Posted: 22/06/2015
This article on how Forscene’s cloud editing platform was used at BVE was originally published in the March 2015 issue of KitPlus – The TV-Bay Magazine.
As Media Partners at BVE 2015 KitPlus was responsible for recording, editing and publishing 50+ hours of video content from the event seminars, roaming reporters and studio discussions over the course of the show. With material coming from different sources, crew and post-production staff consisting largely of students with varying levels of proficiency and tight timelines thrown into the mix we needed a postproduction solution that was quick to set up, easy to learn and provided a creative and reliable solution. After chatting with Forbidden Technologies for a while we decided to use their Forscene platform.
Background
Forscene is the UK’s leading cloud-based post-production platform. Historically seen as a viewing and logging tool, the software is proving its value as an editor on broadcast projects including The Voice and Gold Rush and sporting events like The European Tour and UCI cycling. We were excited about Forscene’s ability to edit and publish video directly to social platforms and decided to put the system to test on our on-stand interview videos as well as daily highlights packages. With limited time on our side it enabled us to get content to our channels and partners in the most efficient way.
Preparation
One of our main concerns about using an unfamiliar system was whether there was enough time for our editor to familiarise himself with the interface and workflow. Add to this the fact that our editor was a media student and unavailable for training and you can imagine that we were more than slightly worried! Because Forscene is accessible from any desktop or device through a standard Internet connection we were able to give our editor immediate access to a Forscene account and he then used the online training videos and user guide to familiarise himself with the interface and workflows the weekend before the show. The Forscene team markets the product as being simple enough for producers and directors to use while offering the advanced functionality that editors demand – we were about to find out if they were telling the truth!
Workflow
Interviews and roaming footage was shot at 1080/25 ProRes and copied onto Kitplus’ media storage at various intervals during the course of each day at BVE. The Forscene desktop ingest server was then used to transcode and copy proxies of this media into the cloud via watchfolders set up on the KitPlus system. This was possible using only the 2-3mbps connection available because 15:1 proxy versions of the original media were uploaded to the Forscene cloud instead of the original high-res source. Media was available in the Forscene account while still ingesting – so the editor could begin cutting without delay. Once the edit was complete, videos were published directly from Forscene to our YouTube channel – referencing the original high-resolution source stored locally.
Result
Forscene provided a cost-effective, easy to learn, reliable solution for our needs to BVE. Being able to work with media while it ingests and publish directly from the platform to other content distribution networks and social media platforms are fantastic features for fast-turnaround projects like this one and the edit capabilities of the system are unrivalled in its class.
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