Post Production Film Studio De Lane Lea opts for Avocent HMX high-speed switched KVMoIP solution
Soho-based post production film studio De Lane Lea have selected the Avocent HMX Desktop-over-IP solution to significantly reduce the workflow lifecycle in editing cinematic audio effects and soundtracks.
De Lane Lea is Europe’s premier post production facility, and offers six dubbing theatres, fully-equipped editing suites, digital delivery/conversion Transfer Bay, and 37-seat screening theatre. The facility is fully networked with switched Gigabit Ethernet, and remote access via DSL and ISDN.
De Lane Lea came to IP Performance to help evaluate and select a high-performance, high-bandwidth KVM product to physically separate the human I/O elements (screen, keyboard, mouse, tablet) from the processing and storage units of their Mac-based Digidesign Pro Tools HD systems, in order to reduce ambient noise in the sound studios, and to speed up the audio editing post production workflow.
The first film to benefit from the HMX treatment was "Hellboy II - The Golden Army", which was De Lane Lea's biggest project to date, and made big news within the industry. The audio post production set new standards in the workflow process, particularly given the complexity of editing advanced sound SFX to the CGI video footage, as well as the technical issues of editing 7.1 surround sound in real time into the film mix. For this production, all 12 HMX units and associated computer interface modules were used in Studio 1, under the control of the HMX Manager, which allowed the switching of all Pro Tools HD data sources to any screen and associated peripherals on demand. The deadlines were very tight and the pressure to pull this off was extremely high.
De Lane Lea are hoping to extend the HMX rollout beyond the initial 12 units, interface modules and HMX Manager to similarly equip the other studios in their Soho facility, and are working with IP Performance on various new product features, such as multi-user/single data source sharing.
"We were delighted to work with De Lane Lea and demonstrate to them the value of working with a specialist infrastructure and network integrator. It was key to not only demonstrate the product and carry out Proof-of-Concept testing, but also to feed back information and feature requests to the manufacturer, in order to tailor the product set to the very specific requirements of this niche UK industry", commented Pierre Ketteridge, Systems Engineer and Pre-Sales Consultant at IP Performance.
The second major film to be produced using the Avocent HMX technology was "Quantum of Solace", James Bond 007's 22nd feature film, starring Daniel Craig in his second outing in the role, which also required very complex audio SFX editing and mixing.
The latest big screen offering getting the HMX treatment is Disney's "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time", based on the 2003 video game of the same name and starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
"We are all tremendously excited by the interest that the Digital Media industry has been expressing in this solution," said Matt Dadd, IP Performance Account Manager. "We feel that we have a tremendous opportunity in the Post Production market, with a unique offering that fulfills a specific industry requirement, that no other vendor can match today".
IP Performance have launched a campaign to introduce the HMX family of products to a wider audience within the post production industry, and have also supplied equipment to audio & video Film, TV, Music and Advertising studios, including Sohonet, a global supplier of facilities, high-bandwidth connectivity and consultancy to the industry. IP Performance have been demonstrating the viability of separating the I/O control functions from the CPU and storage functions of a system over low-latency, high-bandwidth WAN links (multi-Gigabit fibre, for example) while maintaining high definition (HD) video at up to 1920x1200 pixels.
IP Performance and Avocent Corporation are committed to working with the Post Production world to ensure seamless interoperability of the HMX product set with the industry-standard systems, including AutoDesk Inferno, Flame and Flint, Avid (Media Composer, Symphony and Nitris, Pro Tools) and Quantel IQ.
For more information about this technology and IP Performance's offerings in the Post Production Industry, please contact:
IP Performance Ltd Commercial Contact:
Matt Dadd
Sales Account Manager
IP Performance Ltd
+44 (0) 1275 393382
IP Performance Technical Contact:
Pierre Ketteridge
Technical Pre-Sales Consultant
IP Performance Limited
+44 (0) 79 17 13 7438
