In March, as COVID-19 arrived in New York, we had to act quickly to enable our staff to work remotely. Since then, we’ve continued to make adjustments to help clients and staff return to the facility safely, and to make the experience of those continuing to work from home better.
Currently, we are busy delivering shows. In fact, we are booming — but we are doing things differently. Clients are again supervising mixing and grading sessions, but, in many cases, clients and artists are working in separate rooms. Communication is a bit different, as it involves calls between rooms, but everyone is safe and work is proceeding normally.
Most offline editorial clients continue to work remotely. We are supporting them by providing tools, such as Amulet HotKey workstations, that allow them to tap into our shared storage system reliably and securely. Editors can work from home just as if they were here. The system has been working very well for several months. Our clients love it.
One positive outcome of the past year is that trends that were already underway have accelerated and been pushed to the limit. Technologies that might have taken years to be adopted were put in place in a matter of weeks. They went from concept to production in no time.
Even if a vaccine arrives soon, we expect our clients will continue to conduct a good portion of their offline remotely. Remote grading and finishing will also become increasingly common. So, our plan is to continue enhancing and improving the new model we’ve built this year. We’re on the right track.
Ahmed Barbary is Technical Director at Goldcrest Post (www.goldcrestpostny.com) in New York City.