Pronology, a company that has worked the Oscar shows for more than a decade, and its latest media asset management (MAM) solutions provided behind-the-scenes support for this year's Academy Awards telecast. The company's software, developed jointly by Playback Innovations and WheresMyMedia, provided the production staff at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center with a high level of visibility and creative control over the thousands of assets that were part of the big show.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of the night, logistically speaking, was managing the enormous amount of audio and video clips displayed on stage. The Pronology software allowed everyone involved in the show, from producers to playback operators, to efficiently organize and search through the huge number of pre-produced audio and video elements, according to Jonathan Aroesty, co-founder of Pronology.
The company's software, developed jointly by Playback Innovations and WheresMyMedia, provided the production staff with a high level of visibility and creative control over the thousands of assets during the telecast. "This enabled them to instantaneously share clips, notations and approval decisions between the various content providers and edit facilities, regardless of their location," Aroesty said. "[Our] asset management software allowed the creative process to be a truly collaborative one."
A graphical user interface allowed users to log, annotate, organize, view and remotely exchange content and information instantaneously, allowing all members of the creative team to collaborate in real time. For example, the solution helped manage the voiceovers for this year's nominee packages, which were recorded on site at the Dolby Theatre. Pronology's asset management software also offered a secure portal for the audio department to arrange, share and transfer content to Chainsaw, the edit facility charged with compositing and delivering all of the final elements.
Prior to the broadcast, every clip must be formally "approved" by ABC Broadcast Standards and Practices (BS&P). In the past, this had been a tedious and time-consuming task; Pronology made the process simple and effortless. The BS&P team monitored the deliveries coming from Chainsaw in real time, directly from its offices across town. As soon as content was created, it could be approved for air, greatly eliminating any potential workflow bottlenecks and further streamlining the process.
In addition to its innovative workflow solutions, Pronology's MAM software also ensured data security, which is of the utmost concern. These safeguards guaranteed that all of the show content remained confidential and could only be accessed by designated, authorized personnel.
Along with the coordination of all of the pre-production elements, Pronology's MAM solution proved advantageous during this year's live broadcast as well. Heather Sabin, awards show curator at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Film Archive, was on scene with access to the full Pronology toolset to record, log and tag this year's broadcast for postproduction and distribution purposes. The software then provided access to the content via its secure cloud based web-portal after the show, so that AMPAS could review the material in preparation for sharing it with interested parties.
