In the summer of 2008 Digipost began a search for a media storage and collaborative editing system to support their expanding business. The project specification was comprehensive and featured two key elements. The new storage system had to provide immediate support for current projects, including a major series for Disney, and it had to be “future proof”, capable of easily increasing storage when required.

The Solution
After a thorough consultation process to determine workflow options, equipment compatibility and all-inclusive costs, Digipost decided to purchase a 5RU EditShare system from AV Intelligence (AVI), sales and service providers for EditShare in New Zealand.

EditShare is a NAS-system of hardware and software that’s optimized for video collaboration. The file level sharing capabilities of EditShare allow editors on any connected workstation to capture, access and share in real time from a common pool of media files. Regardless of application or platform, source material, work in progress and finished packages are shared and instantly available to all users on the EditShare network. EditShare’s Project Sharing capabilities for Avid or Final Cut Pro expand the sharing, allowing multiple editors to work from the exact same Project with instant Read Only access to each other’s bins and sequences.

Media is recorded directly to solid state SSR-1 storage units attached to the camera; these are transferred to HDCAM SR tapes before being digitized with the Avid DNxHD36 codec. Audio is delivered to editorial in a file-based format and is synced by assistant editors.

Cutting is completed in HD at all times and the EditShare workflow means one suite can ingest the media making it immediately available to all edit suites. Because of the intense use of special effects there are a number of ‘vendor’ facilities providing VFX work, including Digipost’s high-end Smoke, Flame and Inferno suites. This requires regular transfer of uncompressed HD elements which are distributed as dpx files with work-in-progress versions transferred between all the locations as QuickTime movies via email, FTP or Aspera (including overseas approvals to Disney). Once an episode is locked, it is online conformed in Digipost’s Backdraft system as full range 10bit 4:4:4 HD with supporting work in Smoke, Flame and Inferno. Final output is assembled using Sledgehammer DDR, graded and mastered to HDCAM SR tape.

While Digipost have some fibre channel connectivity, they use 10Gb Ethernet between Flame, Inferno, Baselight, Backdraft and Sledgehammer so it was very easy to connect the EditShare system to the Digipost network. The installation team was able to play up to 9 simultaneous streams of DNxHD36 on an 8-core Mac Pro Avid. More streams will be possible with faster computer processing. Between 30 and 40 streams of DNxHD36 were simultaneously supported by EditShare with all suites playing complex sequences at the same time.

EditShare’s high performance with multiple simultaneous users over Gigabit networks was a key benefit for Digipost. “We see 10Gb connectivity as the future common technology, that’s one of the reasons we chose EditShare,” says Matt Cunningham, IT Design Architect at Digipost. “10Gb may soon be widely available over ‘Cat6’ cabling which will make it easy to deliver higher bandwidth to all of our suites. Even with 1Gb connected to each of our Avids EditShare is giving impressive results.”

EditShare supports a full range of industry-standard software and hardware and the integration with other systems allows operators to maximize existing equipment as well as add additional ones. Digipost has set up an NFS share on their EditShare enabling their Autodesk systems to connect directly and to create a straight-forward procedure for transferring selected HD shots as uncompressed dpx files that the VFX editor can then evaluate.

“Being able to demonstrate EditShare on site and show how easy it was to get up and running was a definite advantage,” says Doug Braddock from AV Intelligence. “We were able to get two Media Composers connected and operating with the EditShare demo model within an hour or so.”

“The simplicity and flexibility of the EditShare system was really appealing,” says Garry Little, owner and Managing Director of Digipost. “We don’t make investments like this without considering every aspect, and in each case EditShare delivered - from the capabilities of RAID5 media protection, compatibility with our existing technology, the ability to connect to Final Cut as well as Avid and competitive pricing.” Matt Cunningham added, “We found the team at AVI really understand the post production industry and are 100% committed to making the entire installation and commissioning process run smoothly and efficiently.”