Avid Cloud-based Workflow Revolutionizes Post-Production Services of Israeli Production Company Ha-Mitcham
By Jim Bask
Burlington, MA, 1/26/2017
Largest independent post facility adopts the industry’s most open and efficient media platform to optimize production efficiency with remote collaboration via the cloud
Avid® (Nasdaq: AVID) today announced that Ha-Mitcham, the Israeli production and post-production facility, has implemented a revolutionary Avid workflow that allows its clients to compete successfully with larger organizations in the production of creative, high-quality content. With the industry’s best, most comprehensive individual tools integrated on the Avid MediaCentral® Platform, the workflow – the first of its kind in Israel – incorporates cloud technology to facilitate a cost-effective, collaborative and future-proof creative environment.
Ha-Mitcham, which is Hebrew for ‘The Complex’, was established by co-founders Yuval Ullman, and Hanan Gafter, opened in November 2016 as the largest independent post-production house formed by editors for editors in Israel, offering state-of-the-art facilities for TV post-production for a wide variety of genres, from reality shows to high-end drama.
“We wanted to create a unique environment – the perfect ‘playground’ for content creators to produce great quality television,” said Efraim Halevy Sela, CEO, Ha-Mitcham. “Our vision was to offer comfortable, creative production and post suites equipped with the best available technology, all under one roof. We wanted to enable people to come in with an idea and leave with a movie or a series to broadcast.”
Halevy and his team started looking at solutions from various manufacturers, setting high standards for quality, flexibility, ease of use, long-term value for money and – crucially – the capacity to work remotely via the cloud.
“We knew various Avid solutions from our past roles, and of course Media Composer is probably the most common edit suite in Israel. At IBC 2016, we saw a demonstration of Interplay® | Production with the MediaCentral | UX cloud-based user interface, and thought it was just phenomenal,” said Halevy. “We saw how we could edit a whole sequence online from remote locations, collaborating with different partners. We had looked at a lot of solutions that could do work-arounds or partial jobs, but there was always something missing. With Avid’s cloud-based capabilities, the solution is complete from logging and story construction right through to sign-off.”
As a brand new facility, budget was also a big factor in the decision – and the team was aware that a system of this type and scale had previously only been implemented in Israel by larger broadcasters. However, the flexible deployment and pricing options offered by Avid – in this case, the Interplay Facility bundle – ensured that Ha-Mitcham was able to invest in the system that best delivered on their needs.
The workflow was designed, supplied and installed by Draco, Avid’s authorized partner in Israel, with commissioning and training provided by Avid Global Services. MediaCentral | UX, the cloud-based web front-end to the MediaCentral Platform, provides the user interface to Interplay | Production which enables users to manage the content creation process efficiently. Remote users also rely on MediaCentral | UX to access material from anywhere with an Internet connection. Avid NEXIS™ software-defined storage platform allows the technical team to streamline, expand and accelerate workflows as necessary, while enabling real-time collaboration. The industry standard Media Composer editing solution provides a familiar yet highly sophisticated toolset that helps editors tell compelling stories, while remote editors can access Media Composer | Cloud via the Internet, further extending collaboration and efficiency. Ha-Mitcham also installed two Pro Tools® | HD suites which provide audio mixers with advanced DAW features, as well as cloud collaboration functionality.
“As an organization, we have put technology in the lead, gaining efficiencies in order to encourage more creativity. With the Avid workflow, production companies of any size can enjoy the benefits of collaborative remote working, allowing them to achieve the same level of quality as the bigger companies,” Halevy added. “Collaboration is key for us, and we strongly believe that our relationship with Avid will be a long and fruitful one as we harness the Avid Everywhere™ vision.”
“The ambition of this project is truly remarkable. Ha-Mitcham’s investment and trust in Avid’s technology underlines its commitment to give the best tools to the best people, to produce the best possible content,” said Jeff Rosica, president, Avid. “Ha-Mitcham is a welcome addition to Avid’s expanding collaborative network of media professionals, and we look forward to working closely with them as their company develops in the coming years.”