Altered Images designs and installs next-generation tapeless workflow for AETN UK

A joint venture between A & E Television Networks and BSkyB, AETN UK is the home of leading factual documentary channels such as HISTORY™, Military History™, Crime & Investigation Network™ and Bio™. Like many other networks and broadcasting facilities, managing the vast array of media content – especially the masses of archive material central to their factual programming – was becoming a major headache. Something had to change.

Buried in tape

After a thorough review of their existing operations, it quickly became clear that a move from their existing tape-based infrastructure to a fully tapeless workflow would save the company substantial time and money.

Tape cost was one of the main drivers for change. Before, they needed multiple tapes to provide copies to many users, including at least five copies of the same content – the master plus copies for the promo, compliance, audio post and video-on-demand departments. “This process was clearly inefficient and a waste of money,” recalls AETN UK broadcast operations manager, Tony Gill.

Tracking the content on tapes was also quite a challenge. Once the tapes were created, they continually moved in and out of editing suites. Dubbing, logging, editing and other processes along a comprehensive production chain were extremely time-consuming and resource-laden. All of these processes translated into many hours of traffic, involving many AETN staff. And there were additional considerations. Even with acquired third-party programmes and material sourced from AETN in the US, significant production was required - everything from commercial breaks re-versioning and compliance issues to audio dubbing, often for US-based programming that needed a new voice track for acceptance by the UK market.

The beginnings of a tape-free future

Discussions started on the project way back in 2008. AETN brought systems integrator and reseller, Altered Images, to the table at a very early stage to help the

m move as quickly and painlessly as possible to an end-to-end tape-free environment. And, alongside Gill and his team at AETN UK and BSkyB’s network team who had responsibility for the network infrastructure at AETN’s UK base at Osterley, Altered Images took on the key project management role. They also supplied and installed an Avid Interplay asset management solution, an Anystream Agility web encoding system and an Avid ISIS media storage solution, as well as upgrades to AETN’s existing Avid production and editing suites.

With the decision made to base the new workflow around AETN’s incumbent Avid audio and video editing systems – Pro Tools, Symphony and Media Composer - Altered Images also enlisted the help of Avid’s Professional Services Group to design the most efficient solution. According to Gill, “I was very confident that the system Altered Images and Avid proposed at the heart of our new tapeless environment would bring us the productivity and efficiency benefits the business needed.”

A new workflow, a new way of thinking…

That said, AETN clearly wanted to leave nothing to chance. To kick off, Gill and his team solicited input from a wide cross section of the company, asking what people wanted in a system and what they wanted to do with it. As well as ensuring that the system met everyone’s needs, this process also helped garner advance buy-in from the staff - crucial in the implementation of a whole new working practice.

And by bringing on board Avid Professional Services early on, Altered Images made sure the training was relevant to a user’s point of view. Working with users one-on-one helped engage the staff and get them enthused about the possibilities of the system. “Completely changing a workflo

w is dramatic,” says Gill. “It’s scary for people to think about their daily work life being turned upside down. Gaining user acceptance was vital to the success of the project and contributed to an easy transition.”

In early 2010, so AETN could put the system through its paces in a real world environment, Altered Images provided a demo system. “This helped with the buy-in process as it then became real,” recalls Brian Cutts, project manager at Altered Images. “It allowed us to show their stakeholders the operational and commercial benefits of moving to a fully-digital environment. It also enabled us to carry out on-site training for the users and help guide them through the process.”

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. The project threw up a number of operational and environmental challenges for the team to solve. “The hardest part is often not designing the workflow, it’s integrating it seamlessly into a customer’s existing set-up,” says Cutts.

The AETN UK operation was a very open plan set-up, so the Altered Images team had to think things through very carefully like airflow, the most efficient use of power and rack design - crucially while not interrupting the day-to-day operation of the facility. To do this Cutts’ team ended up housing the broadcast equipment in three full size acoustic racks to significantly reduce the noise from the servers and storage blades. “We also had to reinforce the flooring, secure dedicated power supplies and coordinate all wiring requirements to protect AETN’s investment,” he adds. They rolled out the installation in stages to ensure that production was never taken off line.

Tangible benefits - from day one

Once the system was in place efficiency gains were immediate. Not having to manually manipulate tapes is the most basic benefit, saving valuable time and resources - both in human effort and hard costs. Gill put it simply: “We essentially cut nine and a half hours of traffic down to two hours.”

In addition to obvious operational savings, additional benefits have far-reaching and long-term impact. “Previously people were queuing to use workstations,” recalls Gill. “Now with 20 Avid Interplay Assist workstations accessing Interplay, anyone can browse, look for and manage any material or metadata.”

Editing can begin immediately, even during ingest, with multiple users able to work on files simultaneously. Edits are real-time and can be viewed and accessed by anyone authorised within the system. Information exchange is quicker and more immediate, translating into increased collaboration due to the immediacy of editing and the automatic and easy file access.

On the production side, the system supports a wide variety of formats, handling HD as easily as SD, as well as MXF and QuickTime file wrapping, and any compression format. With material available and shared immediately in a normal desktop environment, it’s easy to find, re-use and annotate content.

Media management and storage are critical functions within the system and their capacity opens up new creative possibilities. Gill estimates that eventually the system will accommodate five years’ worth of raw material that users can access and edit without ever visiting the library.  An enormous amount of media in mixed format will be stored and accessible without manually collecting all materials and logging.

Big picture savings

What does this mean for AETN? The greatly streamlined and more productive end-to-end system has resulted in 25% more editing time. AETN team members previously toiling for hours at ingest can now better utilise their talents. AETN offices now have more than 20 new workstation spaces available for use as creative, collaborative work areas for everything from storyboarding to just playing around with ideas.

In addition to tape cost savings, shipping costs have been reduced dramatically. Previously AETN transported from three transmission playout centres in Europe. Now delivery happens straight from an edit suite to wherever it needs to go. From bottom-line resource savings to a more satisfied staff, AETN’s transition to an integrated, end-to-end workflow has brought a broad range of improvements – for all involved.

The final word goes to Gill: “From project conception to final implementation and support, Altered Images really understood what we were looking to achieve every step of the way. They helped make our move to a tapeless workflow environment as seamless as possible, and we’re already seeing the cost savings and operational benefits of the new solution.”