NEW YORK – Montreal-based video indexing and logging specialist, Lanterna Magica (www.lanternamagica.com), is showing a new solution at NAB Post+ designed to streamline the production of non-scripted television shows, allowing directors to create compelling storylines on the fly, in realtime.
The Reality product makes it easy to assess hours of raw video material from multiple cameras quickly and make shot selection decisions in minutes. Directors can encode, log, view, browse, and search video and metadata while shooting is in progress, saving time and money in post production.
Building reality TV storylines on set and on the fly becomes an important part of the multicamera production process with Reality. A Web-based video content description system, Reality works from any number of locations with no special software to install. It supports an unlimited number of camera feeds, so producers can feel at ease using as many cameras as necessary to capture all of the action. Staff can access footage at any time, from any location - even before shooting is finished - and create shortcuts to access their content quickly and simply.
Camera feeds can be distributed to a variety of devices, including tape decks, high-capacity disks, as well as to Logger, Reality's own storage medium. Logger ingests audio, video, and timecode signals and produces compressed digital video for browsing that is synchronized with the timecodes and content descriptions entered by operators. Reality's searchable video library functions as the repository for stored digital video and metadata.
The entire production, starting from day one, is always available to
search, play, and browse, even as more content is being ingested. Users can search Reality's library by name, date, time, interest rating, location, and keyword for specific actions and emotions. Search results appear as thumbnails with descriptions and can be played out immediately. In and out points are easily marked and compiled into a rough-draft EDL (edit decision list) that can be used with any nonlinear editing system.
Reality is a turnkey combination of hardware and software. Lanterna Magica staff installs the hardware in its clients' production sets, trains their staff, and provides on-site or remote support as needed.