The article below aims to understand some of the components that power a Post facility today, especially those that cater to Post for OTT and syndication distribution. In part 1 of the article, we looked at the content flow in a post facility, storage options, transcoding, editing, dubbing, localization and audio descriptions.

Sound Design, Foley and Restoration

Audio effects consist of various sounds related to specific objects — like a ringing telephone, a firing gun, or a revving motorcycle. They can also describe standalone audio cues that layer on top of ambient soundscapes. Today, most sound designers use pre-recorded digital sound libraries, but a small number of Foley artists still work in film, television, radio, and live theatre.

Foley involves using physical objects to create sound effects, such as using a pair of coconut shells to mimic the sound of galloping horses. Foley artists played a huge role in sound design during the Golden Age of Radio.

Audio captured during Film Production (Shooting) has to go through bunch of processes like noise reduction, phase alignment, layering, and so on. It’s only after these processes, audio is exported for final mix.

Sound Mixing

Post-Production Audio Engineer mixes recorded dialogue, sound effects and music to create the final version of a soundtrack for a feature film, television program, or television advertisement. The final mix must achieve a desired sonic balance between its various elements, and must match the director‘s or sound designer‘s original vision for the project. For material intended for broadcast, the final mix must also comply with all applicable laws governing sound mixing.

Final Audio Exports must be delivered in various formats based on the requirement. For instance, a Dolby Atmos Mix should carry Surround, Stereo and Binaural Re-renders of the Mix Down.

Loudness Management is a critical step in the process. It makes sure that audio renders fall under an acceptable range of various sonic characteristics which may include Dynamics, Loudness and Imaging as prescribed by the viewing platform. Loudness Standards for OTT Platforms and Film Theatres are different, hence the Master Film Mix has to be re-mixed for viewing OTT Platforms to make sure it complies with required Audio Standards.

Grading & Finishing

As an extension to creative services, content that is edited at the post facility may also need to be graded. In addition, VFX will need to be composited into the graded content. Ensuring a balance in colour between not only shots but also where VFX is composited can be achieved with grading tools. While editing may happen on a mezzanine video format of a lower resolution to save on bandwidth, the grading and finishing tools work on the highest quality of Video available.  Naturally, they require higher end hardware and are usually complemented by additional grading tools.

Captioning & Subtitling

Captioning & Subtitling are essential to any content so that it increases the visibility of the content among wider audiences as well as cater to people with hearing issues.

These tools allow to easily author, edit, encode and repurpose video captions and subtitles for television, web and mobile delivery. They simplify the process of complying with government regulations, enabling greater access to content (Broadcast and Cinema) for television, online and mobile viewers.

Captioning tools can automatically transcribe and time stamp videos in over a 100 languages using Timed Text Speech. They can also author captions by bringing in a video and a text file, and automatically sync them up with technologies such as Auto Time Stamp.

Quality Control

To ensure the content meets the high standards and specific requirements of its destination, a QC workflow is highly recommended.

The QC system quickly helps to identify discrepancies in format, codec, raster dimension, bit-rates, and also find black frames, freeze frames, RGB gamut errors, loudness levels, PSE issues etc. in a very short time. The advantage of a QC system is that simultaneous jobs can be processed /accessed or monitored by multiple users over the network and it has less room for human errors.

These QC tools come with their respective frame accurate Media Players for a final Review.

Security

The theft of a clip, script, audio track or image can have devastating consequences. If it involves an unreleased television show, movie or audio recording, it can result in reduced viewership and ad sales. The Producers of shows prefer that the content is watermarked and secured using high-grade encryption tools, across the entire Post pipeline.

These encryption tools secure files especially when shared across departments and vendors during post-production, protecting from accidental or unauthorized distribution. Some of these encryption tools offer the added benefit of being file agnostic and compatible with all professional editing programs (from Adobe, Apple, Avid, etc)

Packaging & Delivery

The modern Post Facility requires Tools to create UHD/4K and HD masters with options of HDR / Dolby Vision color metadata and to create custom packages and supplemental for the different OTT platforms.

Most digital OTT platforms like iTunes, Amazon, Netflix demand content in their own configuration such as itmsp, IMF etc. They also require ABR packages with support for Microsoft, Adobe, Apple HLS and MPEG-DASH.

The packaging tool needs to provide the full flexibility of scalability as the delivery demand increases and options of installing on-prem and over the cloud.

Once the final Content is ready, Delivery especially when in large volume can be automated with accelerated file transfer solutions which help transfer larger files very efficiently and securely.

AI

AI is reshaping post-production into a streamlined, creative powerhouse, making it faster, smarter and allowing media professionals to focus more on storytelling and less on the technical grind. Here’s how:

• Smart Editing & Content Discovery:AI can automatically sift through hours of footage, pinpointing key scenes and moments, so editors spend less time searching and more time creating.
• AI-Powered Editing:Imagine tools that not only suggest edits but also adapt your footage for different platforms—think automatic resizing, cropping, and framing. It’s like having an assistant that understands your creative vision!
• Audio Magic:AI steps in to enhance sound quality, banishing background noise, and even transcribing or dubbing voices, giving sound editors more time to fine-tune the audio experience.
• Colour Grading Made Easy:Gone are the days of tedious manual colour correction. AI automates the process, matching shots for consistency or even creating cinematic colour styles with a click.
• VFX & Animation Revolutionized:AI tackles tedious tasks like rotoscoping (cutting out backgrounds) and even generates new visual effects or environments, cutting down the hours spent in post-production.
• Tailored Content for Every Audience:With AI, content can be personalized to fit different demographics, making your story more engaging for every viewer, while also generating subtitles and translations automatically.
• Effortless Collaboration:Cloud-based AI tools allow remote teams to work seamlessly, with AI helping organize assets and keep track of workflow, no matter where you are.
• Keeping It Clean:AI scans your footage for compliance, ensuring that everything meets legal and ethical standards, and even flags potential copyright issues before they become a problem.

As AI continues to evolve, the possibilities for the future of content creation are endless!

In summary, setting up a Post facility is understandably an elaborate process. We have used this opportunity to very briefly introduce the different components involved in this process, without getting into the minutiae of the mechanism. A thorough awareness of these various parts and experienced commissioning partners ensures a planned launch, smoother operations and a successful venture.

Real Image represents solutions from Avid, Backlight, Dell, DigiGrid, Filmworkz, Focusrite, MOG, Neumann, Pebble, Telestream, Yepco and more. These solutions help content creation across the entire post workflow pipeline as highlighted in this two-part article.