Technological innovation continues to raise the content creation bar, but behind the scenes, it also introduces new production challenges. Helping professionals adapt and take advantage of the emerging tools and techniques, Woody Technologies serves more than 80 customers worldwide out of its Paris and Los Angeles offices with video ingest and publishing solutions that fuse proprietary software with the latest off-the-shelf hardware.
Woody Technologies’ client roster includes CBS, France Télévisions, NBC, Nine Network, Sky, Univision, and many others. In recent years, its IN2IT Live capture solution has become increasingly popular, especially with increased adoption of distributed workflows. With IN2IT live you can finally handle SDI, NDI and web sources with a single tool!
The recent pandemic situation made working remotely an essential part of production and IN2IT Live allows users to record, schedule and collaborate, even remotely. In fact, multiple operators can collaborate from any location thanks to the IN2IT live web-based user interface. IN2IT live manages crash recording and tasks scheduling, across multiple physical or virtual video servers.
The video recording appliance can be configured and controlled remotely and includes a server with an AJA Corvid 44 or Corvid 88 multi-format I/O card for four-channel and eight-channel HD video capture, respectively. Woody Technologies has also begun development on an IP version of IN2IT Live, which will include an AJA KONA IP audio and video I/O card.
Boutique to mid-size shops make up a majority of Woody’s IN2IT Live customer-base, and with video ingest a crucial part of the workflow, AJA cards were always a part of its solution design blueprint. “Video capture is essential to the IN2IT Live workflow, and we knew AJA would be the right fit from the moment we started researching solutions. Their technology is easy to integrate and strikes just the right balance of quality and affordability,” shared Aurélien Brelle, co-founder and global sales manager, Woody Technologies. “When it comes to innovation, AJA also has a proven track record of delivering tools that meet the latest customer demands, so we knew it would be a smart move for the future.”
IN2IT Live is designed to handle an extensive range of live sources, from NDI and SDI streams to web streams and remote interview tools including Skype and Microsoft Teams, among others. It integrates with a diverse range of industry-standard media asset management and storage solutions and supports the most popular recording codecs and formats used by post production professionals. Video ingest operators can access and control multiple appliances via a dedicated, intuitive web-based interface that allows them to schedule recordings and define recording parameters from virtually anywhere they have internet access. During production, IN2IT Live then receives, records, and encodes incoming video signals, with the AJA Corvid or KONA IP card powering video capture. Footage is then transferred to central storage and made instantly accessible to editors and other post production professionals. A proprietary metadata workflow ensures that when an IN2IT Live job is triggered, the content is organized and easily accessible.
In the last year, Brelle has seen more clients coming to Woody looking for IP-capable workflows. He shared, “As client infrastructures start to age out and they rebuild, they’re thinking about how they can futureproof with IP, which makes perfect sense. IP offers unprecedented flexibility and leaves the architecture more open-ended so that iterating the workflow in the future will be easier as new evolutions emerge. This is why we’re developing an IP version of the product with AJA’s KONA IP built-in.”
Along with developing the IP product, Woody Technologies is exploring the possibility of building UltraHD and even HDR-capable IN2IT Live solutions. Brelle explained, “We take a pragmatic approach to development in that we don’t try to support every single codec under the sun, but instead focus on the ones that our clients use every day. We develop tools that meet their most pressing needs. Although HD is sufficient for most customers now, no one knows what the future holds, so we’re looking at supporting advanced formats, which has been a common feature request.”
Brelle expects that even with new industry shifts, AJA technology will remain a key part of the development equation. He concluded, “We’re so happy with the functionality and performance of the AJA cards and have been impressed by the developer program. AJA provides top-notch support, and we love how they continue to evolve their offerings to meet market demands. We can pick and choose the best AJA technology for our clients and their present and future needs.”