Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1351516
40 S P R I N G 2 0 2 1 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y clients directly through Zoom! This is all made possible through the use of Source Elements Source-Nexus in conjunction with a small hardware box from Blackmagic called a "Web Presenter." This is a small box that you plug in-between your video card's output and your projection/TV and back into that same video card's input. This makes your computer think that this returning video feed is just another web cam that can be fed to your video chat of choice; in this case Zoom. Since I was conducting this interview via Zoom, Sam showed me how it worked. His playback video showed up as just another Zoom window that I could then pin and follow along with. He would then use Source-Nexus to route the 2-track mix into Zoom. I was amazed at how well this worked. The audio quality of Zoom is, shall we say, not the best... And, for this reason, this system works fine for general notes, but like others I interviewed, Sam would send the final version as a QuickTime for clients to do their own "final" screening with. KEITH ROGERS CAS I also spoke with Keith Rogers CAS. He tells me that when the pandemic hit and shut things down, he was in the middle of mixing Season 3 of Westworld. And, as luck would have it, the picture department was already using ClearView to present its picture to the different players in the production. So, Keith and his team had direct and near immediate access to the hardware necessary to run the system. Keith shares: "We were operating it this way; the production would invite the people they wanted with the appropriate link and everybody would log on. We found that it was only 2-track at the time and we were sending them the LtRt. It was early on, before people were paying close attention to their internet speeds, and we had a lot of issues with that. In fact, within ClearView, we could see how well an individual's internet was working and saw that some client systems were barely holding on!" This lack of bandwidth was creating lots of notes like "Check right here, there seemed to be a drop out. I'm sure it was my ClearView, but we should check." The thing was, it wasn't a ClearView issue, it was the personal ISP connections of the players involved with the episode unable to keep pace. "Also, there was a delay. So, what we would do, and still do, is have a conference call! We'd get everyone on the line, say 'Hi,' and I'd play 10 seconds of the show to make sure everyone was getting it. I'd mute the stage and say through the speakerphone, 'Hey, we're gonna play this section for you.' At this point, their computer was there for playback and everyone had headphones. Then they would jump back on their phone or other device to give or discuss notes. We found that this was a good way to keep the work flowing, and we'd have an assistant producer on the phone keeping a master list of notes for us to work through. "We have also had situations where the sound supervisor was remote. And in that case, we have been using the same conference call technique. So, while we are working, he or she is following along with the stream and will cut in on the phone and stop us with a note here and there. "Because of the pandemic and so many productions trying to keep their shows afloat, the physical ClearView boxes started to become scarce very quickly. As a work around, the engineering staff at Universal's post-production department created their own streaming system! They 've been calling it Studio Post Streaming, and that's what we have transitioned to using now. It works similarly to other systems, but it has its own stand-out characteristics. For example, it has a cool feature that's a Playback mode and a Review mode. When we're are in Playback, it is the highest resolution picture and sound we can send, and in Review mode, it references a lower quality picture or stream that will react more quickly when we are really rockin' and rollin' with the transport. It's also constantly being updated by our staff, so it's adding goodies all the time. "So, that's how we've been managing it and, amazingly, our clients have been really happy. I think they are blown away that we are able to do it at all. I'm curious if it's going to turn into a function in the future where we're always going to have it available for clients." Keith Rogers CAS Aaron Paul, Lena Waithe, and Marshawn Lynch in Westworld.