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May 2014

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38 Post • May 2014 www.postmagazine.com W ith an increased awareness of the environment, and the incorporating and maintaining of "green practices" by many businesses, studios have been proactive, and even quite creative, in ways to save space, energy, time, and money, while reducing harmful wastes. For instance, staffers at some studios ride their bikes to work, while others have incorpo- rated recycling programs or use organic materials for insulating sound rooms. Following suit, manufacturers are integrating many of the same practices, but are also presenting a unique perspective on the cloud (Avid Everywhere, Adobe Anywhere, etc.), tapeless workflows and/or products with smaller form factors and how it all relates to the environment. For instance, James McKenna, VP at Facilis Technol- ogy (www.facilis.com), which designs and builds cost- effective, high-capacity, turnkey shared storage and archiving solutions for post and content creation pros working in the film, TV, education and audio/visual markets, suggests replacing a larger, older traditional SAN with a smaller form factor unit. McKenna uses the company's TerraBlock shared storage environment as an example, stressing that post facilities could save up to thousands of kilowatt hours (kWh) over the course of a year. "With deadlines and budgets tighter than ever, post facilities are looking for ways to trim production costs, while also remaining conscious of the impact their work has on the environment," says McKenna. "The large-scale SAN infrastructures traditionally associated with big budget productions are becoming less favor- able, as they consume huge volumes of energy and waste space within a facility. As a result, we're starting to see several post houses adopt smaller form factor shared storage units." Pronology (www.pronology.com), a NY-based developer of tapeless workflow solutions, recently released asset management software that allows users the option of working in the cloud, via an internal intranet or a secure Pronology-host- ed network. According to Mike Shore, Pronology co-founder, the company's digital asset man- agement system provides users with a tapeless work- flow solution. While the solution eliminates unneces- sary waste of countless tapes, it also promotes less commuting for staff. Essen- tially, by utilizing a standard Web-browser as its prima- r y interface, Pronology allows a limitless number of users to simultaneously and remotely perform a num- ber of actions, including the ability to acquire, organize and transcode from ingest. So, the system basically encourages multiple staff members from production crews including the produc- er/director, the ability to work off-site. "The move to tapeless capture and delivery is the first benefit offered by the green, eco-friendly future enabled by media asset management," says Shore. "Step two is the cloud, as it is well suited to collabora- tion across distance. It elimi- nates the need to physically travel to a location to view all of the media that is part of a production. Pronology makes this easy by sitting at the point of capture, and creating live proxy recordings that are frame-accurately linked to their high-resolu- tion relatives, and are instantly viewable on the Web. These can be hosted off-site, or on…allowing users the opportunity to build their own cloud. With the ability to view live proxies and approve content off- site, the producer can be virtually 'on-set' from any- where in the world." "In addition to obvious cost savings associated with digital tape media over disk storage, digital tapes also leave a minimal carbon footprint, making them extremely green," adds Andy Hurt, VP of global prod- DID YOU KNOW? Starting January 1, 2015, it will be illegal for New York State residents and businesses to throw away most electronics, such as TVs, computers, printers, etc. Get into the habit of recycling elec- tronics today. continued on page 46 Manufacturers offer green solutions Sonic Union sees savings N EW YORK — Sonic Union (www.sonic union.com), which specializes in audio post for commercials, has put a number of green practices in place. The six-year-old facility recently added two new audio suites, and used the renovation as an opportunity to further expand their green initiative. Adam Barone is the managing director at Sonic Union, and says that while the initiatives are not a driving force behind their business, they have been able to realize some savings as a result. The studio uses Fujifilm's Permivault service, sending data each night to a cloud that is then archived to LTO tape. The service elimi- nates the need to keep media on spinning drives that consume electricity. With the recent renovation, Sonic Union consulted with an architect who helped make decisions based on sustainable practices. Bam- boo and plywood were used in construction, and recycled textiles were used for acoustical material. Rather than put in new floors, the 100-plus-year-old oak floors were refinished. In addition, reclaimed wood from an old tobacco farm was used to create the new mix desks. Lighting was also upgraded throughout the facility. Existing fluorescent lighting was replaced with LED fixtures. "When we first built the studio six years ago, we chose not to use LED lighting because it wasn't reliably dimmable," Barone recalls. The new LEDs offer improved performance. Barone adds that the AC has also been tweaked. "The air conditioning has to cool the whole space, but we can't hear air movement. Sophisticated controls allow us to manage it seasonally, so we never have wasted cool air." Barnfind CEO Wiggo Evensen (left) and CTO Arild Skjeggerud use recycled boxes to prepare orders. Facilis Technology's James McKenna suggests replacing older SANs with smaller form factor units that are more efficient. Front Porch Digital's Andy Hurt stresses that digital tapes leave a minimal carbon footprint, making them extremely green.

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