Greenlight is a full-service production company dedicated to meeting the storytelling needs of network broadcasters, Fortune 500 companies, regional startups, digital news outlets, and everything in between.
Early in the summer of 2022, the company undertook live production of a collegiate women’s sports tournament for a major sports network.
Because the event took place over seven days at a venue in the Central U.S., the company sought ou flexible workflow options that would reduce its travel and lodging costs for the edit team while increasing its flexibility in hiring great talent.
Greenlight had budget for three on- prem editors, but managing producer Staci Green was looking for a way to bring on a fourth editor — despite both budget and scheduling challenges. Committed to hiring the best team for the project but limited by both scheduling and budget constraints, Green turned to Remote Picture Labs (RPL) for a solution.
RPL engineered a remote collaborative editing workflow that enabled a fourth editor, at her home on the West Coast, to work seamlessly with the three editors working on site at the live event. With access to the same tools and media as her colleagues working at edit bays in a mobile production unit at the venue, the remote editor worked the same way she’d typically work while on the road too.
Running over the company’s high-performance private cloud and leveraging Teradici Cloud Access Software and PCoIP Ultra technology, the RPL Edit solution ensured low latency, high content security, and uncompromising video quality. Most important for Green and her remote editor, though, was the ease with which the team was able to work together on the same project and media files.
The team worked with a mirrored system with the exact same files in the cloud and on site. The editor working remotely was tasked with cutting the rollout for the production. Almost immediately after she had finished, Green and the other editors were able to access the full consolidated project with editors on site. The editor likewise had continual access to content coming from the live event. Logged content from ENG cameras — the best clips, dropped into a timeline — was loaded into folders on the shared storage system. Any of the four editors could access a timeline and drop it into their edit system.
“For every on-site editor, in addition to their day rate, you're paying for all their travel and lodging expenses. Through the magic of technology, we were able to expand our team without all that. By implementing an RPL Edit remote workflow, we gained the flexibility — in terms of our budget and her schedule — to bring another fantastic editor onto the project. Thanks to the RPL solution, everything we were obtaining on site could easily be transferred to her on her remote computer. It was seamless.”
Staci Green
Managing Producer, Greenlight Productions
By mitigating the time and cost typically associated with hiring an editor for a live sports production, the RPL Edit remote workflow made it possible for Greenlight to augment its creative team — and enhance its storytelling capabilities. With three editors working on site and another editor working remotely, all with the same access to content and post-production tools, Greenlight had greater flexibility in completing different aspects of the broadcast and more capacity to tell stories of the tournament in compelling ways.
“The RPL remote edit workflow provided us with another resource — a wonderful editor — to make our product even better,” says Green. “We established the workflow we wanted to execute, and they made it happen in the background. I didn’t have to think about the technology that’s making it work. I knew it would, and that I could move forward without hesitation or concern.”
Download PDF of this Case Study
