AUGUST 2017
Vol 238
Pick a Camera … any Camera We’re in the offices of Protel on the North Shore of Auckland with Ken Brooke and Ken is going to run through a couple of cameras that Protel has in stock as we speak. Ed: Ken, I guess the flagship today is the Canon C200 which has just arrived and you’ve sold several already? Ken: Yes, and we are awaiting more stock which will arrive shortly. Ed: Does it fit in that range of the C100, C300 but with some new features? Ken: I think it is designed to be an in-between model bridging between the C100 Mark II and the C300 Mark II. One of the key features for me is that it has improved processing and Canon’s new brilliant Dual Pixel Autofocus, something that really makes Canon stand out. It also has onscreen focus assist guides for when you’re using manual lenses or switching to manual mode on EF glass. Great for pin point accuracy when shooting 4K. Ed: I imagine you can change the position of where that little focus box is? Ken: Yes you can move the square focus frame around the shot by touching the screen, simple! The focus frame changes colour to green when you’re actually in full focus and there are quantitative indicators above the frame which squeeze up as you approach optimum focus. There are other features such as Full Auto Focus with Face and/ or Subject Tracking. I should point out some of the auto focus features work with Canon EF electronic lenses and even the two new par focal Compact Cinema Servo lenses too. Ed: Now this is particularly important because this is a 4K camera and, when you’re at 4K, the human eye, on a small viewfinder, it’s actually hard to pick up that fine focus?
… and Ken has the tripod to go with it.
Ken: Correct, it’s critical to be in focus shooting 4k and this system somehow puts that accuracy on the eye and not the nose, it’s really very good. Ed: Unless you deliberately want a soft look of course. Ken: One of the other major features is the C200 4K internal recording in Canon’s new Cinema RAW Light codec which is up to a fifth of a traditional RAW file allowing more people to aim higher in their production value. Avid also support RAW Light. This is available as a Canon RAW Plugin 2.0 for Avid® Media Access, provided as a free download from Canon. It allows users to directly import Canon Cinema RAW data into an Avid Media Composer® system. Check out: https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/ home/explore/cinema-eos-c200-cameras/ workflow Editing and grading of the Cinema RAW Light video format will also be supported by DaVinci Resolve. Support for Cinema RAW Light is also scheduled for EDIUS Pro, Grass Valley’s editing software, during 2017. Additionally, a future version of Final Cut Pro X from Apple Inc. will support Canon’s Cinema RAW Light, using Canon RAW Plugin for Final Cut Pro X. Ed:
It’s got a CFast 2 slot and it’s got SD slots?
Ken: It has 2 x SD slots in the back so you can record in various MP4 file formats and the Cfast 2 slot is for recording Cinema RAW 4096x2160 10 or 12bit. Canon’s XFAVC format will be available via firmware update in the first half of 2018 but if you want, 4:2:2 10bit external recording is possible out of the box now. Ed: Now of course the form factor of this camera, and it is a cine camera like the rest of the Canon “C” series, this is designed in its supplied state to go on a tripod, but there are plenty of accessories to adapt it to a variety of uses? Ken: Yes, and it is actually a shoulder mount camera hence the design of the touch screen OLED Monitor, so some of the same accessories you use with the C300 MKII or even the A-Camera C700 will fit it and obviously you could be using your existing EF lenses or new 4K EF lens. We’ve attached a CN-E8-80mm Canon lens on this one at the moment, which is quite a nice combination. Ed: Now of course there are lots of features on this, many of them manual because this is a cine camera? Ken: Yes there are plenty of nice features for camera operators to drool over so best to come and take a look to see for yourself and you have to check out the AF, it is not what people have known or would expect and certainly no toy feature either. Ed: Okay, that’s the Canon, the great thing is you’ve got one here at the present? Ken: We intend having “one in stock to show, one to go” obviously subject to stock availability as these new
cameras sell fast. The Canon product has a local 2 year warranty and they are supported locally by Canon professional service. You can also join “CPS” for even more support when things go wrong. Canon have a cupboard of support cameras to help people out, it’s worth looking into if you own a Canon that’s for sure. Ed: So somebody coming in to have a look at this camera, like in any great shopping experience, you can compare products. So you have other cameras that you could put beside the Canon and say “well, have a look at this, see if the features on this particular camera are more what you want than with the Canon.” What examples would you offer there? Ken: Well obviously we can offer Canon C200 and C300 MKII, Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro, and the Sony FS5 or the FS7 each of which have different features and applications. We don’t always have stock of each product to physically compare but we can help you understand which is right for your purpose and often show one or two of the cameras. Ed: Okay, so if you’re looking at the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro for instance what features would that have that people might go for? Ken: The USRA Mini Pro has a 4.6K sensor, relatively low cost physical dials and buttons; we have sold URSA to people shooting their own films and they’ve had a good experience with them. You’ll have to buy a battery kit to use it in the field, so don't forget about that when figuring out final cost, as well as a shoulder mount kit and a viewfinder. There are different features with every type of camera and it all depends on what people require and also their budget – they may want to reuse existing lens and batteries to save cost. If they’re in a multi-camera shoot they may need to match other cameras. We work with the customer as most already know what they want and just need to bounce their requirements off us prior to final selection. Ed: Would it be fair to say that anybody who is used to a traditional video camera would tend towards the Sony as opposed to the Blackmagic or the Canon? Ken: No not any more. If a cameraman is used to specific menu structures and operation then they may favour one brand over the other. They all now have an offering for the run and gunner … everyone has their preferences. Ed: There is a possibility of mix and match with the variety of cameras that are available in terms of the accessories that go with them, but sometimes it’s harder than others – especially with things like shoulder mount kits? Ken: Yes, though the moment a new camera is released on the market, you usually find all of the manufacturers of shoulder mounts come out with a variation to suit, so it’s not too hard and sometimes all you need are some specific parts of a shoulder mount to
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change it to a different camera mount. Often the camera manufacturers also offer their own branded product. Ed: And common accessories that you would sell with these products – I guess with the Canon, if somebody changes to a Canon they’ve got to change their bag because of the different form factor? Ken: Not always, however it is nice to have a new with a new camera. We sell the Sachtler bags, HPRC hard resin cases as well as, SanDisk CFast cards, radio mic kits ( both Sennheiser and Sony ) Vinten and Sachtler tripods.
bag the 2.0 and
Ed: And the good thing is that people can try them when they’re in here. Now in the area of specialised cameras, what’s this Ken? Ken: It’s the Livestream Mevo – it’s a dedicated camera made just for broadcasting live video and audio. You can set it in the room, pair it with the download Android or Apple app on your phone or tablet, turn on auto-editing mode, and stream straight to the websites it supports. For now, that list includes Facebook Live, Periscope, YouTube and the company’s own web-based platform, Livestream. You can also link it directly into Livestream Studio as a live event camera, as well as your other conventional wired cameras. Ed: Now is the wireless connection as good as the Ethernet connection, because this does have an Ethernet connection? Ken: A booster unit on this Mevo has the Ethernet connection specifically for that if you need a more secure connection. The Mevo has its own built-in WiFi Hot Spot and you remote control it using an iPad or an Android tablet, using their downloaded application, and you can control the features of the camera, the recording, the audio – you can bring audio directly into your tablet or you can have it coming in via the Mevo built-in microphone. Ed: But I imagine the greatest use would be just “set and forget” – as you say, just as a background camera or as the interview camera in a small interview situation? Ken: I’m still finding new applications for it, for instance say your own live raw foods cooking show or DIY watch repair series on the web, you’re going to
need a quality video streaming device. The Mevo camera itself is actually the small piece on the top which we can just take off the booster unit and that’s actually quite unobtrusive. Ed: In other words you could hide it and do some secret recordings Ken? Ken: Well you could … say for some prank show where they put these cameras all over the place. You could use it as a live event camera for funny shots I guess. Ed: And of course speaking of Ethernet cameras, one camera that I was particularly fascinated with at NAB was your Datavideo POV camera? Ken: Yes we’ve got one here – a Datavideo 150T they call it and I’ve got an Ethernet cable connected to it, to a receiver at the other end and a remote control panel so control pan tilt zoom iris and all the other functions of the camera are functioning. So basically we’ve got HD video coming back as well as the full powering of the camera from the receiver – all to one cable. Ed: Certainly Protel can offer a wide range of products so why not give Ken in the Auckland Office and Tam in the Wellington Office a call next time you are considering a camera for your next NZVN production.
Mevo in action. Page 4
SMPTE 2017 Report the switchers for customers to try. Many of their product experts from Canada and Australia were on hand as well as David Ross, the CEO, who came around and made a point of meeting everybody. I think for us, Ross was the anchor for the show, but we had a number of suppliers there, including AWS Elemental, who now seem to be fully integrated, having been purchased by Amazon Web Services about a year and a half ago. They had a good presence and we had some really good positive meetings with them. We had Pixel Power there; we had Redwood’s Technology which is an Australian company that we partner with to offer a number of brands in New Zealand, including Object Matrix; Venera who do Pulsar QC; and a couple of new products that we are just being introduced to, including Soliton who have a very nice 4G wireless We’re at the offices of Gencom with David Barnard, freshly returned from Sydney. Ed: David, we didn’t make it to SMPTE this year, but obviously quite a few New Zealanders did and you got to meet most of them? David: Yes, it was good to see the people who came over from New Zealand and we had some good product to show them. SMPTE was a bit smaller than it had been in previous years, but several of our vendors did have a very good presence there. Ross definitely was top of the list – they went all out with a NAB scale booth with all the latest technology on display including robotics, graphics, sports production and they had all
video linking system. Ed: So that’s it, obviously you found some new vendors there that you could make contact with and offer to represent them in New Zealand? David: Well, we’d been talking to Soliton for a little while, but this was a chance to actually meet the main business development guy from Japan, which is where Soliton is based, and get a good understanding of their product. We think that there’s a good opportunity for a new 4G linking product. There’s already a couple in the market – Live U is very popular; we’ve used Aviwest in the past but we have been looking for something that provides the right combination of simplicity, reliability and cost and the Soliton product seems to fit that. Ed: Because as an integrator, you’re obviously always looking at who’s come up with an even better box to do a particular task. Does that cause conflict sometimes with perhaps your traditional suppliers? David: It can and we have to be very cautious about how we get involved with different manufacturers. We have some vendors whom we’ve been in business with for decades and we really look after them first and foremost – brands like Cartoni and Clearcom come to mind, Harmonic with their production and play out gear that we’ve been selling and supporting since it was still called Omneon. But the customer always comes first and for us, in many cases, we have the challenge of needing to work with companies that often
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get bought and sold, they become part of larger companies, we all of a sudden, get a larger breadth of product in our portfolio which may compete with products we already offer. But as an integrator, we really do focus on finding the right solution for the customer. So while we do have a few core brands that we have represented for many years and represent exclusively, we also increasingly find that there are a number of product categories where we have 2 or 3 options and we will always look to find the best solution for the customer’s particular need. Ed: I ’ m sure you sometimes have to tell vendors “hey guys, Brand X has actually made great inroads in this area and perhaps you need to look at some of your specs”? David: Yes we definitely do have those conversations from time to time and our suppliers value that feedback; it makes them better. We get good feedback from our customers which helps us and that helps drive our focus and then in turn we’re able to provide that feedback, both complementary and constructive, to our suppliers and ultimately it results in better solutions for all. Ed: In your product lines, do you see one of the greatest innovations being that there’s now a move towards firmware control as opposed to a box with a switch and it’s either on or off? David: Yes, depending on the product, it can be things that used to be hard-baked into the system are now firmware upgradable, as you said, and also many products that used to be very purpose-built, specialised black boxes are now being built on standardised IT hardware or even getting virtualised or moving to the Cloud. That level of technology creates a lot of benefits for the customer. It certainly helps reduce cost; it means that production cycles tend to speed up – you no longer have to wait for manufacturers to design custom chips to do one specific thing and then if they decide they need to update to something else, it’s going to take 2 years while it goes through the whole design and fabrication process. A great example of that is Plura who have been making excellent video monitors and LCD panels for many years and are now getting into timing and synchronisation products as well. Increasingly, those products which we think of as being hardware based, have firmware in them that is remotely upgradable and can provide additional features and benefits – even after you’ve bought the product, or years later. They’re starting to add functionality, like being able to receive an IP stream, that needs to be kept up to date as the technology evolves. The hardware might have a 5 or 7 year lifespan or longer, but the software is constantly changing. So it provides a lot more flexibility, a lot
more futureproofing, and a better value overall for the customer. Ed: And to keep up with what’s new, as well as reading NZVN religiously, you could either have gone to SMPTE or NAB or wait for the next big media show to hit Auckland and that’s Media Technology Pacific. We’re hopefully going to get another one next year David? David: Yes, the idea had always been to do it every 18 months to 2 years and there has been some discussion recently about where that show might fit into the schedule for 2018. The first show was done in SMPTE’s off year, around the same time of year, and the next was around February, which is lovely weather in Auckland, but people are still coming back from holidays and Auckland tends to be pricey for travel and hotels at that time of year, so we’re looking at maybe doing something around the winter time. Ed: And if anybody out there has got some great ideas, would like to see things, would like to be involved in this, can they contact you? David: They certainly could – I can put them in touch with the right people. Gencom have been actively involved in the past, but I think in order for this to work, it needs to be an industry-wide thing. We certainly get some benefit in terms of getting exposure for our suppliers and our brand, but what makes it work is having an open discussion, and a chance to bring people in from overseas – experts on technology to talk about the latest trends, the latest case studies, and where things are going. I think that it would be good to get a broader range of perspectives and so we’d be really keen to have other partners participating and helping to support the event. Ed:
Maybe New Zealand On Air?
David: Maybe – a good question, I don’t know enough about it. Ed: I think it’d be quite good use of the money that our tax dollars fund David? David: Ed:
We’ll wait for their call.
David:
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Well you’ve sold me on it. Hmmmm.
NZVN
Update your Media Composer We’re in the offices of Atomise in Auckland and we’re talking to Andy Wild about the value in updating your Media Composer. Ed: Andy, Media Composer has been around for a long, long time and it continues to have upgrades. Here we’ve got MC6, which we discover came from 2012, and what we’re going to do today is look at this in comparison to the latest version, 8.9. I presume that there have been some big changes but, if someone’s got MC6, do they really need to update it? Andy: Avid obviously provide upgrades to tackle a number of issues. There’s user interface functionality – fundamentally, how the editor interacts with the interface in carrying out edits and trims, or just accesses source content. The latest upgrade allows you to access footage from the newest file-based cameras. Something like XAVC Long GOP material may well not be supported in an earlier version Media Composer. So, as you said earlier on, version 6 Media Composer would not support XAVC content, but obviously later builds will do that. Ed: So there’s no way of getting a patch to MC6 that just supports new codecs? Andy: No, not necessarily. There are plugins, the AMA plugin facilitates that link between the source content and the Media Composer version itself, but one of the things you need to be aware of is that the core component as well needs to understand how to use those elements. It may well be that 8.8 is a minimum requirement of Media Composer to support a specific version of AMA plugin, which then gives you a particular codec access as well. So they are tied together – the AMA plugin architecture is very open, so you may well find that, for example, if you’re running version 7 of Media Composer, one AMA plugin may well work with that to give you access to later content. But realistically, most people tend to push forward with their builds in Media Composer to keep in alignment with the latest technology, the latest camera codecs, and also some features as well that come out within Media Composer like background transcoding, background rendering which previously ( such as in an MC6 system ) was a foreground process, meaning that when we rendered, we had to stop working and wait for the render to take place until we could continue forward with that. Ed: But if you’re like me, and I’m not doing much editing at all these days, I’ve got an older version of Premiere and I’ve got a Hewlett Packard 400 and probably everything from about 2012 – all the situations I’ve faced so far, I’ve been able to work on that and I’m guessing if I got some footage in a new codec, that I could find something on the Web that would just be able to transfer that to a codec that I could use, and then I could continue on? Andy: Yes, there’s no reason why you can’t … going back to what we were saying here, people who
have got version 5 and version 6 Media Composers, are aligned with the platform that they’re running on. Obviously, older versions of Media Composer tend to run on older platforms. For example, this particular version 6 system we’ve got here is running on an old Hewlett Packard xw8200, which is a very old dual core processor machine.
Andy has lots to show you.
With later versions of Avid Media Composer software or any application – Adobe Premiere, whatever you like, you’re always going to require more grunt and more CPU and more GPU behind it. However, if you’re dealing in high definition and standard definition, yes, version 6 would be fine and depending on what codec they’re using, they might have to transcode it coming in. If you’ve got an older box, it’s going to take a lot longer to come into the system, but if you’ve got the beauty of time, then yes, you can continue to work that way. But realistically, for most people, with the price of hardware now, it probably is cheaper for people to go out and buy a good spec laptop or workstation, with the latest version of Media Composer, and then take advantage of new features like background transcoding, very quick AMA linking functionality in working with the source material, and not really kind of having to spend a day or two, or even three waiting for a lot of content to be transcoded. Because the problem we’ve got now is the volume of content that we have to attack almost on a daily basis. It’s not unusual to receive a terabyte of rushes a day, so it’s all part of that speed of getting that content from the acquisition point to being available for edit. Ed: So it’s very much a situation where it’s a whole package, that if you have something going wrong with your workstation, your hard drive starts to fail or the video card doesn’t work as well as it should, or you need access to new codecs, then it’s time to upgrade the lot – but is it a safe transition? Andy: They are safe … although with any version or any nonlinear system, what you want to look for is the number of patches that come out. So for example 8.8.5, that’s an 8.8, it’s a feature release and the .5 at the end of those 3 digits means that it’s a CPR critical point release which address issues that people have bumped into. So the higher that number at the end tends to indicate a more mature release of that particular product. So you’re safer in the idea that “hey, well they’ve found some issues and they’ve
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addressed them and they’ve been patched, so that’s great.” It means that anything that’s early out the doors, I look at them quite happily and we have a play with them, but you’d tend to find that say, the 8.9 release may be swiftly followed by an 8.9.1 release because again, there are new features there and there may well be new codecs. Ed: But this is it – how long should you wait because somebody might have had a version 6 and now there’s 8.9. Do you think they’ve left it too long or, as we said before, it is not an upgrade that you could sensibly do on an older computer, you would need to upgrade your computer as well? It’s still going to look pretty much the same, you’re just going to have to learn perhaps a few new features, but basically the layout is – well – it’s a timeline? Andy: Exactly yes. One of the beauties of Media Composer is that constant familiarity for the operator. That means that, if they go from version 6 and jump right on to version 8.9, the interface and the way it functions is pretty much identical. There’s no giant leap of faith from an operational point of view. One of the things that is hardest to do is actually to unlearn all those old tricks and actually some of them are very time wasting. A good example would be that there’s now an auto audio “ducking” function and one of the features here is we can actually have a voiceover with music underneath, we can mark an in and an out around the whole area; we can tell it which is the voiceover and which is the audio and hit “okay”, it analyses that and automatically varies the live levels for you, rather than you having to do it manually. So
that’s great, that puts you basically in the right direction – you don’t have to go and put marks and do it by hand, which a version 6 would have to do. So that’s a manual process completely eliminated by a new operational feature. Ed: But codecs must be the biggest one – for example, Canon C200 has just come out with a cine RAW light which is a totally new codec and Media Composer supports it in version 8.9? Andy: You’re quite right. A lot of these new cameras that are coming out do require the latest versions and require the AMA plugin feature, so obviously the idea is, out of the box, you install Media Composer as a Canon user, a Panasonic user or a Sony user … you download the appropriate AMA plugin which dovetails your acquisition content into the Media Composer itself. One of the things that you do have to be aware of though is that some of these acquisition codecs don’t tend to become your working codec. You’ll still go through a data corralling process where you’ll actually kind of homogenise your content. For example, it may well be that I’ve shot with the C200 with the cine light codec, but I’ve also got a mixture of some Canon 6D footage and a little bit of XDCAM footage because you’ve got either historical content or you’re shooting with different camera crews, and it may well be that editorially, you have to make a decision because of who I’m delivering this to, it’s going to be a very cheap turnaround. I did shoot it with a Canon 200 but the working codec is going to be XDCAM 50 megabits. Or it may well be that you decide to go with a DNxHR high quality codec and work at ultra-high definition. The
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other thing to bear in mind is not just the type of codec, but raster sizes as well. This version 6 Media Composer can only do standard definition and high definition, it can’t do 2K, it can’t do 4K, it can’t do ultra-high definition either. So again, cameras are moving at such a pace that the post people have to keep track of that. The flipside is storage. We are shooting more and more content, so there’s more and more storage requirements on it. Higher quality images tend to result in either a very heavy codec, which means it’s very difficult to edit with because it’s been a heavily compressed image, so you need a lot of computer hardware grunt to debayer that and display that to you and decode it; or you decide to convert that into something like an iframe codec like DNxHD or DNxHR to make it easier to work with editorially, but that then bloats the actual file size onto the disc and could quadruple or make tenfold the actual amount of storage you need to achieve editorially with that content. Ed: This is sounding rather scary to someone who might have a Media Composer 6 and their old Hewlett Packard machine and they’ve been working happily in ignorance for many, many years. Can you help them? If they email you with, say, the version they’ve got and the computer they’ve Users of older Media Composer will not recognise this screen ... got and I guess you also need to know what are the common codecs they’re understanding is they didn’t own it and there was a working with, can you give them an idea of what can be licensing issue and that was removed from then. done? “Yes, you could get away with that, but you Fortunately they revisited the issue and have now been need to change this and this and as well it would be able to place in back in there. advisable to change this part.” Is this something you can offer? Ed: Well that sorted that issue. So apart from codecs Andy: Yes definitely – we receive those requests and some functionality that might be specific to a quite a lot actually. More often than not now, people certain version, and audio ducking, what other major aren’t driven by the idea that their Media Composer’s features would people find if they moved from version 6 very slow and needs to be upgraded, or they’re not to version 8.9 that would really sort of give the “wow” happy with the release, they need more features … it’s factor? more driven by the fact that “hey, I’m doing a new Andy: I think there are many things. Version 6 production and, all of a sudden somebody is using a still has the old Marquee title tool and it also has the C200 camera and I’ve realised that I just can’t get it original title tool with it as well, but it’s a greater title into my Media Composer – what do I need to do?” tool now with the Titler Pro. This gives you much more Usually there are external forces that drive people’s functionality, more creative control rather than having versions of Media Composers forward. Like I said, I’ve to maybe break out the likes of After Effects and things got an old H.200 here, it’s version 6, I still quickly cut like that. So there’s much more in that as far as that’s things together on my version 6. From my point of concerned. Audio now has been massively improved – view, it’s great as an engineering tool, because I can you have a greater control over the audio range, we prove certain functionality; operationally there’s very have a much greater selection of audio tools and little difference like we said before, but I think people plugins available to us as well. are driven by external forces. Ed: But in all Media Composer versions, you can Up to version 7 Media Composer, there was a thing switch between Pro Tools forward and back … no? called ScriptSync which was available where you could do analysis of audio inside there and take a script and Andy: No. There are some specifics around that synchronise the script into what’s actually said in the and it depends on the version of Pro Tools that you’re shots and do very quick assemble edits and cuts like running with the version of Media Composer and the this. That disappeared with version 8 and it’s only order in which you have to place them together is also recently reappeared. This means that some people very specific. It’s not easy to co-host Pro Tools and stuck with older versions of Media Composer because of Media Composer together all the time. It is doable but licensing issues and software requirements. there are some caveats around that and you have to be very careful what you’re doing. Another thing is that Ed: I thought Adobe were the only ones who did that they’re very different skill sets for people. I know a lot – take things out and then next year say “wow, look at of editors who are great editors, but if you show them a this new feature we’ve introduced”? Pro Tools system they’d run a mile type thing … Andy: Yes, well unfortunately ScriptSync Ed: Yeah, I’m one of those. functionality wasn’t actually owned by Avid. My Page 12
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Andy: Well there’s a Pro Tools version similar to Media Composer First now, so those tools are available for people for free. You could learn them both, but at the end of the day, if you go and talk to an editor and ask “can you edit this together for me” you’re not going to ask them to do the whole mix as well. That’s not to say that the system isn’t capable of doing that but you just wouldn’t on a large production – though there are many editors out there who do have to produce final mixes so it is possible. Ed: Basically, you’re saying that, unless you’re remaking Ben Hur, there are a lot of situations where you could use the audio capability just within Media Composer quite happily? Andy: Yes, very much so, and I think if you’re focused on getting a more finished and polished production at the end of your 3 months of editing, I think version 8 would give you a much more polished audio finish than you’d get in the likes of version 6 or version 7 Media Composer, because there have been an awful lot of advances in there.
… or this one. Perhaps you need to.
Ed: That’s obviously where collaboration comes in. The move to the Cloud might be a situation where you do want to polish the audio and, because of
collaboration, you can do this across the internet, you could actually send the audio part of your programme off somewhere to somebody who’s got a Pro Tools, they could tart it up and then send it back to you?
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Andy: That’s right, yes. You’re quite right there. The whole idea of collaboration now means that there’s no reason why you can’t finish your edit, export it as an AAF with all the audio embedded inside it, spill it to somebody else, they can bring that into a Pro Tools rig, they can sweeten the whole thing up for you, make sure it’s all correct – both levels and mix wise so you’re getting a nice flat even mix, pass it back to you, reimport it back into your Avid and you’re good to go. Ed: But that would be difficult if you were still working on version 6? Andy: No, there’s no reason why you couldn’t do that in version 6 as well. It’s just more the fact that, if you wanted to do a “one stop shop” and somebody wanted to do the pictures on the audio inside the Media Composer application, then there’s a greater control over that within version 8 than there is inside version 6. Realistically, like I said before, familiarity is most of what we’re talking about here. There’s also another blight we have to be aware of, which is the operating systems. Version 5 Media Composer saw the end of the 32 bit code, so support for Windows XP disappeared with version 5 Media Composer and version 6 was a full 64 bit build, so required a 64 bit operating system. So Avid jumped from Windows XP obviously into Windows 7 Pro. Ed:
… and avoided Vista?
Andy: No, we did Vista and we quickly learnt not to have Vista … but we moved on from there. Most people switched from XP, jumped over Vista and went straight into Windows 7 Pro. Windows 8 and 8.1 were supported but now the big watershed is the fact that Windows 7 has been announced as an end of life, so Windows 10 is becoming the operating system for most people. You might get certain versions of Media Composer running on Windows 10 that aren’t allegedly meant to be – like 8.2 will probably run on Windows 10
for you, but the likes of 8.8 and 8.9 are all designed to run on Windows 10 so that’s a testbed for them. We know it works, so again as legacy operating systems drop out and we’re now into the likes of you know 10.12 for Mac OS as well, then you may also be forced ( and particularly on the Mac group when it just updates your OS anyway ) to adopt a later version of the Media Composer just because of an operating system requirement. Now Windows 10 is very much a known operating system and it’s been widely adopted and Media Composer 8.8, 8.7, 8.9 all run on Windows 10 quite happily. One other thing, we have to be honest you know, people do co-host. It’s very rare for somebody just to have one NLE system running on their workstation. So you’ll probably find that in tandem with Premiere, and Premiere might require something else, or Audition, or even something like Resolve as well, so the new Resolve which obviously does editing as well as audio mixing – that requires Windows 10, it won’t run on Windows 7 at all. So there are sometimes other external forces that people need to align with. But yes, sometimes it’s quite difficult to say “here’s a really good reason to go from 6 to 8.8”, but more often than not, we get people coming to us requesting to go to 8.8, they know what feature they’re missing, they know what their bugbear is and they know because of the fact that “I just need to save more time, I can’t spend 4 hours rendering something, I want it to be rendered in 20 minutes rather than 4 hours.” That obviously requires a new machine, a new OS, so while you’re doing that, you may as well kind of jump to the latest version of Media Composer as well. The other thing we haven’t talked about here is the licensing of the systems. On my version 6 machine I’ve got here, this happens to have a dongle with it, but obviously now with the latest versions of Media
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Composer, you can take licences in perpetual mode, so you just pay a “one off” fee and it lasts for a year, or you can pay for it on a month by month basis. That actually helps to reduce the cost of ownership of the Media Composers drastically, whereas on the old version 6s and version 5s, people would pay quite a reasonable price to get hold of a dongle and update it and things like that. So the way that we’re licensing things is very different – it’s like floating licences, and features can be added in and out and opted in and out – the Symphony options and things like that can be added in and out of the licences if you want them to. But realistically, as we were saying before, version 6, version 7 really solid versions of Media Composer, it did standard definition, it did high definition, but when people wanted to edit 3D content, to do 5.1, 7.1 audio, ultra-high definition or 4K content, which is becoming more and more common in acquisition formats, they are going to need an 8.5, 8.6 at least release of Media Composer to facilitate that. It’s quite odd, we don’t go out there and proactively push people and say “you must go to the latest version”, it tends to be on a case by case basis and most people come to us and say that they want to jump into 8.8 because they’ve seen a feature they really like, or they’re shooting with a new C200 camera. Ed: Now I’m sure I’m not alone in being a bit nervous about having upgrades coming over the internet, that suddenly you get this reminder to say “your Media Composer needs to be upgraded and the latest version is now available” and you’re in the middle of a job and
you download it and, because of your configuration, something doesn’t work? Andy: You’re not forced to take the upgrade. Basically, what happens is there’s a thing called an application manager. The application manager will say “I can see you’re running 8.4.5 Media Composer but you do realise that 8.9 is available?” It’s now down to you, you make the decision when you want to jump and again, my recommendation, if you are mid-project and there’s nothing you desperately need, I would wait until that project’s finished. If however you’re halfway through a project and realise that somebody’s shot with a new camera for some inserts, your version just can’t take that, then you will be forced to adopt that newer build to facilitate that codec or that AMA plugin. Ed: And I guess the Web is pretty quick in finding bugs that, if you go in and search the new version, you can find issues that have been found already? Andy: Yes. One of the good things about Media Composer systems is that there’s an awful lot of documentation for them, so you’ll find “read me” notes, you can find the “what’s new” – there’s a document that purely tells you what’s new in that particular release. But what’s also great is that there are lists of known bugs and work arounds at the bottom, so you can check in the documentation for a workaround. If there’s nothing in the documentation, the forums are always full of things – and things that are prevalent and obvious come to the forefront in less than a day. Quite literally, you’ll find that people are very keen, you know as soon as the next release is available they download
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it, they start playing with it and they can already find that “oh my gosh, this button disappears or I can’t do this and when I press this button it generates an error code.” So things are found quickly and now we tend to address them very quickly as well with our patches and our releases. Ed: Now Andy, the big question is that you’re in this business to provide support for Avid product and people can go on the Web and they can buy their Media Composer or purchase their upgrade path directly from Avid and it seems as though they don’t need to talk to you, but in fact, it is in their interests to do all of this through Atomise because it’s no cheaper doing it on the Web and you offer more support than they could possibly get directly from the Web. So it’s really a nobrainer that they do it through you? Andy: That’s right, yes. We can give our advice and our expertise and the knowledge that we’ve got – obviously dealing with these machines on a day to day basis. We do get people who buy licences and then realise that they’ve bought the licence for the latest version of Media Composer, but actually their workstation’s not powerful enough. It’s not simply a question of going and buying a licence necessarily. For some people, that works fine, but actually there is a kind of a professional service that we offer to people and it’s that peace of mind and that safe pair of hands to say “yes, I’m confident that when I’m buying this licence the guys at Atomise have told me that I probably need to look at my workstation and maybe my storage as well”, then at least they’re not going to get that bad experience where they buy a licence and then blame the fact that it’s rubbish because it’s not working, when actually there’s some further underlying issues that they need to address as well. Ed: And the cost of that is incorporated in the licence purchase, but only up to a point? Andy: That’s right, yes. When people are engaging in conversation with sales here and they’re talking about what they want to do, then we can give them some advice, but obviously it goes only so far with that. If they bump into major problems they can come back to us, and we could investigate with them just paying a small rate on an hourly basis, or a half day for us to put more effort into their systems, either possibly even remoting onto their system, doing remote work with them, or just doing more analysis of their system and getting it up and running as smoothly as possible. Ed: And they can be assured, if there are hardware items or other things that they need, that they’re going to be Avid certified that they’re going to work, providing they’ve given you the right information to start with?
Andy: That’s right. So long as we understand what they have and the devil is in the detail with all this. As long as we know what hardware they’re running on, what OS they’ve got and more importantly what they want to achieve. If it’s a question of going away and doing a simple offline, then that’s great and we can vary that hardware specification for them so it comes in at the right budget and the right requirement, but equally, you don’t want to oversell or undersell something. So if somebody comes and says “help, I’m going to do an offline and I’ve shot with a Canon 6D”, we’re not going to sell them the top of the range Z860 workstation or the latest thing out with quad hex cores – it’s just not needed. It’s something where people want to get value for money and therefore the return business and be confident that what we’re selling them is fit for purpose basically, or what we’re suggesting to them is fit for purpose. Ed: You sound like honest traders? Andy: We are, yes. Ed: Richard’s instilled that in you I’m sure? Andy: It’s a niche market we’re in and everything’s based on our credibility and that return business is what we’re really keen to maintain. It’s interesting now, you speak to people and we do sell individual workstations, but the biggest part of our business is not one workstation, it’s getting 5 workstations with shared storage, so it becomes a bigger base than just an individual Media Composer and $X hundred for a licence. It can be much wider than that. Ed: And those 5 machines don’t have to be in the same building? Andy: Or even the same country in some cases. So it’s understanding how they work together. It’s also understanding things like “I run a facility house, I’ve got 3 Media Composers, I need to buy 2 new ones”, and that should ring alarm bells to say “well okay, you’re buying 2 new ones, what are your old ones?” If I start a project on the latest machine, will that go backwards to the other one and plugin?” It’s about understanding that whole workflow and how people want to use it, but not blowing things out of proportion for them, I think that’s sensible. Because there’s always a solution, it’s just striking that middle ground. For most people, it’s going to be cost and performance, but at the end of the day, it needs to do the job and what we don’t want to do is put the wrong solution for somebody that causes either downtime for them because they’re frustrated with it, or it’s too long to render. It’s just striking that happy medium between the two. Ed:
Do you take trade-ins?
Andy:
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No.
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Pro Tools 12.8 on Show One of the benefits of being so close to Sydney ( measured by Europeans and Trumpeans ) is that they visit us after the bi-annual SMPTE show. We’re at the Kingslander in Auckland at the Avid Pro Tools Event, heavily supported by Protel, with Daniel Lovell, the application specialist manager for Avid Asia-Pacific. Ed: Daniel, you’re here to launch to the public Pro Tools 12.8. Now it’s not 13, but you say that it’s a really important upgrade and, if you are on the Avid upgrade plan, then of course it’s a free upgrade? Daniel: It will already be freely available in the accounts of users who are eligible and if not, they can check in their Avid account and it will show them the cheapest way to get back into our support – or contact your dealer and they’ll point you in the right direction. We’ve made a big commitment once we started doing these regular update cycles, to make sure that we’re releasing features and, to be honest, a lot of fixes that the users really want. Ed: Great. Now I really want to split this interview into 2 parts because there are audio people among our readers who really get into the high end audio realms, but there are a lot of video guys here who use “audio for video” – a lot of them probably not using audio as well as they could or should, so, Pro Tools 12.8, is this a worthwhile upgrade for them? Daniel: I think so. We’ve made some really big improvements in the last few versions to help postproduction, but one of the great things we’ve done in this last version are some huge improvements to disc handling. So if you’re using shared storage with your video team, you’re going to see a huge improvement there. Also, we’ve introduced some new great features about Dolby Atmos that give you integration of 7.1.2 ( sometimes referred to as 9.1 ) surround tracks natively in Pro Tools. Ed:
Why is that important for a videographer?
Daniel: I think it’s important because we’re going to see a huge push with that kind of media; for example Netflix has started streaming it. Of course, there are 2700 Atmos theatres around the world and, in New Zealand, one of the Hobbit films was the second film ever I think to be mixed in Atmos, so it’s actually very close to home. Ed:
And this all comes included in 12.8?
Daniel: Well 12.8 will give you the ability to pan in 7.1.2 so it gives you a height channel as well for your immersive audio. If you want to make print masters you need to speak to Dolby directly, but if you’re producing VR or doing some Blu-ray or television work, you can get it in a much cheaper level with their production bundle. Ed: Now if all of this is “Greek” to your videographer, not knowing what’s going on, where do they go to for help? Daniel: We have some really good videos on our website about what Dolby Atmos is; as well, Atmos Dolby themselves have some great introduction videos, but the powerful thing there is that Dolby already has great partnerships with a lot of manufacturers, so their technology is in a lot of phones, computers and televisions now, so I think we will see their format grow quite significantly.
Daniel and Rene.
Everyone will know that Pro Tools is quite open, so we continue to support other formats as well, but we think that this is a step in the direction of having immersive audio as part of Pro Tools. Ed: Well that seems to be a pretty big part of this upgrade but anything else in there for the videographer? Daniel: We’ve made some really nice improvements in the workspace – that’s where you search for your files and whatnot; we’ve allowed you to read and edit ISRC ( International Standard Recording Code ) so when you’re looking at a file you can see the notes that have been made … Ed:
The metadata you mean?
Daniel: Yes, the metadata … so there’s an improvement in the metadata reading, and also SMPTE 32 bit IDs are now being read properly. I haven’t heard too much around Asia-Pacific, but certainly in Europe that was quite a big issue to relink to files properly when going between editorial and sound. Ed: But for the smaller user, if you’re just a one man band, you’re not really interested in networks, but it’s a very easy in-out and speedier? Daniel: I believe so. Even for a user by themselves, we’d obviously recommend using a feature called “Disc Cache” and we’ve made improvements there that will see their Disc Cache fill much more quickly so they’re not using their hard disc, but basically a RAM disc. So there will be a huge improvement for the audio users – especially in big sessions with lots of little files, they should get much better playback performance.
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Ed: Now even though it’s an Avid product, Pro Tools is not Avid specific – you could be using Premiere or something else and still export to Pro Tools and import back in. They’re all playing nicely these days, nobody’s cutting you out? Daniel: Not at all. We are pursuing, as we always have, to make sure that, with the AAF format this most common format between editorial and audio, we actively fix issues when we find them and we work with other manufacturers to do this. In fact, to show how well we do this, we’ve gone out of our way to qualify Premiere on Avid’s own storage system. So we’re open, we understand that people have different needs in different circumstances and while that may not always be our software, we hope that someone will use our hardware, if not our software. I think Pro Tools is very popular, but in the same way our surfaces will equally control Logic, Nuendo and a host of other DAWs as well, so we try and be as open and versatile as we can be. Ed: I guess in Japan you’re coming up with a lot of EDIUS users? Daniel: We are coming across EDIUS users, that’s absolutely true, and they obviously use EditShare a lot as well, so we have to make workflows for those customers. Ed:
But that’s all sorted?
Daniel: No AAF issues a workflows, but everyone to let
major issues – we solved a couple of wee while ago around some specific we’re always open and we encourage us know if they do have an issue.
Ed: Great. Okay, that’s the “audio for video” users, what about the real top end audio people? I’m sure they’ll be very happy with Atmos, but what else have you got to offer them?
thing about this unit is that it provides you monitoring as well as routing and becomes an interface as well. It also allows people to integrate network audio or audio over IP into Pro Tools as well, using the Dante option card. So again, that’s how we’re trying to be open to allow people to work how they want to work. Ed:
Does it replace a number of boxes in one?
Daniel: It can absolutely, like for example, with our previous surface, you would have needed an HD IO as well as an XMON and a number of other devices where this with either our Dock/S3 system or our S6 system provides you monitoring control. It can be an interface for Pro Tools as well as doing a number of routing things that have never been possible before without going through the Pro Tools mixer. Ed: So hardware’s a big part of this. I’m sure with the people who are doing audio alone, that hardware just makes things a lot faster? Daniel: If you have high quality hardware and you make the investment, you know that you’re going to be able to produce high quality content. Of course, Pro Tools Mix Engine – whether you’re using the free version of Pro Tools, or whether you’re using Pro Tools HD, it is the same Mix Engine, so what it really comes
Daniel: One of the things we’ve done recently is to introduce the new Pro Tools Matrix which is a really high end audio interface. Our interfaces were always good but it’s really a significant step in a high quality area. Ed: This is a box you’re talking about? Daniel: Yes, an audio interface … but the great Page 20
down to is your inputs and outputs at that point. Are you monitoring with a high quality device; are you recording with a high quality device … that’s where you can get a lot of difference. The other thing that we mentioned when we spoke earlier, is if you’re doing video you really need a Sync HD, and the main reason that is, is it allows you to clock Pro Tools properly to a video frame edge alignment, to give you really, really accurate sync. Ed:
Is Sync HD an Avid product?
Daniel: It is an Avid product, yes, that integrates with either HDX or HD native to give Pro Tools a high quality video sync. Ed: Right, so that’s the one tool that, if an “audio for video” person was looking for a piece of hardware it would really make their job and life easier? Daniel: If you’re standalone you have some other options, but if you’re integrating with any other video device, it would be No.1 on my list. Ed: And so you’re spending all this time in Japan – how do you find listening to Japanese music through Avid systems? Daniel: It’s definitely different. What’s really interesting is that what we see in the media is the same kind of pop around the world that gets famous everywhere, but there’s a really great and passionate music scene with some amazing musicians. Unfortunately they don’t quite see the success we would
like, but of course, there are a lot of really great mixing studios that mix not only Japanese artists, but artists around the world in a number of studios in Japan. Ed: What I was getting at is the traditional music that evidently doesn’t use 8 tones or something – it uses semitones or something, so to European ears it sounds a bit funny? Daniel: It can do. Actually, we did a shootout many years ago – Avid gear against Avid gear, but we had some traditional Japanese instruments using a Pro Tools 9 system with our old TDM cards and at that point in time, a Pro Tools 11 with HDX with our new HD IO, and we were recording traditional Japanese instruments. It was really obvious for us we’d made a major leap forward in the Mix Engine in the IO, but it was interesting to listen to the music as well. Ed:
Is it something you’ve grown to like?
Daniel: I suppose so, as a little bit of cultural fun. I try and get involved in a little bit of Japanese culture where I can. Ed:
Not just saké drinking?
Daniel: There’s a fair bit of that that goes on, but they have great food as well, a little bit of martial arts here and there too. Now for the Pro Tools dealer side of the story, we’re lucky to have Rene Bullinga here from Protel. Ed: Rene, this event – it’s not just about launching Pro Tools version 12.8 is it. It’s about getting the
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industry together and cementing those relationships that you have with them?
Rene: I thought all of your readers would be attending tonight Grant.
Rene: As it always is with events like this. It’s an opportunity to get like minds in the industry together, people talk, everyone chats, everyone knows each other in this industry and it’s a good opportunity to catch up.
Ed: It’s a bit far to come from Invercargill. You must have other things that, when people are setting up a system, they can’t just have Avid and Genelec – there must be other bits and pieces?
Ed: So there really can’t have been too many grumbles about Pro Tools in recent years, because it just seems to have taken over the industry?
Rene: That’s correct, and we have some audio interfaces from Audient on display here, and we have Lewitt microphones, a range of offerings from them … pretty much as is usual with Protel, everything from the carpet upwards for in the studio we can do.
Rene: I think you could say it’s been the cornerstone of the industry for a long, long time – certainly the postproduction industry. In the music industry, there has been, and still are, a few other players in the market that can push it pretty hard, but around 28 years of development has gone into this and there are some fantastic tools available in this version. The integration between hardware and software too cannot be underrated, particularly when you start getting into feature production and things like that, the tools at hand through both the Pro Tools software and hardware are quite extraordinary and pretty much outstrip anything else in the market. Ed: And it gives you an opportunity to show off your Genelec speakers? Rene: We always love showing off Genelec speakers, they’re great. The models on display here are a new model, they’re the latest version of the 8340 DSP or SAM ( Smart Active Monitor ) speaker. Ed: What concerns me is they don’t look very big, but I’ve heard the sound before and it certainly holds up when it is loud. Rene: Genelecs are about detail – they’re a surgical instrument for mixing. It’s a very clinical approach from the Genelec design, it’s basically all about having a very flat response to work from so that you know that what you’re listening to is correct. The DSP of course enhances that by taking out of the play any room modes or phase alignment issues you might get from the speakers being incorrectly positioned in the room, which is very common when getting in to surround production – sometimes it’s just not practical to move a door! But again, it comes back to the basic philosophy of giving you that absolute flat response from which you can make critical mixing decisions.
Ed:
Do you ever worry about your hearing going?
Rene: Ed:
Pardon?
laughs yes Rene …
Rene: Yes of course. In the audio industry it’s something you always need to think about and it’s certainly something that I monitor regularly, and I’m sure most professionals in the industry do. There are ways and means of alleviating the issues of dealing with loud noise all the time. One of the key ones for that is to use Genelec speakers, being a very low noise speaker. It’s actually the distortion in speakers which will cause harm to your ears, so if you put yourself in an environment with no distortion or as little distortion as possible in the speaker, you’ll get a lot more longevity out of your hearing. Ed:
Do you have cotton buds at home?
Rene: Ed:
Never use cotton buds.
How do you clean your ears then?
Rene: design.
Well ears are mostly naturally cleaning by
Ed: So, as a health tip, if you’re going to clean your ears properly, what do you do? Rene: I have my ears checked, syringed or vacuumed once a year. It can’t do any harm to visit the Doc for a check-up from time to time. Ed: This is not a service that you can get through 0800-Protel though? Rene:
It’s not one of the services we provide, no.
Ed: Are there any other products that you have here that aren’t either Avid or Genelec? Rene: For this event we’ve got a couple of other things on display, and a couple of excellent giveaways tonight. Ed: Well the people who are reading this might not have actually attended, so they’re not going to be getting anything are they?
Steve from Images & Sound with Rene. Page 23
At this point, I pestered Rene to find me a happy customer who might have wise words to bring to the discussion so he introduced me to Steve Finnigan from Images & Sound. Ed: Now Steve you’ve been given the responsibility of being one of Protel’s better clients so I’d hate to see some of their worst clients, but anyway …? Steve: Ha ha. Exactly, right, I think it’s because I’m the closest to you … and the bar. Ed: So you’ve bought a bit of gear off them over the years? Steve: Yes, we’ve been buying stuff off Protel for the 20 years that I’ve been involved with the company – probably longer in fact. Even before that, when I worked at Airforce Recording and Mandrill Audio Post and Stebbings … Ed: Oh my goodness, you have been around and done the hard yards. Steve: Well yes it has been a little bit, but I can tell you that the Pro Tools product of today is certainly a different beast than it was back then when it was sort of like, they virtually had balsa wood mock-ups of half the products and you never really took it that seriously. Certainly Protel have stuck by it the whole way and now they’ve obviously got a world class product that they represent and it is the “go to” for the majority in the industry worldwide. Ed: I think you said it right there that they “represent”, because it’s one thing to have a product in a box that somebody buys, but another one entirely to actually support it. Steve: Absolutely yes. Rene’s been there a long time and I can recall 2 or 3 other guys prior to him who were also pretty good, but Rene’s been there the longest and certainly has a really good intimate knowledge of the product. That is one of the advantages, because when you buy other pieces of equipment, you know that, if something goes wrong, you’re on the phone leaving a message or you’re sending an email and you’re hoping you can get an answer the next day at the earliest. But Rene’s in New Zealand – except last week when he was in Australia at SMPTE – but even then I was talking to him about something we needed help with urgently – they know the answers and if they don’t, they’ll find out pretty quickly. And they’ll resolve issues, you know we have the odd licence conflict issue pop up by mistake
and rather than wait for them to get back to you from the States, Rene’s on to it. Ed: But you must have your own audio engineers surely who can sort out problems, because you’ve got 12 seats of Pro Tools? Steve: Yes we’ve got a dozen Pro Tools and we’ve got a bunch of Avids too, but not necessarily running through the same network. But yes, we’ve got 12 … actually we might even have a couple more than that in the back room that we’re not using at the moment. Ed: So you’ve got your own audio engineers and one would think that, in a large facility like yourselves, they would be able to sort things out, but there are things that Protel can still help you with? Steve: Oh absolutely, we’ve got some clever sound engineers, plus we’ve got 2 IT guys and broadcast engineers in the building who can sort anything network related and obvious like that, yes absolutely, and the knowledge our own sound engineers have got around equipment is second to none as well, but there’s always stuff where you just go “hang on, is this a bug, or is this something new, or is it a feature?” Ed: Is that random sound in the background a new feature? Steve: Exactly, or what’s happening with this … oh shit, a licence or plug-in has stopped working, why’s that – you know all that sort of stuff. Look we had 2 power supplies go out in one of our mixers last week and that shut one suite down for 3 days, but Rene was in Australia and he was on to it immediately and managed to get us one part across from there overnight and the other one on fast order from the US. It could have been a lot worse. Ed:
So it’s like having insurance isn’t it?
Steve: Absolutely, oh yes, it’s great. Despite the fact that Pro Tools is such a world renowned and well used product now, having someone that you can actually rely on locally to help you with backup support is critical really. You can ring him in the weekend, at night, you know, and he may not be totally rapt about that, but you’ll get help and reassurance. We’ve always really enjoyed our relation-ship with Protel and Rene particularly in recent years, so it’s very comforting for us. Ed:
That’s important in a big business?
Steve:
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Yes, I think it’s critical.
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