unity LANshare enable an editor to digitise the auction footage in one suite while a second editor makes final adjustments to the early part of the program in another suite. This makes the editing process very fast and efficient.”
Recently, Channel 7 extended Auction Squad from a weekly half-hour program to a full one-hour per week show. Now faced with having to deliver double the weekly output, DMC has made greater use of its Avid Unity LANshare.
“Being able to edit different parts of Auction Squad simultaneously in different editing suites proved particularly useful when the on-air duration of the program was doubled," Paul said. “The collaborative functionality of Avid Unity LANshare means that all editors working on the show can do their bit without having to fight others for access to the media. Each segment of the program gets all the attention it needs, thereby enabling us to maintain a high quality of output despite the extra workload.
“By allowing more than one editor to work on Auction Squad at the same time and by eliminating the need for us to re-digitise and transfer media the Avid Unity LANshare has proven to be a superb time-and money-saving tool. We are now using the system for other television post-production projects and are experiencing similar benefits.”
Having ably demonstrated its ability to save the company valuable time and improve client service, DMC anticipates a fast return on its investment in Avid Unity LANshare.
“Since installing Avid Unity LANshare we have become far more productive and efficient and this in turn is having a positive affect on our bottom line,” Paul said. “With our workflow processes now dramatically improved we expect the system to pay for itself very quickly.”

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