« Workflow Introduction

TEN 4:4:4 SOURCES.
FIVE CODEX PORTABLES.

Multi-camera event shoot

The Codex workflow dramatically improves the speed and efficiency on multi-camera programming. This example shows how multiple Codex machines can be used for a complex multi-camera event, such as a music concert or sports game. The event in question is covered by 10 cameras outputting 4:4:4 which would traditionally be recorded to 10 separate tape decks - however, due to it's dual 4:4:4 camera recording capability only 5 Codex Portables are required.

Codex on set

The 5 Portables are all linked to a laptop on a local network, meaning that their operation can be synchronised and controlled from one instance of the Codex User Interface running on the laptop. At the beginning of the event all machines are simultaneously put into record and left to record - the Portable Studio Diskpacks being used can store around 5 hours of 4:4:4 HD material, so recording capacity is not a concern. Notes can be added to the metadata for each shot during the recording process.

Delivery

After the event has finished the Diskpacks are removed from the Portable units and loaded into a Portable Transfer Station in pairs. The Portables have recorded 2 hours of material from each camera, giving a total of 20 hours. The shots can be copied from the individual Diskpacks to the 9TB Internal Diskpack in the Portable Transfer Station - this gives added security as all material then exists in two locations, and also means that the material can be accessed as files through the Virtual File System. The copy process takes 1/3 of real-time - around 7 hours. As material is copied across all metadata and original Roll names are maintained.

Once the copy process is complete the Portable Transfer Station can begin generating the editing files. These DNxHD120 mxf files are copied from the VFS to a mounted USB hard drive faster than real time - at 1TB for all the mxf files, the entire amount of footage in this format would fit on a convenient portable USB RAID.

Finishing

The full quality material can either remain on the Internal Diskpack or be transferred to an external RAID system - the material recorded by the Portables only totals 5.5TB. When the offline edit is complete and EDL can be run through The Portable Transfer Station which will then output full quality dpx files for the online edit. Comparing this to a tape workflow, as all the material exists on a single RAID storage block there are no delays caused by the shuttling or loading and unloading of tapes.

Conclusions/Costs

The synchronized operation of the Codex Portables on set makes the recording process very simple. The rental cost of the Portables is far lower than a tape-based solution capable of recording the same sources. The Portable Transfer Station deals with the output of files for editing and finishing using it's powerful quad-core processors, meaning the creation of the files is faster and easier than digitizing from tape.