AmberFin QC’s UK soaps

ITV is using AmberFin’s iCR Unified Quality Control system for tapeless production, starting with its top-rated soaps, Emmerdale and Coronation Street, writes Adrian Pennington. ATG Broadcast contributed to the project by installing the hardware infrastructure to support the operation of AmberFin’s iCR software system. ITV’s strategy sees the creation of a new high-capacity file-based workflow that enables the movement of complete programmes throughout its enterprise operations. This means that large capacity media files containing entire episodes shot in HD can be shared between ITV’s London, Leeds and Manchester sites as well as with service partners such as Technicolor and ITFC. The application of AmberFin UQC is important as it ensures that all the HD master files created within this tapeless workflow environment are guaranteed top quality and fit for purpose within all areas of ITV’s broadcast and electronic media operations. “These two pilot projects are part of a long-term strategy that sees us refreshing the way that we share, manage, distribute and exploit content throughout ITV’s operations,” commented ITV’s Director of Strategy (Technology), Andrew Ioannou. “We need rigorous QC in our workflow to ensure that any media file produced is fit to broadcast. We selected AmberFin as our QC partner since their technology is a great fit for the business as we move forward into file-based workflows.” AmberFin UQC combines multiple tools for baseband checks during tape ingest, file-based QC after ingest, and overall operator-controlled QC, including annotation and mark-up. Because QC requirements vary from facility to facility and from project to project, each application requires a different level of manual intervention. To that effect, AmberFin has developed mark-up and annotation tools that allow operators to highlight potential issues, make recommendations and provide information that can be sent on to downstream applications for action. Reports with timecode and thumbnail references can be created and exported, simplifying the decision-making process, while machine-readable XML reports can be exported to DAM, MAM and automation systems. www.amberfin.comwww.atgbroadcast.com