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Furthering its expansion into full editing and production solutions Videocraft recently produced a one-hour daily highlights show for Beyond Productions, Channel 9 and the Tour Down Under cycle race. Videocraft sales director James Taylor explained, “In order to achieve 48 minutes of daily content on the move we had to use Videocraft’s mobile edit facility. This production was not like the Tour de France which is one continuous live broadcast. The Tour Down Under footage is created from scratch while the race is on. This is no mean feat and relies completely on the equipment you use and editors and producers who really know their jobs.” Videocraft’s mobile edit truck moved with the race as the cyclists powered their way across South Australia. Moving with them were multiple Sony PDW-700 XDCAM 4:2:2 cameras acquiring and storing footage on optical discs. Taylor continued, “We used Canon’s new image stabiliser lens for the main motorbike camera material which helped us get far more stable shots. It’s a great lens and perfect for this type of shoot.” Videocraft also provided all the technical management for the production and put together the workflow that included multiple XDCAM cameras feeding material into their edit truck. Inside the truck was an EVS XS server and IP Director which were used for all live stages, ingest from OB trucks and all playout of finished shows. Taylor explained, “We got material into the system and logged it to make the editors job easier. Then the producer could find all the shots they wanted from the OB and put together the highlights for news.” Videocraft also brought a level of functionality and flexibility normally associated with a fixed production house setup to a constantly changing mobile environment – all within 15 minutes of parking their editing truck. A cycle race involves long hours for all involved and the Tour Down Under was no exception. The production was based around 18 hour days every one of which saw producers and editors sitting alongside James Taylor in Videocraft’s edit truck so there would be no interruptions to the workflow. “It was a no frills set up, that’s for sure,” added Taylor. “The camera guys on motorbikes would drop their discs at agreed points and we would ingest the material into our edit system. The editors would then pick content from logs that the producer had created and we would add in graphics from within our system. The story was then put together and cleaned up with the final voice over added using Avid Media Composer’s audio punching tool. Once complete the finished edit was stored in the EVS server for playout later via satellite.” Videocraft also created and encoded news highlight packages for the Internet within their mobile editing facility for the entire duration of the Tour Down Under. All in all a complete production and editing solution. James Taylor concluded, “A production like the Tour Down Under is fast, furious and often hectic but at Videocraft it’s what we do best. In this case we used an Avid Media Composer, Nitris DX and Isis 5000 shared storage solution as this setup is perfect for the fast turnaround, high-pressure environment and critically, it delivers time and time again. Our discussions with our clients as we prepare for this type of production is always the same – what’s required is a reliable and trustworthy workflow with a systems integrator who can make it happen in far from perfect environments. After 40 years in the business, it’s something we pride ourselves on achieving.”

When Harpo, Oprah Winfrey’s production company, first decided they were going to put on the Opera House Spectaculars, according to Videocraft Project Manager Dan Miall, they had one specific requirement, “To recreate the editing, post production and IT facilities they use in Chicago in Sydney.” Harpo initially approached Avid USA who in turn put them in touch with Avid Australia and Videocraft. Miall explained, “Harpo are an incredibly professional production company. To that end they were very specific in their technical requirements all of which were based around renting a series of Avid Unity Isis and Interplay systems.” As Harpo did their due diligence they discovered that Videocraft were the company in Australia who could provide exactly what equipment and infrastructure they needed to produce the Sydney Opera House shows for Oprah'sUltimate Australian Adventure. Miall continued, “We met with Radi Akel, Harpo’s General Manager, during the Commonwealth Games and showed him the OB edit system we had installed at Foxtel which took care of all the games’ highlights for Fox Sports. Radi was impressed and so we sat down to plan exactly what would be required for Oprah’s Sydney shows.” In all Videocraft provided eleven high-end edit suites with 64Tb of storage and Interplay digital asset management. Miall explained, “This was a major installation. The kit list included multiple Avid Media Composer Nitris DXs, Sony LMD-2450W 20-inch LCD professional video production monitors, Dynaudio Acoustics BM5A two-way Active Nearfield Monitors, Interplay Assist stations, Tektronix WFM5000 Multi-Format Waveform Monitors and Yamaha A/V. They really were eleven top of the line edit and post production suites.” In addition to the editing and post production facilities Videocraft also provided Harpo with all of their IT requirements which included 60 laptops, 18Tb of storage, printers, active directory sharepoint and integration. Dan Miall added, “This was one of the biggest and most unique temporary installations Videocraft has ever done. We knew we had to provide all of Harpo’s editing, post and IT requirements for two live shows and two tape-based shows at the Sydney Opera House, but then came the really tricky part - everything had to be installed on the 12^th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel in just two days. In other words we had to build and convert the entire floor of a hotel into a fully functioning post facility in 48 hours.” With the project given the green light Miall and the Videocraft team began the unique installation and hotel floor conversion. In the meantime Harpo gave further details of the shows’ format. To celebrate 25 years of the Oprah Winfrey show 302 audience members from the USA came to Australia with the talk show Queen armed with mini DV cameras with which they were to record their adventures. Miall explained, “The audience members’ footage was recorded and ingested as low res .wmv files. The files were then logged in Chicago where the producers chose the shots they wanted and then these files were ingested for a second time into the Avid suites we built at the Intercontinental Hotel. The Sydney suites were then used to cut packages ready for broadcast within 24 hours. As often there were many versions of different packages, the suites had to run very smoothly and very efficiently, which I’m delighted to say they all did.” Commenting on the production of the Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure shows Harpo General Manager Radi Akel said, “Everyone at Harpo was amazed and delighted with what Videocraft did for us. The central equipment room they built was awesome and the level of equipment they provided along with their service was second to none. We discovered early in the project that they were the best company in Australia who could put this kind of system together and it became very clear why over the course of our time in Sydney. The installation was 100% on time and the entire Videocraft team were incredibly professional, flexible and nothing was ever too much trouble. They gave us everything we needed with a smile and a kind word – even when we switched from XDCAM to HDCAM one week before the shows were to be recorded. I really cannot thank Dan Miall and the entire Videocraft team enough for what was a seamless and perfectly executed project.”