"Ultraviolet," a soon-to-be released motion picture, used Sony's e-VTR and Orbital Data's TotalTransport technology to streamline the production workflow.
"Ultraviolet" used the e-VTR's enhanced file transfer capabilities, working with Orbital Data's TotalTransport technology, to speed the backhaul of dailies, allowing data files to be reviewed electronically.
Sony's e-VTR is based on a plug-in board that enables the Sony MPEG IMX studio decks to become a device on an IP network. Once physical videotape assets are ingested into the e-VTR, the content is converted into data files on playout. These files can be remotely viewed, controlled and transferred on any common networked computer using the e-VTR Manager software or with third-party applications using standard FTP and HTTP protocols.
This capability to move easily between the linear tape-based and IT worlds came in handy during the movie’s production process because daily video material was needed to be sent from the location set in Hong Kong to Los Angeles for review.
The e-VTR is able to integrate common TCP/IP network protocols, allowing it to take advantage of data acceleration technologies such as TotalTransport.
The e-VTR-based process of daily distribution began with multi-angle takes being recorded onto several tapes by two Sony HDCAM SR decks, for playback in 23.976Hz. The HDCAM SR output (1080/23.976 HD signal) was converted to a 480/59.94 SD signal, and all the takes were copied to MPEG IMX tape for ingest into an NLE editor via an SDI connection.
Once the scenes to be reviewed as dailies were selected, an edit decision list was sent to an e-VTR deck equipped with the e-VTR Manager Application Software and compiled for transfer.
The compiled dailies reel was then sent over a wide area network from an e-VTR in Hong Kong to an e-VTR in Los Angeles, where an identical cloned MPEG IMX tape was created.
For more information, visit www.sony.com/professional.
