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Tools for Storage

May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Derek Kopp & Jeremy Neish, Rivetal
By Benoit “Ben” Girard, Digital Dimension

Sorenson Squeeze 4 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services

Sorenson Squeeze 4: Full-featured, Easy-to-use Compression
By Derek Kopp & Jeremy Neish, Rivetal

At Rivetal, we work with digital video in just about every shape, size, and format. Whether it's video for DVD, video for CD/DVD-ROM, or video for the Web — you name it, we use it. Each method of delivery offers its own unique challenges, but there is one consistent dilemma that runs through them all: We always have more video than space. Whether it's bandwidth or disk space, there never seems to be enough to go around.

But since we've been using Sorenson's Squeeze software compression suite, we are able to balance the space we have with the video quality our clients require.

Sorenson Media's video codecs have historically added reliable, high-quality results to the various compression packages in which they've been included. However, many of these packages came with large price tags and a less-than-intuitive user experience. This left us feeling like we had to choose the lesser of various evils when we went looking for compression solutions.

But now, using Squeeze means we no longer have to purchase expensive and unwieldy compression suites to gain access to Sorenson Media's full-featured professional codecs. Squeeze, now in Version 4.1, offers an easy-to-use, feature-rich, and affordable solution for the vast majority of our compression needs.

While Sorenson has become synonymous with video compression for the Web, Rivetal's focus is on optical media — CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and DVD video. For these projects, Squeeze plays a major role in our ability to deliver high-quality, disc-based video.

Here's an example of how we use Squeeze. In association with Digital Media Publishing Group (DMPG), Rivetal produces pack-in CD-ROM content for IDG's GamePro and Gamestar magazines. These discs are designed to enhance the reader's experience by providing access to many of the game demos, trailers, and mod patches mentioned in the printed magazine.

Gamers are a discerning crowd. They expect a lot of content and demand a quality visual experience. For Rivetal, this translates into a CD-ROM that needs to be full of high-quality video. Achieving the video quality we need within the space constraints of a CD-ROM requires a delicate balancing act. Sorenson Squeeze 4 helped us achieve this balance.

The first challenge is actually getting the video source into the format that we'll ultimately use for delivery. For these projects, our final format is QuickTime because of its outstanding integration with Macromedia Director and its cross-platform compatibility. To make sure that we're starting with the most pristine video possible, we use Blackmagic Design's DeckLink HD and Apple's Final Cut Pro to capture the tape source into 10-bit uncompressed QuickTime movies.

Converting this authoring codec into a usable delivery codec is where Squeeze really shines. Much of the source we get has been telecined, which is not an ideal starting point for high-quality compression. Squeeze's inverse telecine process returns the video to its original progressive 24fps form. This gives us clean source (and fewer frames) from which to compress.

When it comes to compression output formats, Squeeze 4 is without equal, especially at its price point. Available output options include all forms of MPEG-1 through -4 (including MPEG-2 HD and MPEG-4 AVC), QuickTime, Real Media, Flash Video, and Windows Media (available in the Windows version). Having such a huge array of output options available, as well as intelligent presets, makes Squeeze 4 powerful and simple to use. The compression presets are customizable, and Squeeze 4 allows us to save custom presets as fully editable XML files.

The next, and biggest, challenge is file size. With space taken up by game demos and patch installers, not to mention the UI and editorial content, the 650MB available on a CD-ROM disappears quickly even before we get to the video assets. From the many gigabytes of source video assets sent in from gaming companies we have to squeeze them down to an average of around 200MB. The combination of Squeeze 4 with the Sorenson Video 3 Pro codec makes this a realistic proposition.

The Sorenson Video 3 Pro codec provides the best file size-to-quality ratio available in QuickTime. Combined with the Sorenson Squeeze 4 Compression Suite, we can unlock the full capability of Sorenson Video 3 Pro by taking full advantage of two-pass variable bit rate (VBR) encoding.

Two-pass VBR does exactly what it says. On the first pass Squeeze 4 examines the video and determines which scenes are high motion and which are not. Scenes with high motion require a higher bit rate than scenes with very little motion. Based on the information learned from the first pass, Squeeze 4 will assign higher or lower bit rates to the appropriate scenes as it compresses the video. By carefully using the bits only where they are most needed, Squeeze yields a higher quality image at a specified bit rate.

There are a number of other features, new to Squeeze 4, that make it an important addition to our workflow. Chief among them is its powerful new batch window, which allows us to quickly drag in all of our video assets and assign a preset to them. In many cases, however, clips may need to be fine-tuned, and Squeeze 4 makes this easy. We use Squeeze 4's presets and filters as a starting point, and then we fine-tune the settings based on each individual clip's needs, ensuring optimal compression quality.

If no fine-tuning is needed, we can use Squeeze 4's powerful watch folder feature. We can designate a folder on any machine in our office as a watch folder. We use Squeeze to apply a compression preset to that folder and we're ready to go. Any video editor can simply dump their finished video asset into the watch folder over the network and it'll start compressing according to the applied preset. We've found this feature to be extremely helpful for managing assets and workflow. Setting up a single compression machine for multiple users frees up valuable machine time at editing stations. An added benefit is that all the compressed video ends up in one place, ready to be put to use in the next phase of the project. When deadlines are pressing — and they're always pressing — such improvements to workflow are welcome.

Squeeze 4 is an indispensable part of our video compression process at Rivetal. We've relied on it again and again, always with excellent results. Ultimately, success in projects of this type depends on the quality and quantity of the content. Using Sorenson Squeeze 4, Rivetal is able to deliver both for its clients.

Provo, Utah-based Rivetal specializes in using CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and DVD Video technologies to deliver captivating, media-rich experiences that can add real value to existing products and add punch to any marketing effort.

For more information on Rivetal, call (801) 818-8222. You can also learn more about Rivetal at www.rivetal.com. For more information about Sorenson Squeeze, visit www.sorenson-media.com. To read another viewpoint on Sorenson Squeeze, click here.

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Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services:
Software Architecture Aids Collaboration
By Benoit “Ben” Girard, Digital Dimension

You never believe you can have too much success.

However, as president of Digital Dimension, a company specializing in high-end visual effects, 3D animation, and motion graphics for the film, television, and interactive industries, I realized that our very success might choke our overall efficiency if we didn't plan to create a scaleable infrastructure.

Driven by our work on projects like The Last Samurai, Scooby Doo 2, and the opening visual effects sequence of SuperBowl 2005, our workload has more than doubled every year since we began in 1997. The sheer number and variety of media assets that we had to deal with for each project was becoming overwhelming. If this bogged us down to the point where we couldn't deliver top quality work fast enough, or if it caused us to let something important slip through the cracks, we would have a serious problem.

By 2003, I was growing very concerned with this situation. We needed a way to organize the huge volume of projects, directions, comments, notes, and production materials related to every project so everyone could easily track what had to be done, when, and for whom. We also needed a way to efficiently orchestrate our projects and the myriad pieces of information they generate to maintain efficiency while creating cutting-edge visuals.

We needed a solution we could implement quickly, something that would help us collaborate more efficiently and enable us to manage the tasks and the information and digital content related to those tasks.

In the media and entertainment industry, there are two basic kinds of systems that do what we needed. Project management systems help coordinate tasks, but they don't manage information or digital assets. Asset management systems, meanwhile, track digital content, but they don't help with task management.

To address project management, we decided to create a portal, a centralized place that everyone could access. This would allow us to coordinate tasks and information across our many projects in a consistent manner.

To do that, we looked at various solutions, and then made the decision to use Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services as a foundation layer. We have found it helps us share information because project teams can now access documents, tasks, contacts, events, and other information from any PC. This approach keeps things simple by standardizing on a single, flexible solution that helps manage both tasks digital assets.

Here's how we got started: Working with our production department, we entered all the different sorts of information for each project into Windows SharePoint Services. (Windows SharePoint Services is part of Windows Server 2003.) Since our facility already used Microsoft Office, we applied the templates from InfoPath, an Office program, to define our processes around a set of forms. The forms, in turn, were hosted on our centralized server.

Now, with information on each production in one place, our staff had an easily accessed overview of all the projects they were working on. It was simple for them to track what needed to be done next because all the relevant information and content they needed to do their work was right there.

In the second phase of the project, we deployed Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server. SharePoint Portal Server enables you to develop an “intelligent” portal, which connects users, teams, and knowledge so that people can take advantage of relevant information, no matter which business programs we use.

We continued to add more information and content to the server. We even gave production people wireless Tablet PCs to allow them to walk around and make notes that immediately went into the common database. This sped up our process tremendously, with information going directly to the person responsible for the job.

For example, at one review session a film director decided the color tone of one scene was too warm. While the director was still screening the rest of the project, the person assigned to the job used his Tablet PC to enter the comments into the Web portal. Our color timer immediately received the comment and began to work on the correction. By the time the screening was finished, we were able to show the director our changes to the problem segment. The client was very impressed, especially having noticed that no one had left the room to get it fixed. The magic of wireless at work!

We have been using our portal for more than a year. Over this period, we have seen a significant payback in four areas: improved efficiency, more mobile interaction, lower production costs, and increased customer satisfaction.

Improved efficiency results when information — a requirement, or perhaps a suggestion — is entered once, in one place, with everyone on a project noticing it and acting on it. Meanwhile, mobile interaction lets us operate in realtime, no matter where participants are in the facility. Also, since everybody knows how to use Windows, Office, and Outlook, there is no special training needed.

For the final phase of a project, we will tie our non-Microsoft CGI production systems, along with our finance and administrative systems, into the SharePoint Portal. Open standards are important here: Because we use XML, we will be able to put the data into SharePoint and pull it out in whatever way we need to use it. (The XML standard is for the interchange of structured data.) This will give us even greater accuracy and consistency, and will further speed up each part of the postproduction process.

I once worried that as our company grew we were losing intimate control of how our business worked. It once seemed that our very success would choke us. Instead, we can now efficiently create, manage, track, deploy, and update information, no matter how fast or how big we grow. And that's priceless.

Prior to building a world class production studio, Benoit “Ben” Girard, president and founder, Digital Dimension, was a military officer assigned to an acrobatic skydiving team. Today, he enjoys a similar rush leading the development of cutting edge visuals in a much more down-to-earth workplace.

With headquarters in Burbank, Calif. and facilities in Montreal, Canada, four-time Emmy and two-time Visual Effects Society winner Digital Dimension specializes in high-end visual effects, 3D animation, and motion graphics for the film, television, and interactive industries. Founded in 1997, Digital Dimension has built a reputation as an innovative provider of visual effects and animation.

For information on Digital Dimension, visit www.digitaldimension.com. For information on Microsoft in the Media & Entertainment Industry, visit www.microsoft.com/mediaandentertainment. Information on Windows SharePoint Services can be found at www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/sharepoint/default.mspx.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.