CASE STUDY

The Digital Media Factory Goes From Acquisition to Archiving with Focus Enhancements


Challenge

Wrapped inside an old Wrigley gum factory in the surfing town of Santa Cruz, California, the Digital Media Factory has transformed the space into a new style of manufacturing—manufacturing digital media products. The studio brings together cutting-edge resources and talent to help clients in all aspects of digital media—from design and development to production, replication, management, and distribution.
 
On any given day, the Digital Media Factory team might find themselves traveling across the country to film a feature-length documentary, in the studio producing exercise videos, or rambling through tidal marshes shooting a children’s environmental education show. As industry leaders, they’re constantly looking for the latest innovations and technology solutions to help them improve productivity, enhance their creative process, and meet the needs of a diverse client base.
 
For several years, Digital Media Factory has relied on Focus Enhancements’ family of Direct To Edit® (DTE) recorders for the front end of their digital workflow, whether they’re in the field or the studio. Focus DTE recorders enable videographers to record directly in edit-ready QuickTime, Avid DV-OMF, and other native NLE formats in timeline—eliminating the time-consuming process of log and capture.
 
“It’s not unusual for us to capture more than 15 hours of footage each day on a multi-camera shoot. The DTE recorders save us significant time in the workflow. We just connect the recorders to our workstation and transfer the files, as opposed to having someone sit there logging and capturing 15 hours of footage each night,” explained Brian Critchlow, postproduction manager at the Digital Media Factory.
 
However, while the Focus DTE recorders helped streamline acquisition, the Digital Media Factory staff found themselves struggling to manage their growing number of digital files. “We’ve been storing files on a combination of internal and external hard drives. Active projects are stored on our internal hard drives, and then once a project is completed, we move all the files to an external hard drive,” explained Critchlow. “We try to keep everything organized in detailed folders, but when clients request a change on a finished project, we inevitably end up searching through hard drives trying to remember where a certain project is located.”
 
Beyond the time spent in retrieving projects, Critchlow was concerned about the reliability of consumer-grade hard drives. “More than once, we’ve run into corruption and catastrophic failure with our hard drives and have lost files,” he said. “We still use tape as a backup, so if we have a problem with a hard drive, we can go back to the tape—but then we’re essentially starting at square one.”
 

Solution

The Digital Media Factory turned to Focus Enhancements to streamline their asset management and selected the PX Media Server. Designed for small to medium-size production groups, the PX Media Server combines professional-grade server hardware with robust media management software to provide a turnkey, “out of the box” experience that reduces implementation time and costs. The PX Media Server can manage terabytes of video, audio, graphics, and text files from an intuitive web browser interface. “If you’re familiar with basic file structure concepts, the PX Media Server is really easy to navigate. It took most of our employees just 10 to 15 minutes to understand how to upload and download files, in addition to write and edit metadata,” explained Critchlow. 
 
As soon as Digital Media Factory team members shoot a project on the Focus DTE recorder, they immediately upload the footage on the PX Media Server, as well as make a duplicate copy on their local machine. Editing is done on the local machine, and the completed project is uploaded to the PX Media Server. At the end of the workflow, the PX Media Server stores all the raw footage, as well as the completed sequence.
 
Approximately eight members of the Digital Media Factory access the PX Media Server to upload and download footage. The PX Media Server supports flexible user access policies to determine who can preview footage, upload/download files, add/edit metadata, and create/organize projects. “Today, everyone has full read and write privileges, but as we grow, we’ll certainly need to impose multiple levels of access rights. In addition, we’ll look into giving our clients read access rights to their specific projects as well,” Critchlow said.
 
At present, the Digital Media Factory limits access to within the company’s building, although the server allows authorized users to log in from anywhere in the world. “Once we set up the proper security in our network, we’ll be able to have employees access projects when they’re on the road, or enable clients to review footage online,” he continued.
 
The PX Media Server offers rich metadata support—including short-description, long-description, title, and custom-defined fields—to enable users to retrieve files quickly. “We haven’t gotten incredibly specific with metadata yet, but in general we’ll document the shoot, the client, and the camera in the case of multi-camera shoots,” said Critchlow. “In addition, we rename each file from the DTE recorder to correspond with shot and take numbers, so that information is stored in the PX Media Server as well.”
 
As a result, Digital Media Factory producers can find specific files easily, through basic key word searches, searching by client, and more. In addition, when low-resolution proxy videos are available, producers can quickly browse a particular video.
 

Result

The PX Media Server gives the Digital Media Factory a reliable, enterprise-grade archiving system for storing all their raw footage and completed projects. “The PX Media Server gives us the security of knowing where our footage is. We no longer have to worry that a drive might fail, resulting in lost data. After all, no one wants to touch tape,” said Critchlow. “With the PX Media Server, we can access any of our files as soon as we need them, without having to scramble around looking through drives.”
 
Critchlow envisions the PX Media Server’s role expanding beyond storage and archiving to become the company’s central editing source. As he explained, “In the future, we expect the PX Media Server to become the main storage and editing point for all our computers. We’ll no longer keep local copies on individual machines; instead, everything will be done over the network, straight from the PX Media Server.”



About the Digital Media Factory

Located in Santa Cruz, California, the Digital Media Factory is a complete multi-business resource that brings together all aspects of digital media—from design and development to production, replication, management, and distribution. Since 2004, the Digital Media Factory has been serving the digital communication needs of business, education, entertainment, government, and local communities.
www.digitalmediafactory.net

About Focus Enhancements, Inc.


Innovation, efficiency, and superior quality are the foundation on which Focus Enhancements builds its products. A world leader in advanced video production, digital asset management, and digital signage solutions, Focus delivers products that perform superbly day in and day out, and backs them with unparalleled service and support.



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PX Media Server

A fully integrated hardware and software solution, the Focus PX Media Server provides immediate access to audio, video, images, and text-based data from any location. Designed for fast performance, the PX Media Server uses rich metadata to make it easy to find and retrieve media assets quickly. Low-resolution MPEG-4 proxy video clips of your HD, HDV, DV, and MPEG footage allow for quick preview, protect high-resolution media assets, and save network bandwidth. Additional features include online and offline usage, picture-to-clip extract, multiclient support, access rights management, and NLE format compatibility via the FS DV Conversion Suite.
 

FS-4 Portable DTE Recorder

Featuring a comprehensive backlit display, an easy-to-use menu system, a hard drive, and a removable, rechargeable battery, the Focus FS-4 is the perfect DTE companion for DV and HDV handheld shoots. Designed for use in even the roughest conditions, the FS-4 includes a six- or ten-second (model-dependent) electronic shock cache to ensure that you never lose footage. When recording is complete, your footage is ready to edit instantly—no capturing, file transfer, or file conversion is required. FS-4 Portable DTE Recorders are compatible with a wide range of nonlinear editing systems.


"The PX Media Server gives us the security of knowing where our footage is. We no longer have to worry that a drive might fail, resulting in lost data. After all, no one wants to touch tape. With the PX Media Server, we can access any of our files as soon as we need them, without having to scramble around looking through drives."

Brian Critchlow, postproduction manager at the Digital Media Factory