50 Kaliber Films

Portfolio Server Reduces Time Required for Cataloging and Transcoding Videos

Industry: Broadcast & Media

Product Line: Digital Asset Management

Where they started…

After a film is shot, it gets processed, used, and stored for later use. And while the storage process has never been seen as the most glamorous part of the industry, it is the bedrock for a business like 50 Kaliber Films. With evolving client needs, it is critical that 50 Kaliber can find and capitalize on their bank of archived assets. As a production studio that creates commercials, films and corporate videos for clients as noteworthy as Ford and Honda, 50 Kaliber Films has made quite a few deposits in their own personal asset bank. 20,000 video clips and 25,000+ still images to date.

To manage this haul, they relied on multiple Final Cut Servers (videos) and a mix of Aperture and Bridge (photos), simply because they were there. They weren’t working though. They were closed systems that didn’t scale, didn’t allow multiple users to collaborate and didn’t keep all of their assets in one easy-to-search place. When staff wanted to create multiple databases in a single server, Final Cut wouldn’t comply. When they wanted to export valuable metadata that had taken three full-time employees more than three years to enter to CSV or Excel, they were denied. All those convenient solutions that looked so good at first were quickly becoming prohibitive and costly.

What they did…

To unlock a fragmented archive, 50 Kaliber went in search of a system that would:

• Support large data sets and incorporate all of their archived metadata
• Allow for the creation of multiple databases that could be segregated and given separate keyword lists so that 50 Kaliber could tailor their catalog to individual clients
• Accommodate cross-platform users working on both Mac and Windows-based machines
• Provide drag and drop functionality that would work with any editing application on site, without question
• Promote stability within the workflow by assuring that assets are consistently available

After searching online, the company discovered Extensis’ Portfolio Server. Initially unsure about how well Portfolio Server would work onsite, the company decided to give the 30-day demo a trial run. They soon found that this was the solution they had been looking for, as it allowed them to simply transfer of all those wayward assets into one place. It also went up so fast that other staff members began to use it before the company’s CTO had time to show anyone the system.

Where they landed…

Since deploying Portfolio Server, 50 Kaliber has:

• Used NetPublish as a new mechanism for showing video proof sheets to clients
• Cut back on file encoding and delivery hours, as NetMediaMax dramatically reduced the amount of time required for cataloging and transcoding videos
• Organized all assets into one searchable system that includes all metadata; this required little to no training of staff

Where they’re headed…

No impediments mean smoother sailing on every new project that comes in the door. In fact, with one large job that just arrived, they expect to have thousands of stills and hours of HD video added to their collection. With Portfolio Server in place, 50 Kaliber can be more profitable as they don’t have to waste money on long searches for content or encoding files for clients. This gives them more time to focus on their work, which is where clients want their heads at anyway.