In Broadcast - September 2013 - 60

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 23 - SEPTEMBER 2013

N E W S

InFILE

FORscene: Post-Produce In This Cloud
By
Stephen Streater
CEO, Forbidden
Technologies plc

F

60

O R s c e n e, by Fo r b i d d e n
Technologies, has been used
to post-produce video in the
cloud for almost ten years. Users
have discovered how web-based
workﬂows save time and money
while encouraging collaboration
and creativity. Yet for some, working
in the cloud still holds mystery.
What Are The Costs? Affordability
and cost control have become
increasingly important as content
creator s strive to increase
production value. Other cloudbased video services often require
expensive software licences and
specialised hardware. FORscene
runs over any Internet connection
and in any web browser, while
usage-based billing allows clients
to control their spending and scale
up or down according to their
current workload.
Is My Content Secure? With
FORscene, only a lower-resolution
version of your content is uploaded
into the cloud, while the original
content remains secure on your

local servers. The proxy version is
perfect for editing, referencing, and
reviewing purposes and ensures
that access is speedy, even over
lower-speed Internet connections
or with devices such as tablets
and smartphones. At any stage
in the editing process, FORscene
can access the original source
material and output a version of
the edited material at the same
resolution as the original. Further,
FORscene accounts are passwordprotected, and the program resides
only in RAM on the user’s machine
- nothing is stored permanently
on the local PC - and the source
material and saved edits are
backed up in the cloud to three
separate geographical locations…
automatically.
Is Access Delayed In The Cloud?
Clients expect cloud-based
technology to provide the beneﬁt
of remote access without delays.
Although the media accessed by
FORscene is stored in the cloud,
the local machine’s processing
power is used to implement edits
and changes to material without
delay. FORscene also intelligently
downloads a selection of frames
within a clip that has been
selected for editing, allowing
work to begin immediately while
the balance of the clip downloads.

The FORscene User Interface

Recent capacity improvements
now allow clients to load folders
containing more than 120 clips in
less than a second.
Are The Tools Easy To Use?
Time is money, so new technology
must be easy to learn and be well
supported. The basic FORscene
interface is simple enough for
producers and directors, yet
responsive enough for editors.
Forbidden offers a comprehensive
training session for new customers,
and the interface features pop-up
tips and an interactive support chat
room. Training videos are available
on the FORscene YouTube channel,
and a new user guide will be
available to logged-in customers
following IBC2013.

Does It Integrate? As workﬂows
become more complex and
incorporate a number of different
technologies, integrating with
other systems becomes ever more
important. FORscene users can
import, edit, and export media
and metadata between FORscene
and a wide range of systems
including Sony XMPilot, Avid Media
Composer, and Apple Final Cut Pro.
At IBC2013, Forbidden will
demonstrate how it maintains
market leadership with the latest
client-requested improvements
to FORscene’s edit, account
management, and support tools.
It is this dedication to users
that helps Forbidden provide a
better service.

BFI Adopts FileCatalyst Workflow Accelerated File Transfer
By Chris Bailey
FileCatalyst CEO
and Co-Founder

he BFI (British Film Institute) is the
lead organisation for ﬁlm in the
UK. This internationally renowned
organisation sends anything from
a clip to a full length feature ﬁlm
as part of its daily routine whether
working on film festivals, high
proﬁle ﬁlm restorations, footage
sales or internal presentations.
The BFI’s technical team have
chosen FileCatalyst Workﬂow as
an ideal solution for accelerated
ﬁle transfers.
The BFI publishes books and
DVDs, distributes classic re-releases,
owns and operates the cinemas of
BFI Southbank and runs the BFI
London Film Festival. The BFI
also looks after the world’s largest
and most important collection of
British ﬁlm and television, the BFI
National Archive. Working with UKbased creative solutions provider,
MediaPros, the BFI sought to

T

optimise its content delivery across
digital platforms, and was looking
for an accelerated and managed
ﬁle transfer solution which could
handle all internal transfers from a
single system.
“Our previous method of ﬁle transfer
involved a combination of different
delivery systems, and content
delivery was not standardised. We
knew we had to move to a solution
with secure and simple workﬂows,”
says Tim Everett, Head of Technical
Delivery, BFI. Furthermore due to
the large ﬁle sizes of these ﬁlms, the
BFI required a solution which both
permitted higher speed transfers

FileCatalyst Workﬂow

of its digital content, while at the
same time securing the ﬁles during
transit. The BFI needed a system
that was easy and straightforward
to use, as the organisation has
many different users with different
technical requirements.
With the assistance of MediaPros,
a FileCatalyst partner, the BFI
deployed FileCatalyst Workflow,
which combines two powerful
web-based, managed ﬁle transfer
workflows: submission and
distribution. The FileCatalyst
Workﬂow solution has enabled the
BFI to deliver and receive large
format ﬁlm ﬁles at high speed in
transfers to and from ﬁlm industry
partners. The BFI was also able
to transfer ﬁles securely with the
FileCatalyst platform, serving
FileCatalyst Workﬂow over HTTPS,
and all ﬁle transfer connections to
the FileCatalyst Server secured
with SSL and AES.
“The biggest benefit to us has
been the ability to send large ﬁle
sizes quickly and allowing outside
parties to send ﬁles to us, without the
hassle of being limited to ﬁle size,”
says Tim Everett, Head of Technical
Delivery, BFI. “The BFI is now able

to transfer ﬁles securely, without
risking compromised or leaked ﬁles
during transit and it’s easy to add
and manage multiple users.”
“The BFI receives and sends out
many large ﬁlm ﬁles on a daily basis.
When using a different tool, a single
transfer of a feature ﬁlm could take
days. This is where FileCatalyst
comes in,” says Dave McKeen, VP
of Sales at Unlimi-Tech Software,
Inc. “We are pleased to help the
BFI achieve the high transfer rates
it needed to speed up all transfers of
feature ﬁlms while also ensuring the
secure movement of its ﬁlm content.”
“We have been impressed
by FileCatalyst’s performance,
transferring our ﬁles at much faster
speeds since we implemented the
solution. On the basis of our initial
trial we plan to continue to expand
the system internally and develop
more automation around it,” says
Tim Everett, Head of Technical
Delivery, BFI.
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