Remote Collaboration

How It's Done, What It Costs, and
How It May Change The Way You Work

by Rainer Standke

Internet-style networking is moving into the cutting room. Increasingly affordable technology now permits us to send digital files wherever needed and to share them with collaborators in distant places.

There are two types of video you might want to share: digitized dailies ready for loading into your Avid or video for viewing purposes only.

Digitized dailies are easy to deal with because they can travel as files from Avid to Avid, and no conversion is needed. Video for viewing is typically encoded with MPEG compression (the standard created by the Motion Picture Experts Group), which produces smaller files. As video quality improves, the network capacity required to play it increases. Viewing dailies typically use roughly 1.5-3 megabits per second (Mbps) and look like VHS, while full-

With the right technology, you can share your editing system’s output with a distant location while you work, and discuss it via a two-way video conference at the same time.

resolution NTSC, also MPEG-encoded, can require as much as 50 Mbps. Viewing dailies are typically played back in a browser or another application that allows random access from a PC.

The files travel over a data connection, usually using Internet Protocol (IP), the basic transfer method used on the Internet. IP is packet-switched, which means that your material is broken into chunks or packets that travel independently and are reassembled at the destination. How fast does the connection have to be? If the video doesn’t need to be viewed live, then it can travel slowly and be picked up later (“store and forward”), and costs are lower. An hour of AVR6 dailies, for example, will take about four hours to transmit over a T1 connection (a high-capacity connection at 1.5 Mbps). MPEG files move more quickly because they are more compressed. In a typical scenario, dailies might come out of telecine at 4 a.m., get fed into the pipe at 5, and be ready for viewing at the other end at 8.

If you have time to wait for transmission, you can also upload a scene or a visual effect at high resolution and later do a remote-controlled, synchronous playback at both ends of a connection — similar to the approach you may be familiar with for remote ADR.

In Los Angeles, Third Watch assistant editor Dino De Lorenzo works with New York executive producer Brooke Kennedy, using a system from Picture Pipeline. Both view video playing out of De Lorenzo’s Avid and simultaneously see and hear each other.

If you can encode video in real-time, transmit it fast enough and decode it on the fly, you get “streaming video.” Add video conferencing, and you have live remote collaboration. This is the most expensive way to work and entails dedicated hardware, but if the alternative is a trip of several days, including per diem and airfare, it can make economic sense.

In the last year, we’ve seen a surge in the number of providers that would like to sell you collaboration services. The market is still very much in flux, and each company takes a

At today’s prices, it can be cheaper to set up a remote editing system than to fly people from coast to coast.

different approach, based on either a private, dedicated network, a high-capacity pipe to the Internet or a “virtual private network,” where you pay for dedicated Internet bandwidth. Connection choices range from DSL and ISDN to cable modems, T1 and beyond. All methods rely on Internet protocols and technology, but providers have different pricing structures and offer a variety of options. As a rule, you get what you pay for. When choosing, look at all variables: speed, cost and reliability. Privacy and security can also be critically important. These issues seem to be well understood by the providers I looked at, but techniques vary a great deal, and I wasn’t able to evaluate them.

Here is a look at some vendors. First, two strictly “store and forward” solutions that don’t provide real-time conferencing:

Editvu allows you to upload files to their web site, where they can be viewed by others. You export a movie out of the Avid, then do additional compression in a non-real-time process. You and the recipient use whatever Internet connection is available to you. The system is browser-based, so no special software is needed for viewing. The recipient can e-mail notes to you straight out of the browser. Password protection and encryption are available, and video can be streamed to the recipient. Packages start at roughly $100/mo. www.editvu.com

Avid Review and Approval comes in two flavors. The first is strictly web-based. You create a QuickTime movie and upload it to the Avid ProNet server on the Internet. From there, it can be downloaded and viewed in the recipient’s web browser, and he or she can attach text notes to individual frames. Notes can be picked up from the same server and imported as locators in the timeline (Avid Version 10 is required). You can try it out easily, because QuickTime movies up to 2 MB are free at www.avidpronet.com/raa. Avid NetReview is similar, but runs on a server hooked directly to Unity storage. This solution might be most suitable for larger houses with their own internal networks.

Digital delivery of dailies. Telecine transfers film to tape, digitizes in an Avid or a
Media Recorder and sends digital files to the cutting room.
MPEG files can also be created and sent elsewhere for viewing purposes.

Next, two companies that are in the business of rapid, secure file transportation, not necessarily limited to the entertainment industry:

WAM!NET will set up their server in your office and connect that to your local network. Transfer speeds depend on the type of connection you get to WAM!NET’s high-speed backbone, usually a T1 line or better. Using a T1 line, unlimited use costs $3,000 per month and would transfer about 1 GB per hour. The hardware you use for video conferencing is up to you, and not included. www.wamnet.com

Remote collaboration. Avid output is converted to MPEG and displayed in a distant location. Video conferencing equipment is installed at both ends to create simultaneous, two-way interaction over the same connection.

JCI provides a very fast fiber-optic connection on a dedicated, private network. Once you are on it, you can connect to anyone else on the network. It can be used for file transport or live collaboration, and the hardware used is up to you. JCI provides a server with 100 GB of storage that hooks into your local Ethernet network. There is a monthly fee of $800 plus usage-based fees. What sets JCI apart is speed: one GB is transmitted in about a second.

NeTune specializes in satellite transmission. This makes them ideal for use in exotic locations, but you need to schedule all activity with the satellite a couple of hours ahead of time, and at present, you need a technician with you to run the equipment. NeTune also offers connectivity via fiber (i.e. cables) and terrestrial wireless (i.e. microwave), or any combination of the three. With their dedicated PC, MPEG-2 encoding takes place in real-time, and transmission speeds range from real-time to triple real-time. Recipients can attach notes to the footage. Everything is encrypted and password protected, and video conferencing is available, too. Video is stored locally. Pricing starts at about $1,200/week. Netune can also act as a service bureau: you bring your tape to their office, and they send it for you. NeTune’s service has been used for movies like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Stuart Little 2. www.netune.com

Ednet, spawned from Skywalker Sound, is the company that came up with the idea of recording ADR remotely over an ISDN connection while slaving two video decks for simultaneous playback at both ends. Ednet will sell or rent the hardware used to send, receive and play back video. Think of this as a fax machine for video. Their hardware, called ClipMail, is made by Telestream and will work with any data connection. Many facilities around the



The Media.net application being used to show dailies. It permits random access to video using the Windows Media Player running in a browser. Buttons permit comments to be inserted.

world are set up to act as Ednet service bureaus, transmitting your video to a facility near your recipient, where a tape can be made and delivered. A streaming connection including hardware rental is about $2,000 per week. www.telestream.net and www.ednet.net

Media.net has a dedicated, point-to-point, high-speed fiber-optic network from Los Angeles to New York, Toronto and Vancouver, with more cities (Sydney, London) to be connected soon. Their connection can hook directly into your Avid, where you use a web browser to download digitized dailies. When you are ready to deliver a cut, you use the browser again to control an encoding device that behaves much like a tape deck recording an Avid output. Your cut ends up as an MPEG file on Media.net’s central server, from where it can be streamed to reviewers. Media.net will provide them with PCs for playback, and television sets or monitors can be hooked up as well. An hour of AVR6 dailies can be downloaded in about five minutes. The reviewer can attach notes and even draw on individual frames. Streaming from point to point is also available, so that your director can watch Avid video remotely. Video conferencing can be added. Media.net is used on the television shows Gilmore Girls and The Education of Max Bickford, and the movie I Spy. Monthly pricing starts at roughly $3,000. www.media.net

Picture PipeLine specializes in full remote collaboration for our industry. They provide each participating location with a PC that runs their proprietary software and hardware. You can encode, send, receive and play back video straight out of your Avid, and run a two-way video conference at the same time, sharing the Avid output and watching the people at the remote site. Used in this way, Picture PipeLine is a point-to-point service, typically using a T1 or better connection, which they will set up for you. It can also be configured with a slower connection to send and receive files of any kind, including Avid media or visual effects materials. Reviewers can attach notes and drawings to video, and there is also a synchronized

In demos, I couldn’t help thinking that working remotely will work best for people who know each other well and have previously developed a common language and mutual trust.

playback system available with full remote control at both ends. Approximate cost for a full remote collaboration setup is $2,000 a month per location, plus telecommunication charges, which run between $1,000 and $3,800 per month. The service is being used successfully on Third Watch to help directors in New York work with the editorial team in Los Angeles. www.picturepipeline.com

Doing it yourself is another option if you don’t have deep pockets and your needs are limited. For example, you could simply export a QuickTime movie from your system, compress it further with a utility like Discreet’s Cleaner, upload it to a server on the Web, and have your recipient look at it with a browser. For short sequences, you can use the space most service providers provide for a personal web page. If you need more room, you can rent it from your service provider or even set up a server in your cutting room. The upside of this approach is that you can do it with existing equipment; the downside is that it’s relatively slow, not secure, and works best with short clips.

All these companies seem to do very similar things, yet there are important differences between them. Some sell data connections, others sell servers, and others offer their hardware and software for compression and decompression. Some offer complete soup-to-nuts service, taking care of everything you need. Some providers are available only at certain locations. Some of the companies are focused on our business, others provide a wide variety of services. Look hard at how tightly things are integrated, how well all the elements work together, who you call for help and how fast you need your material to travel. Price structures aren’t well-established yet and there are bargains to be had if you shop carefully.

Andrew Doerfer cut the pilot and supervised post-production for the television series Big Apple. Shooting in New York and posting in Los Angeles, they were Media.net’s first clients. “Without that service we couldn’t have done it, because we had such a late order,” says Doerfer. All three Avids in Los Angeles were connected, and the video out was fed to a monitor in New York for producers to watch. Conferences were held via telephone. “Nobody is going to use it unless they have to; and if they don’t have to, nobody will want to pay for it,” says Doerfer. He said Media.net worked reliably, and later was used to send viewing-quality dailies from Laser Pacific to the New York production office, where tapes were made.

In an example of what can be done with limited funds, Jim Toten, director of engineering and technology at Tribune Entertainment, uses Ednet to receive MPEG 2-compressed dailies, as well as cut versions of several television series from Australia and Canada. His connection is a simple ADSL line that costs about $400/mo.

Christian Wilson of HBO Studio Productions in Century City has used Telestream hardware in conjunction with the London-based Internet service provider Sohonet to receive dailies from HBO productions such as Band of Brothers, shooting in England and Europe. In extreme cases, dailies from the day’s shoot in England were available for viewing here at the end of the very same day (taking advantage of the difference in time zones). The data rate used for MPEG compression was 3 Mbps, and it took about twice running time to transmit.

Jan Northrup, an editor on the series Pasadena, used Ednet’s T1-based conferencing system to work with her director in Vancouver. She had not met him before, and at first working remotely felt a bit awkward. But she now prefers this over doing a director’s cut with VHS tapes and faxed notes.

Brooke Kennedy, executive producer on the series Third Watch, had no trouble getting used to working with Picture PipeLine’s live collaboration service. The service is now used on every episode to help directors in New York work with the editorial team in Los Angeles.

Video conferencing can also be used for casting sessions, costume approval, and blocking rehearsals, potentially saving weeks of travel time. Remote collaboration can give clients from all over access to the Los Angeles talent pool, and it can also make working with high-end effects houses in other parts of the world easier.



Video conferencing isn’t always glamorous. As prices come down, cameras and monitors get shoehorned into offices. The plumbing isn’t much to look at either.

Composer David Newman sends temp scores and works-in-progress into the Avid cutting room. With the Avid in VTR emulation mode, the editor and director can listen to the music with picture and give immediate feedback. Newman can make changes immediately, and when everybody is happy with the result, the cue can be recorded straight into the Avid. Although Newman lives only an hour away from most studio lots, he doesn’t want to work without this setup anymore.

In another application, a high-speed connection is used to link an empty room in Los Angeles to two post houses in Canada. This allows clients in Los Angeles to remotely supervise online and color timing sessions.

Will we all start using video networking and remote collaboration tomorrow? Most likely not. It makes the most sense when time is money. But even without tight deadlines, it may well be cheaper to set up a remote editing system than to fly people from coast to coast and house them. Will your interaction be the same as sitting in a room together? Certainly not. People I spoke to felt it was a learned skill and took some getting used to. In demos, I couldn’t help thinking that working remotely will be best for people who know each other well and have previously developed a common language and mutual trust.

Producers may like watching electronic dailies from a network connection, since random access allows them to see only what they want and get dailies early. “These are tools you never knew you needed, until you used them,” says Laser Pacific Executive Vice President Leon Silverman. He thinks that the physical disconnection that people face when they shoot, post and supervise shows in different places could be reversed using these techniques.

In the wrong hands, remote collaboration could take power away from editors, in much the same way that directors and cinematographers had power taken away from them by video-assist. On the other hand, editors might find themselves working on projects they couldn’t have done otherwise, because geography would have prevented it.

In the future, it might not matter where you are. As long as you are connected, you will be able to work anywhere — but you will face competition from everywhere else, too.