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December 2014

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www.postmagazine.com 41 POST DECEMBER 2014 he post industry currently has a major problem when it comes to effi ciently delivering numerous program versions around the world. The larger the distribution, the more costly, repetitive, and time consuming the activity be- comes. One memorable example of the scale this can represent is from Disney's Mike Krause, "We make 234 versions of every fi lm, including various languages, captions and aspect ratios. When we add all the media outlets, including television, airlines, etc., Disney is creating approx- imately 35,100 diff erent versions of a single title." If you fi nd that number hard to be- lieve, just consider a typical worldwide distribution: not only do content creators need to replace the spoken language tracks and provide captions, they may also need to replace the opening titles and the closing credits (acknowledging the voice artists who did the language dubbing) along with any localized imag- ery for the program. Beyond the diff erent languages and imagery, re-mastering is also required for the diff erent raster and frame rates of the various television stan- dards around the globe, including NTSC and PAL. With the exponential increase in target platforms that must be encoded for, the fi le-based world has only made this worse. Hundreds upon hundreds of nonlinear suites are kept busy for months on end doing nothing but re-editing the same program over and over again to create multiple tailored versions of the same piece of content. The cost of creating and tracking all these versions has spiraled out of control, which is a principal driver for a much needed "cure." THE CURE FOR VERSION-ITIS A few years ago, the AMWA (Advanced Media Workfl ow Association) and the ETC (Entertainment Technology Cen- ter) proposed solutions in the form of AS-02 (Application Specifi cation 2) and IMF (Interoperable Mastering Format) respectively. After much study, and some would even say "battles," SMPTE has standardized IMF and is currently work- ing on additional enhancements. With the weight of SMPTE behind IMF, it will probably have the most impact on the industry in general. The idea behind both specifi cations is that instead of making 35,000 unique fi les (which could be 150GBs each!), a single master version is created and within that package editors add only the media that represents the diff erences between the master version and the localized version as a much smaller fi le. Since most of a movie's visual content remains largely the same, it is much more effi cient to add only the modifi ed scene(s) and utilize the original master version for the majority of the content. If we include a set of playback instructions (like an EDL) that says, "when playing the French version, insert these frames and these end credits, and play this audio track," we've eff ectively wiped out the "version-itis" plague. Instead of moving thousands of 150 gig fi les around, we only move one 150GB fi le, which has another .5 gig of video and diff erent audio tracks in the same folder. Both AS-02 and IMF use mono-essence OP1A MXF fi les to transport the actual media. This is signifi cant because MXF is an "open" specifi cation, and content creators don't want their intellectual property in a proprietary format. The only appreciable diff erence is in how they communicate their "playlist" information. AS-02 uses a separate OP-1b fi le to convey the assem- bly instructions, while IMF uses a "CPL" (Composition Play List), which is an XML document very similar to one used in Digital Cinema. Both specifi cations rep- resent a collection of existing standards with the goal to constrain and focus on solving the problems of multi-version fi le-based delivery and mastering. IMF standards are currently available on the SMPTE Website and with backing from players like Netfl ix, it stands a good chance of seeing industry wide adoption. Christopher Fetner, director of content partner operations at Netfl ix says, "Netfl ix has already adopted the IMF standard for UHD material and our own original productions. We see it as an important foundation to the contin- ued evolution of our supply chain." Now that IMF has become a standard, post houses will be expected to be able to export an IMF package, and if they want to participate in the versioning business, they'll also need to be able to "read" an IMF fi le, process it, and re-write it. If a content creator is unable to off er this service, it will require an intermedi- ary to convert the fi les, which will show up as an additional line item that might negatively impact the ability to compete for such jobs. At Telestream, we've been involved in AS-02 and IMF from the beginning and are actively helping our customers automate the delivery of content to either standard. Currently, there's a lot of testing going on and much more education needed. If this is the fi rst time you've heard of these standards, I'd encourage you to get involved and stay informed. The great news is, that there's a cure on its way and one day we'll wonder how we lived without it. Will your organization be ready? BY PAUL TURNER VICE PRESIDENT OF ENTERPRISE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT TELESTREAM NEVADA CITY, CA WWW.TELESTREAM.NET HAVE YOU GOT VERSION-ITIS? With the exponential increase in target platforms that must be encoded for, the fi le-based world has only made this worse. Hundreds upon hundreds of nonlinear suites are kept busy for months on end doing nothing but re-editing the same program over and over again to create multiple tailored versions of the same piece of content. THE COST OF CREATING AND TRACKING ALL THESE VERSIONS HAS SPIRALED OUT OF CONTROL, which is a principal driver for a much needed 'cure.'" T OUTLOOK DISTRIBUTION O OUTLOOK O OUTLOOK

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