Production Sound & Video

Summer 2016

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26 Asset Management may be progressing as we continue on in this technological age, but the history and tradition of Local 695's presence in this position remains the same. The progression from two-inch helical scan analog, to digital tape, to file-based digital data is part of a long tradition and is increasing in complexity at a dizzying pace. As evidenced by the moniker, "Tape Operator" in a tapeless environment, this cultural shift in the economics, politics and infrastruc- ture of all aspects of media creation requires diverse new skill sets while retaining the core competency of previous generations of technicians. Every day, I'm immersed in this exciting landscape while working on the Atlas truck, which uses a state-of-the-art asset management system called Pronology. WHAT IS PRONOLOGY? Pronology is an asset management system that was designed by veteran users. Beginning in 2012, I have worked closely with Pronology's partners, Jonathan Aroesty, a member of Local 695 for thirty years, and developer Seth Wright on several reality shows, including Fox's Utopia and ABC's Glass House. Last year, we tackled the FIFA Women's World Cup, a month-long international event with multiple resolu- tions, codecs and wrappers moving back-and-forth between Vancouver and Los Angeles. On Utopia, fifteen American contestants were tasked with creating their own civilization from the ground up. Although the show failed to meet viewer expectations, the technical feats achieved by the engineering, editorial and Pronology departments were exceptional. More than one hundred and thirty cameras were switched into twelve feeds in the control room. Subsequently, these twelve video sources were fed to twelve first generation mRes™ boxes, which recorded high- by Jillian Arnold ASSET MANAGEMENT Aboard the new Viacom truck known as Atlas, you will see Video Engineers with the title "Tape Operator" at their positions operating interfaces connected to a network of com- puters, digital recording systems and storage. The various interfaces monitor, record, encode, transcode, duplicate and sync up to forty-eight streams of video, paired with sixteen unique audio tracks, saving multiple versions in different codecs and wrappers.

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