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November 2003 Nelvana
The production process requires various files in different formats. We use the Digital Rapids system to create formats as well as our sound editor DV and intranet reference files. The main benefit of Digital Rapids is that is allows us to accomplish all of this in one pass. The sound editors, working in ProTools, use DVs of the various stages in the creation of an episode. At the same time, members of the series production team as well as clients can reference mpeg1's or Windows Media versions uploaded to our intranet. This is crucial, for now each stage of an episode is ready for comments and review within minutes of completion, instead of in a couple of hours. With the quick turnaround in review and approval, our production time and costs have decreased.
Another benefit of Digital Rapids is that we can process two different episodes at the same time by using the DRC dual-channel card. Digital Rapids has brought our goal of a tapeless production environment closer to reality.
At Nelvana we're increasingly utilizing the benefits of DVD. We used to create the format through timeconsuming methods such as Digibeta digitized into DV or taking extremely large QuickTime file transfers and software-encode. Now, using Digital Rapids, we take an SDI input and create the Mpeg2 program stream in realtime. We use the audio/video processing and graphic overlay for instant level/noise fixes and laying in a graphic burn.
We've compared our results to retail releases of our episodes and they are almost identical. As a result, DVD has become the format of choice by our various departments.
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