This year at NAB sees some nice new things come out of EVS. Well known for their market leading series of servers used in live production, over recent years we have also been using EVS as a super reliable ingest platform for reality and studio TV shows. This year EVS are showing their latest tools to make these workflows even better.
Our favourite EVS Highlights for #NABShow2015
New XT3 and XS server upgrades.
Their new Multicam 14 software further refines their market leading server platform, but more interesting is their new ability to offer even higher channel counts in an existing server. Internal hardware upgrades mean that we can record up to 12 HD channels in one server, for no extra rack space. Also, a new audio board allows for MADI multichannel digital audio in and output, simplifying audio I/O setup. A pretty common setup for EVS servers is having one server in a 4 in, 2 out configuration for replays, now we can achieve that times 2, meaning that where we would need to put in two servers for multi channel replays, the same job can be done with only one server with no loss in performance or features…Cool!
EVS Production Asset Management
As I had talked about earlier, EVS have done a lot of work on their Production Asset Management offerings. The IP Director suite of software has been the bedrock of the worlds’ largest sporting events, and in recent years has been used more and more for large reality TV projects as well. Their integration with the major NLE’s such as Avid and Adobe is really great, and as part of this makes it really easy to select the best tool for the job you are doing.
EVS Ingest Funnel
This year EVS have introduced their new workflow ingest solution, called Ingest Funnel. Essentially, it is designed to bring in media from various acquisition formats, copy off cards, and transcode and deliver to your destinations. This is great for live projects, as it makes it very fast and easy to get ENG from the field crews in to the EVS servers for playout, but where Ingest Funnel also becomes interesting is that it is not just for EVS only systems. It can also drop files in to an Avid Interplay/ISIS system, or just as easily make files ready for Adobe Premiere. As it is designed for seamless operation with the IP Director Suite, this means that all of these incoming files can be easily logged in Ip Director, enabling the whole team to be able to search and find the exact material they need. I think this has been the missing link in the EVS workflow, so it will be quite interesting to see how it develops.
EVS Avid AMA Plugin
Another great feature that is being released at NAB is a new AMA Plug in for Avid Media Composer. This now means that an Avid editor can directly plug in a hard drive with native EVS MXF Files on it and link to these files directly in Media Composer, saving a heap of time and hassle. This makes an EVS file ingest workflow basically identical to bring cards in from an XDCAM EX camcorder for example, with the added benefit that it is also brings in the logging information associated with the files as well. A real winner, and will make it a snap for Avid based post houses to deal with native EVS MXF files.
EVS and Adobe
EVS have been doing a lot of work with Adobe in validating Adobe Premiere in to their workflows. EVS now have fully qualified Adobe Premiere for editing off the EVS storage systems, allowing Premiere to natively edit EVS MXF media on EVS managed storage. This means that now we can use IP Director as our Production Asset Management for Adobe editing work groups, sharing media out all systems, and offering a powerful and efficient fast turnaround TV workflow. Videocraft have already invested in this workflow for our rental department, most recently deployed at the Australian Open tennis in January.
In wrapping up, we have seen some great new products come out of EVS this NAB, and if you would like more information on how we can help you harness the power of EVS systems in your next production, please drop us a line! Our rental department has the most up to date EVS digital workflow tools available anywhere, and our team would be more than happy to help you in bringing your production up to the next level.
As I had talked about earlier, EVS have done a lot of work on their Production Asset Management offerings. The IP Director suite of software has been the bedrock of the worlds’ largest sporting events, and in recent years has been used more and more for large reality TV projects as well. Their integration with the major NLE’s such as Avid and Adobe is really great, and as part of this makes it really easy to select the best tool for the job you are doing.
EVS Ingest Funnel
This year EVS have introduced their new workflow ingest solution, called Ingest Funnel. Essentially, it is designed to bring in media from various acquisition formats, copy off cards, and transcode and deliver to your destinations. This is great for live projects, as it makes it very fast and easy to get ENG from the field crews in to the EVS servers for playout, but where Ingest Funnel also becomes interesting is that it is not just for EVS only systems. It can also drop files in to an Avid Interplay/ISIS system, or just as easily make files ready for Adobe Premiere. As it is designed for seamless operation with the IP Director Suite, this means that all of these incoming files can be easily logged in Ip Director, enabling the whole team to be able to search and find the exact material they need. I think this has been the missing link in the EVS workflow, so it will be quite interesting to see how it develops.
