Telestream Flips Graphics for Democratic National Convention

FlipFactory significantly improves workflow efficiency

by automating the process of reformatting and transferring graphic files to Profile playout servers

Nevada City , Calif. , August 4, 2004 - Telestream, the leading provider of digital workflow automation solutions, today announced that its flagship transcoding automation application, FlipFactory Pro, was used by customer ProQue to convert and deliver all the graphics that were displayed onsite at last week's Democratic National Convention in Boston.

ProQue, a facilities rental and service company that provides video playback equipment for live and taped events, was hired by Don Mischer Productions and RK Productions to provide onsite services during the convention. ProQue partners Rick Edwards and Jonathan Aroesty jointly operated, and oversaw the equipment used in Boston . This included the use of Telestream's FlipFactory Pro for transcoding all convention graphics-such as names, titles and other graphical elements-for delivery to 24 channels of Thomson Grass Valley Profile servers and ultimate display on a 90-foot rear projection screen, as well as 34 plasma screens located throughout the convention hall. According to Edwards, Telestream's FlipFactory Pro "was the only game in town" for the job.

ProQue put FlipFactory to work several days before the start of the convention, and used it continuously throughout the four-day event to automate the entire process of receiving, transcoding, and delivering the graphic files to the Profile playout servers. Fontastics graphic artist, Gabriel Schroer said, "Conservatively speaking, the Telestream set up we had there improved our efficiency by about 300%." Schroer was comparing the automated FlipFactory file transfer process to the more conventional process used in the past of outputting graphic elements to tape and then digitizing the tapes into the servers.

ProQue's Jonathan Aroesty adds, "From 4:00 p.m. until about midnight we were 'on-air' and could not tie up the Profile channels which were all being used for playout. If a producer wanted a special graphic during this time, we could render it in Adobe After Effects and send it to Profile in the 'background' via fibre channel without tying up any of the Profile channels." Once a graphic file was built and rendered, the artist simply submitted it to a FlipFactory folder which automatically picked up the file, transcoded it to a Profile-compatible format and delivered it via fibre channel to the designated Profile server/s.

Convention graphics were created by LA-based Fontastics located onsite in Boston , as well as by The Studio @ New Wave Entertainment located in Los Angeles . Output as QuickTime Movies using Adobe After Effects, all the graphics were fed into Telestream's FlipFactory Pro for processing. According to Aroesty, "an added advantage was that once the graphic files were built, rendered, and placed in the FlipFactory folder, our graphic artists and their workstations were free to move on to the next creative assignment."

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About Telestream (www.telestream.net)

Telestream products have set the standard with the world's leading media and entertainment companies, corporations and government institutions for the encoding, organizing and delivery of digital media. Customers rely on Telestream products for convenient, cost-effective, and robust digital media access and exchange over IP networks. ClipMail MPEG appliances enable peer-to-peer worldwide media delivery. FlipFactory® software applications provide universal transcoding and metadata exchange between professional video systems. Telestream MAPT media organizers enable workgroups to capture, find, organize, repurpose, and share video/audio files. Telestream's automation applications and smart media organization solutions streamline workflows for broadcasters and media companies, as well as content owners and creators in government, higher education and corporate markets. Telestream and its team of video experts are located in Nevada City , the "video valley" region of Northern California . The company is privately held.

 

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