WATERLOO, Ontario—Cinematographer Vinit Borrison powered what’s dubbed a “virtual video village” that connected the geographically dispersed creative team involved in the production of a commercial project with the Dejero EnGo mobile transmitter and the Zoom video conferencing application.
Borrison—who starred with his wife and young daughter in a commercial for a skin care brand during the pandemic—shot, produced and edited the spot from his home. The Dejero EnGo mobile transmitter provided reliable, high-bandwidth connectivity, streaming high-quality, low-latency video to the director in New York, the agency in Los Angeles and the client in Toronto—all of whom talked about the project via Zoom, Dejero said.
Wearing Apple AirPods, Borrison was able to speak with the directors, who offered feedback and took notes in real-time during the shoot. A small amount of equipment was set up in a separate room, which allowed Borrison’s daughter to remain comfortable rather than being surrounded by crew and technology. The workflow made it possible for the actors to have a more natural interaction with the camera, it said.
“When the pandemic hit and social distancing was enforced, there was no option for the industry but to work remotely with bare minimal crew, which had a lot of production companies scrambling. But as we’d already adopted Dejero’s connectivity solution into our workflows, it was the perfect storm which has actually opened up many more opportunities for us,” said Borrison.
The Dejero solution has enabled Borrison to work to tighter deadlines and offer clients greater flexibility.
“The EnGo is an amazing tool that has helped us to create a highly efficient remote workflow for our productions,” he said. “Tons of people crowding around a few monitors on set has been superseded by a virtual video village because we can now connect our client’s creatives and stakeholders from the comfort of their homes or studios. It means that everyone has a great view of what is being filmed at that moment so faster, and more considered, creative decisions can be made, which enhances overall production values.”
Prior to the setup, transmission of high-quality shots to the on-set video village was restricted by cables or wireless connections with limited range or bandwidth. For the majority of cinematic productions, hard drives would have to be physically taken back to a central location because transferring these types of high-quality video files without dropouts was not possible, the company said.
Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology simultaneously aggregates multiple network paths, including cellular, broadband and satellite, in real time, enabling high-quality video to be transmitted instantly, meaning collaboration time, production logistics and carbon footprint are significantly reduced.
More information is available on the company’s website.
