PERFECT 4K POST-PRODUCTION ARISES IN SHIBUYA
24 April, 2015
A new post-production opened on April 23, 2015 on the 7th floor of Shibuya Flag Building directly opposite from the Tokyu Department Store, in the center of Shibuya. This was managed by Nitro, or NTV Technical Resources Inc.
The selling point, undoubtedly, is that 4K can be used in all the rooms. The EDIT4 room (Inner 1 room is also used as a screening room), MA2 room and PD10 room are all fully equipped. A file-based workflow was enabled from the offline to online/MA, which allowed for continuous 4K and HD operations. Why did he make inroads into Shibuya now? “Since there were still very few post-production studios which use 4K in Shibuya, we decided last summer to target 4K, in view of the business opportunity it had, scouted locations in autumn, and began to prepare,” said Hiroshi Odaka, the technical post-production division chief at the post-production center of Nitro. I guess you can say that the swift ability to perform a task after planning is a strength of Nitro.
There are four rooms for EDIT (=online editing). EDIUS 4K (HDWS-4K), 4K Premiere (Bluefish444), VWS 4K and the sub PC MacPro are the basic composition. Furthermore, there are two sets of DaVinci Resolve, which can be used in all four editing rooms. One set of 4K Premiere has been introduced into each room as a Bluefish444 turnkey system. “I had experience editing 4K Bluefish444 in Shiodome also with Nitro (mentioned in a June 2014 article here), and it got high marks from all of the production staff,” said Mr. Odaka, explaining his confidence in Bluefish444.
Each machine, except for the sub PC, has an editing room attached to it as a base, but it’s possible to choose and operate your favorite machine from the EDIT4 room, combining the KVM matrix. In other words, the rendering and extractions after editing would be continued in a separate editing room. The 4K storage would be done in a miniSAS (a low capacity but high speed) or in Thunderbolt (a high capacity which can be connected easily). External storage is used for 4K in the HD editing, but working on a server is also possible.
84-inch 4K client monitors are available in each room and, the best part in particular, were the EDIT3 120-inch projectors. This is the 4K ultra-short throw projector using the latest Sony laser diodes, and there are few examples of others being introduced as well. 5.1 channel surround sound screening is also possible. Moreover, a working space that can be adapted to a DaVinci Resolve pure surface installation in EDIT3 has been secured. Next, there are the 10 PD (=offline editing room) rooms - Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro7, Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere can be used there.
Only Avid Media Composer could be used on both of the OS using the Mac and Windows 8.1 boot camp. There are basic external storage operations but it will also be possible to connect to a server. Data ingestion and digitalization from tapes and digital cuts are performed in laboratories, connected to the decks of the editing room and DC Room, and then outputs nonlinear data. When using it as a grading room, the NEP Infini lab is transferred and used.
The NEP Infini is a 4K production support system that combines the software TransKoder, which does grading and transcoding for ColorFront, and NEP Infini, which is equipped with data management functions. 4K materials quickly convert to 2K and it does total management from primary grading to 4K finishing. There needs to be efficient management of the large capacity, the management of numerous files, and the unique elements of 4K need to be effectively used for RAW data to do 4K production in previous workflows. With the introduction of NEP Infini, the entire link is smoothly carried out, such as recording media metadata and color management, the management of editing data from various software, and a data base for video archives. The NEP Infini workflow is one in which filmed material is ingested with a 4K camera, metadata, such as comments are inserted in file units and management becomes possible so it is read by TransKoder, primary grading is done, there is down conversion from 4K to HD and it is sent for offline editing. Conforming and final primary grading are done with NEP Infini based on the offline editing data so 4K can be extracted.
The majority of the material is integrated into one location and managed in the Data Communication Room (DC Room = communication room). The VTR has 10 HDCAMs and 2 HDVs (one HDCAM is in each EDIT and MA room, the remaining 4 are used in both a PD and lab and the HDV is for labs). The lab is commonly known as a Data Management Lab. Ingestion, clone production, simplified grading and data conversion are mainly done here. A data format conversion, which conforms to the editing system, is done later. The server has EditShare192TB (3TB x 64) installed for HD editing and DDPs for MA (2TB x 12). EditShare is used for video files, storing telop data and as a bridge media with MA.
EDIUS and DC Room are connected with 10Gbps and 1Gbps besides that. The DC Room is equipped with two sets of loudness measuring instruments, one set of Harding, the necessary sources from the router are chosen and worked on. In addition, dark fiber connection is also planned with Shiodome in the future. Access will become possible for all of the servers between Shiodome and Shibuya. Furthermore, we are looking to connect the telop system VWS server operations of both bases also. The 2 MA rooms are “very particular” (Mr. Odaka) and compares favorably to an offline editing room. They combine the C-300 (SSL) voice console and DAW plug-in and are equipped with a high quality 5.1ch surround studio. A sound field in a natural, flat forest that is an ideal acoustics area is created by using a Nitto Boseki (acoustics system) NES monitor speaker and AGS.
In a spacious, brightly lit room with the windows widely opened, there is an orientation space prepared that splits off and absorbs sound with a partition. There are also the 10 most suitable counter seats for personal work. Furthermore, a 4K 84-inch large monitor was installed along with 4K broadcasting tuners and 4K file players and a comfortable space was provided.