Overview:
Find out how Remoto Pro uses Dolby.io to add real-time communications to its remote post-production solution.
Background:
The founders of Los Angeles-based Remoto Pro reimagined collaborative content creation workflows to offer an alternative to the patchwork of different solutions rapidly implemented during the pandemic. Remoto Pro’s Playback desktop software is a turnkey solution enabling remote teams to review, comment, and collaborate on multimedia projects in real time. The product is intended for post-production professionals including producers, directors, editors, mixers, colorists, sound designers, creative directors, and the operations and technical staffs that support them.
The Challenge:
In the immediate response to the pandemic, post-production teams needed to triage remote workflow solutions from whatever technology was available. Fragility, expense, and complexity didn’t matter because there were no “complete” solutions. The goal was to be good enough, rather than being purpose-built to meet the needs of remote production teams yet delivering a studio-quality experience. For example, a sound supervisor could invite clients to an online mix review, but there were numerous limitations versus in-person sessions, such as audio formatting. Even if the audio was mixed in 5.1 surround, the sound supervisor could only receive a stereo signal. To further complicate the post-production process, most over-the-counter video conferencing products made collaboration difficult because of high latency and poor A/V fidelity.
Behind the scenes the situation was just as lackluster. Executives and operations teams gnashed their teeth about security vulnerabilities in content handling, as well as logistical challenges of scheduling and provisioning access to meeting participants. Additionally, accountants hoped they could pass on the high costs of hardware and the technical talent needed to cobble together workable solutions.
Over time, the industry settled into an uneasy acceptance of the “good enough.” However, standards began to emerge that supported streaming multi-channel audio. Content delivery networks were improving latency, and Dolby.io introduced breakthrough audio processing APIs that dramatically enhance video call quality. The components were all in place, but no one was reimagining remote collaboration workflows as a powerful and flexible tool that could potentially outperform in-person work.
The Solution:
Remoto Pro’s Playback software is a complete remote post-production collaboration tool. It provides a high-quality live stream of an audiovisual work with an integrated communications layer for remote teams to talk in real-time. The source video feed can be NDI, SDI, or local screen capture, and Playback supports multiple video codecs including AV1. The audio can be anything from stereo up to 20 channels, enabling the creation of Dolby Atmos content. Security is an integral part of the application, which utilizes a TPN, CDSA, GDPR, and HIPAA compliant cloud infrastructure for the real-time communications layer. All streams are AES 256 encrypted and watermarked. Participants in the live streaming experience are individually admitted by the host (thus eliminating the risk of password sharing), and they must login via multifactor authentication.
Remoto Pro’s deep roots in post-production and its close relationships with the professionals who support the creative process have resulted in a collaboration tool that is both feature-rich and seamlessly integrated into existing business requirements. For example, Operations worries about having easy, secure, and auditable methods to provision guests and schedule sessions, so Remoto Pro Playback has an integrated dashboard and admin panel to accomplish those tasks. Finance wants the budgeting flexibility of per-use pricing, so Playback can be purchased by the session. And Sales and Marketing want to strengthen the connection with clients, so Playback can be white labeled under the brand name of the meeting host, and new guests can be provisioned quickly and easily.
The net result of Remoto Pro’s ingenuity? A remote collaboration tool built from the ground up to replicate, and in some ways improve upon, in-person studio reviews.
The Results:
Remoto Pro is launching at the 2023 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 15.
What’s next:
Dolby.io and Remoto Pro are working in concert to unlock more remote post-production use cases. Remoto Pro will leverage Dolby.io’s Media Enhance API in its upcoming Recording product, launching summer 2023. With the Enhance API, recordings sound consistent and tonally correct. Dolby.io automatically removes background noises and hums, ensures loudness levels are consistent, and reduces mouth clicks, heavy S’s, and popping P sounds. In addition, with the Enhance API there’s no need to separate the audio from video.
To learn more about Remoto Pro please visit: https://www.remotopro.io/
