March 15, 2016 – Pronology, a developer of cutting-edge tapeless workflow solutions, will showcase its Location Intelligence feature for its flagship media asset management (MAM) system at NAB 2016 (Booth SL12407). Location Intelligence enables editors, producers and other users to quickly determine whether needed content is available immediately on-site or needs to be transferred from another site globally. This ensures the most efficient use of bandwidth and storage resources, while collaborating around the world.
“Our Location Intelligence feature sets us apart from competing products, and gives customers a powerful means of discovering where the high-resolution content they need is being stored,” says Jonathan Aroesty, president of Pronology. “This helps to erase the barrier of distance, adding greater efficiency to the production and post workflow.”
Pronology’s Location Intelligence feature was initially deployed by FOX Sports for its month-long coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™. In this instance, it managed multiple locations between the events, broadcast facilities in Canada and edit facilities located in the United States.
The benefits of Location Intelligence go beyond “big event” remote productions. For example, many large media companies have multiple regional studios with post-production services located elsewhere. Using Location Intelligence, editors can simply glance at an icon to pinpoint a media asset’s location. If the high-resolution material is not available within their current storage pool, they can then simply request a copy to be delivered to their location.
Pronology’s browser interface gives users instant “at-a-glance” access to view streamable proxy files of their content regardless of location. Users are then able to select their favorite shots, organize them into custom bins and send them to edit stations or delivery targets as desired. At this point, Location Intelligence determines the best source to use for the request. If the media already exists in the proper location, it will be used in place; if it does not exist, it will automatically be transferred from the most convenient location, either as a full asset or partially extracted “sub-clip,” and sent where desired.
The Pronology Location Intelligence tool manages all content formats, including 4K, enabling users who wish to access the highest resolution of an asset to do so, as well as facilitate those who can use down-res versions of the same asset. The feature is now available to all existing customers’ Pronology MAM systems.
“With this latest evolution to our system, Pronology has continued to evolve beyond the task of establishing a customer’s tapeless workflow to giving them the tools they require for working more efficiently with their assets in that workflow,” adds Aroesty. “As productions continue to expand geographically, with diverse personnel becoming more commonplace, this innovative feature further cements Pronology as a player in the global production environment.”