Workflow: Why it is the Next Big Thing

From The Creative COW Magazine

Ron Lindeboom Cambria California, USA ©2006 Ron Lindeboom and CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

Article Focus: In this Creative COW magazine article we will look at the future of workflow and what some of the players in the media industry are doing along with the changes they are bringing to the production landscape. Featured in this article are the structures and modules of Avid Interplay.

In an industry that has often been known for lavish helpings of eye candy, it’s odd that its Next Big Thing would seem more the heart-throb of accountants, than of artists and editors. But the democratization of video that exploded in popularity with the advent of Firewire, is taking another major step today; a step likely to have a bigger impact than anything that has come before.

Unlike some writers, I never claim to have all the answers and do not mind “learning publicly.” What I have are many friends that I can call on to help me fit the puzzle together. And while there may be a select few that already know everything in this article, I am not writing for a handful of pioneers. Instead, I am writing for those trying to make sense of all that is changing so rapidly. To that end, I have drawn upon some highly knowledgeable people to help make sense of the changing production landscape.


DEMOCRATIZATION MULTIPLIED

In a nutshell, these new changes are designed to remove the barriers between individuals and their content, between workgroups and the content shared between them; even between people that are working together from half a world away — in realtime. It’s one thing to have realtime effects but when the power of realtime meets the production workflow, the big magic can really start to happen.

Engineers have been hard at work streamlining production processes and crafting solutions that overcome many longaccepted production bottlenecks. In systems like Avid Interplay, even billing/tracking functions between accounting and production are supported. A big move for larger facilities.

DV camcorders and Firewire™ drives opened the doors of production to a myriad of people in the late 1990s. Like DV, today’s new productivity tools, media and project management, tapeless acquisition, DDRs, next generation networks and other new tools, are harbingers of a technological shift that will redefine production, yet again.

Whereas the DV Revolution was about empowering the individual, this revolution is about bringing individuals together in ways previously unimagined by all but the dreamers among us who will not take “No” for an answer.

The exciting part of this revolution is that it’s a revolution an order of magnitude greater than its predecessors; this, as it draws its power from the imaginations of many, enabled to freely work together. “Sorta like the Cow,” you say? I couldn’t agree more.





To begin to get the big picture of changing workflows and the ways in which walls and limits can be overcome in workgroup settings, let’s look at the latest offering from Avid, who introduced Avid® Interplay™ during NAB 2006. With Interplay, you find the king-of-the-mountain offering and the one with the most full-featured feature-set.

Arguably, Avid’s greatest strength as a company lies in their oft-venerated powers in media management and their support for workgroups. Interplay takes that heritage and moves it well beyond anything that the company has done before. Avid’s President/CEO, David Krall, rolled out Interplay during NAB 2006 and to say that it was impressive would be an understatement. Why?


Avid Interplay administrative engine, where work begins


MANAGEMENT & SECURITY

This is a system that brings it all together: Interplay tracks, routes and manages acquisition, file management, raw and subsequent file versions and revisions, which programs were used and which people in the hierarchy are authorized to make decisions and at what level. It gives appropriate access to workgroup files using passwords to insure that files cannot be accessed, deleted or modified by your entry-level employees or part-timers. It builds walls that keep processes allocated to those whom you want accessing them and it denies them to anyone else. It can also work with files from applications like Microsoft Office and Filemaker, et al, so there is a lot more going on here than just tracking creative assets from your Avid Suite, Photoshop, Maya, etc.

AVID INTERPLAY
www.avid.com/products/interplay

Pros: Incredible width and depth. State-of-the-art capabilities. Platform agnostic, works with most all tools and systems.
Cons: Capabilities come with a high cost that may be outside the reach of many smaller or independent studios.
Alternatives: None, though a few features are found in syncVUE.

One of the real secrets about Interplay is that it is application agnostic, so it will work with any Final Cut Pro and Adobe stations in your company. Work with Quantel or Discreet? It works with them, as well.


Interplay Access, where files are assigned, accessed, settings are made, and user access is controlled.

Interplay comes with a healthy price tag, targeting larger companies where this kind of capacity costs them less than the wages of a single employee, in many cases. And for what it does, I personally have yet to meet the single person who could do all that this system can do, at the speeds in which it can do it. It justifies its starter price of around $18k for an entry system.


THE INTERPLAY STRUCTURE

While Interplay is broad in its abilities, it is relatively easy to use. It makes sense and the pieces are where you’d expect them to be. It uses a module-based system with optional modules that can be added to enhance your system to target specific needs based on your company’s workflow.

The system is made up of the following modules:

STANDARD MODULE
• Interplay Access

OPTIONAL MODULES
• Interplay Assist
• Interplay LowRes Encode
• Interplay Transfer
• Interplay Archive

While the depth and range of features will take some time to memorize, the interface itself is easily recognized and understood by anyone with an understanding of the fundamentals of computerbased hierarchal navigation.

By using these navigation and interface fundamentals, users can access what Avid CEO, David Krall describes as: “...tools for searching, archiving, viewing, logging, automatic transcoding, dual-resolution encoding, and intelligent tracking of multi-resolution proxy files, all of which streamline collaboration between people and eliminate timeconsuming production tasks. In addition, the Avid Interplay system is open to any media production environment – accommodating more than 100 different media and non-media file types – and can link to production tools from virtually any other company.” It does elegantly.

Interplay not only tracks over 100 types of files and assets but it can be “taught” to recognize others which the system does not yet support.

Once one of these files is added to the Interplay system, it tracks every revision of a file within a project. The Interplay system can alert you regarding non-completed files so that when they’re needed at delivery time, they are ready, not suddenly a “crunch-time” item.

One of the nicest features of the Interplay system is that as teams or individuals complete their respective assets used in the production, these assets are automatically updated anywhere the asset is used. While this kind of functionality is seen in tools like the Adobe Production Suite, e.g., it is taken to a whole new level in Interplay.

Many functions of the Interplay system work without the user having to do much, beyond importing files into the system. For those needing custom tracking to facilitate the needs of their studio or a particular job, Interplay allows users to add custom metadata using the Interplay Assist module. In Interplay Assist, administrators can add metadata that expands the project management functions.


Interplay Assist, where files are tracked and Metadata is controlled.

Using Avid Interplay LowRes Encode, users can perform functions such as setting varying levels of display resolutions for users. Key editors and others who need to work with the full high-resolution HD files, for example, can use full 10bit HD 1080 files. Those whose duties do not require full access to the high res files, can be set to use 8bit SD resolutions like DV or other less resource taxing formats. This helps studios maximize productivity on their Avid Unity or other network.

One nicety of LowRes Encode is that while users may be seeing different resolutions, each user “calls” the same file in the folder. There are not a bunch of different files in folders for each varying resolution. The varying resolutions are handled invisibly by Interplay.

Avid users expect Avid to have strong media management functions. Interplay Archive functionality leverages large content resources that many film studios, broadcast operations and other studios have. Interplay Archive can access both current and archived files across the system backbone.

The overall “flow” of the Interplay system draws on Avid’s fluid interface design, married to its long-venerated media management strengths. The system does most of the work but also allows administrators to expand the system to support the design, editing and other tools in use.

While some will point to Avid’s AlienBrain acquisition as the source of all this power, the truth is, it’s only part of the picture. Added to the feature set acquired with AlienBrain, Avid has added the kind of features and support that can only come from a company that has made an art of supporting workgroups.

As of this magazine’s printing, this is as good as workflow tools get — and it has the pricetag to match.


Find more great Creative COW Magazine articles by signing up for the complementary Creative COW Magazine.