19.3 Autumn Release

The 19.3 release of Limecraft Flow allows you to process more material on the input side and to output several versions of the same master. Here is a summary of the key features.

1. Turn-key solution for Daily Drama

We optimised the fiction workflow for daily drama production, which in a modern setup might generate to 1000 files and 2TB of rushes (ProRes) per day. Such a setup may involve 2 or more multicam studios, sometimes equipped with on set VFX rendering. Together, this creates a vast volume of files that need to be carefully managed.

To cope with such a vast volume of footage and to allow the producer to keep the edit pace of one episode per day, we drastically automated the handling of raw material using video ingest automation.

• Automatic classification of VFX plates that were recording live on set and are mixed with the original (green screen) rushes for editing
• Multi-cam grouping of clips and automatic clip sorting based on camera, type of file, scene, shot and take.
• Automated clip naming based on metadata to help ingest operators and editing assistants to speed up their work
• Lights-out integration between Limecraft Flow (cloud) and Avid Interplay (on premise). All interactions occur in the background without any manual interventions at all. If applicable or in case of a quality problem, a bypass via Avid Media Composer is still possible as preferred by post-production staff.
• Use of Limecraft Flow for reviewing dailies and marking up circled shots.

2. Support for Multicam

As part of our effort to support high-volume production, we extended the audio sync functionality in Limecraft Edge with a multicam functionality.

Confirming the grouping is confirmed has the following effect upon ingest:

• the naming conventions are optimised for traceability
• each parallel videoclip gets the proper audiotracks and LUTS, so that they can be individually reviewed for approval
• all the grouping information is transferred to Limecraft Flow for use later in post-production
• upon export to avid, Limecraft Flow is capable of reconstructing Group Clips

3. Support for XOCN

X-OCN (eXtended Original Camera Negative) is a recent codec from Sony which optimally balances bitrate and picture quality. It preserves the full 16bit latitude of the sensor, while achieving a much smaller footprint in terms of bitrate. So you get the benefits of linear raw but in a file size smaller than the same resolution 10 bit ProResHQ. If you use XOCN-LT the files are roughly half the size of ProResHQ.

Limecraft Edge preserves the ultra-high definition nature of the workflow into the edit suite, by making DNxHR edit proxies so that the material can be cut in a similar definition without intermediary downscaling.

4. Ingest Templates

To data handlers and edit assistants, time is more important than anything else. So we strive to shave literally every second off the time the time between the shoot, review and edit. Ingest templates are a great help.

Using Limecraft, you can now pre-configure the entire chain of operations, including encoding profiles, checksums, watermarks, LUTS, which copies can be deleted or not after transfer, as well as any metadata manipulations.

By using ingest templates, human errors during ingest are reduced to an absolute minimum.

5. More Configurable Workflows

As soon as your footage is available through Limecraft Flow, more workflows can be configured à la carte. You have nearly unlimited possibilities of launching manipulations within or outside Limecraft, including but not limited to storing on LTO, restore from archive, cleanup, replace, make available for download, etc.

Some of these workflows may affect copies of content stored outside of Limecraft Flow, e.g. on local storage, on LTO, 3rd party cloud infrastructure of even existing MAM systems. To execute remote operations, we developed Limecraft Cloud Connector.

Cloud Connector makes sure external repositories of content are in sync with Limecraft Flow, they execute tasks and manipulations on behalf of Limecraft Flow and they feed back progress updates and status information to Limecraft Flow for consultation.

6. Extending the Workflow

In case your workflow includes any manual work, feedback loops or other complications that involve actions to take outside of Limecraft, we can extend it using Carrick Skills. By doing so, integration capabilities are endless.

7. Total makeover

In an earlier release, we included basic support for modifying the look-and-feel, so that your users feel comfortable using Limecraft Flow.

In the present release, we take customisability to a next level. You can now modify the look of emails, notifications, link shares, terms of service, and a lot more.

8. Improved Transcription

Many of our users rely on speech transcription. Some use it for archive indexing, others for transcribing interviews, some for subtitling. All of them experience the accuracy or the lack thereof as the biggest hurdle to adoption.

To deliver the best possible user experience, Limecraft forged a partnership with Speechmatics, enabling us to provide you with superior word error rate, best-in-class punctuation and context-sensitive dictionaries. In turn, when using Limecraft Flow for transcription or subtitling, we guarantee the shortest possible time needed for post-editing.

9. Improved Accessibility

Limecraft offers automated subtitling services since 2016, and in the present release they are more intelligent than ever. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), the line breaks and spotting come close to perfection.