Blackmagic Design announced that AdPro, a department of global media technology group Adstream, is using Teranex 2D Processors as the backbone of its Adrack initiative for standards and format conversions for movie studios around the world.
AdPro began using Teranex for standards conversion several years ago to help deliver television commercials to more than 40,000 media buyers around the world. With more business coming in from major Hollywood studios, AdPro was tasked with delivering trailers, including theatrical, television and Internet trailers, in a variety of standards and formats in short periods of time.
“The 23.98 trailers that come in from the Hollywood studios need to be repurposed to 1080P 29.97, 1080P 25, PAL 16:9 FHA and Letterbox and NTSC 16:9 FHA and Letterbox all in one run, all as quickly as possible,” said Craig Russill-Roy, head of AdPro. “We then send the conversions to edit houses around the world, and they come back as finished trailers, which we then distribute.”
Each Adrack is set in a 48U open rack consisting of six Teranex 2D Processors working in conjunction with six Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Studio SSD recorders, an audio monitor, two SmartScope Duo monitors, MultiDock SSD docks and a Compact Videohub router. Alongside the Adracks are four editing stations consisting of four UltraStudio Express capture and playback devices, two SmartScope Duo 4K monitors and two SmartView HD monitors.
While the Adracks were purpose built for studio work, the Miami office also uses it for all broadcast deliverables. According to Gabriel Castellanos, Adstream America’s regional broadcast manager, the Adrack is essential for orders to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay as they are mixed format countries accepting both PAL and NTSC. It’s up to the individual broadcaster which format it uses.
“Prior to the Adrack, we would have to use third parties to help generate all types of deliverables because we wouldn’t know what formats would actually be used,” said Castellanos. “Now, having six Teranex 2D Processors means we can wait until we have the exact order from the broadcaster without wasting time and files. It has really expedited our Latin America workflow. We also get immense use of the Adrack for our local U.S. clients looking to send to Europe.”
“With an Adrack in both the Miami and London offices, AdPro has increased its efficiency by decreasing delivery time from 177 minutes to just 34 minutes for a typical studio order,” said Russill-Roy. “By innovating and creating a workflow that can handle converting a trailer across six Teranex 2D Processors and recording to HyperDeck Studios in six different formats, we increased our efficiency by 80 percent.”
“We knew Teranex would provide quality results very efficiently, but we had to be innovative with the overall workflow and office requirements, keeping in mind the Adracks needed a small footprint and couldn’t disrupt the staff,” added Castellanos. “The Adracks are silent, easy to use and the staff love them. And our customers love that the work isn’t being done in a far off machine room. It’s actually done in a controlled office environment with staff able to access the Adracks at any time.”
