Remote Picture Labs partners with Avid for post-production editing

This agreement enables RPL to offer a virtual film and television post-production solution that allows editors, assistant editors and producers to collaborate from anywhere using Avid’s Media Composer software and Nexis storage products offered as a service to its customers.

RPL has shifted its business model to address the changing landscape as media companies gravitate towards ‘as-a-service’ offerings to support an increasingly distributed workforce, moving from perpetual licences to subscription with Avid.

Originally developed so that edit teams could work during the Covid-19 pandemic, the RPL solution provides all the system performance and functionality of traditional Avid workstations. Each virtualised client runs on RPL’s private cloud in a secure environment that possesses the same picture and audio quality and throughput found in on-premise edit bays. This continuity enables the seamless transition to a remote, collaborative environment, with content security assured through multi-factor authentication and AES-256 encryption.

“A primary consideration from the outset was to let edit teams use their existing media and projects,” said Erik Beauchamp, chief technical officer at Remote Picture Labs. “Our goal was to provide an experience identical to that of a traditional edit bay so that workflows can function just as they always have. Partnering with Avid made it possible, with additional benefits including editorial cost savings of up to 20% and the ability to hire editors wherever they might be located, since they no longer need to be in the East or West Coast talent pools. Though it was born of necessity during the Covid-19 pandemic, our solution has proven to be a game-changer for all film and television post production moving forward.”

Built around Media Composer and Nexis, RPL’s virtual workstations can be used as part of either a completely remote or a hybrid solution with some people working on premises and others remotely. The software-based platform gives editing teams access to the latest Media Composer features as soon as they’re available and provides a common experience whether the editor is working in a post facility or studio or from home. Multiple workstations can be integrated on the same project, making the RPL solution suitable for remote collaborative editing of premium live sports, studio shows, episodic television and feature films.

“As the rental market has evolved and media companies had to immediately pivot to work-from-anywhere models, the days of delivering rental equipment in person changed overnight,” said Raymond Thompson, senior director partner and industry marketing at Avid. “RPL responded by developing its own hosted remote editing solution featuring Avid Media Composer and Avid Nexis and has helped its clients’ productions continue during the pandemic. Through our long-term technology partnership, we can continue to extend remote capabilities to the post-production community in the post-pandemic future.”