Updated: Product makers offer support to cope with COVID-19 disruption

This is a weird time for our industry and the world. The best we can do is try to keep working and stay safe. For our part, postPerspective will continue to report industry news and tell stories about workflows, artists and tools, in addition to running pieces about how pros are working remotely… and keeping sane.

In fact, if you have a story about how you are working remotely and keeping on keeping on, please share it with us (info@postPerspective.com). Even though we can’t see each other face to face right now, keeping a sense of community has never been more important.

A number of companies are releasing updates, offering discounts, and even making their remote services free for a limited time in order to help everyone keep working through this pandemic. Here is a bit of news from some of those companies, and we will add more companies to this list as the news comes in, so watch this space.

mLogic
mLogic is offering a 15% discount on its mTape Thunderbolt 3 LTO-7 and LTO-8 solutions The discount applies to orders placed on the mTape website through April 20th. Use discount code mLogicpostPerspective15%.

Xytech
Xytech has launched “Xytech After Dark,” a podcast focusing on trends in the media and broadcasting industries. The first two episodes are now available on iTunes, Spotify and all podcasting platforms.

Xytech’s Greg Dolan says the podcast “is not a forum to sell, but instead to talk about why create the functionality in MediaPulse and the types of things happening in our industry.”

Hosted by Xytech’s Gregg Sandheinrich, the podcast will feature Xytech staff, along with special guests. The first two episodes cover topics including the recent HPA Tech Retreat (featuring HPA president Seth Hallen), as well as the cancellation of the NAB Show, the value of trade shows and the effects of COVID-19 on the industry.

Nvidia
Nvidia is expanding its free virtual GPU software evaluation to 500 licenses for 90 days to help companies support their remote workers with their existing GPU infrastructure. Nvidia vGPU software licenses — including Quadro Virtual Workstation — enable GPU-accelerated virtualization so that content creators, designers, engineers and others can continue their work. More details are available here. Nvidia has also posted a separate blog on virtual GPUs to help admins who are working to support remote employees

Object Matrix
Object Matrix is offering video tips for surviving working from home. The videos, hosted by co-founder Nicholas Pearce, are here.

Adobe
Adobe shared a guide to best practices for working from home. It’s meant to support creators and filmmakers who might be shifting to remote work and need to stay connected with their teams and continue to complete projects. You can find the guide here.

Adobe’s principal Creative Cloud evangelist, Jason Levine, hosted a live stream — Video Workflows With Team Projects ±that focus on remote workflows.

Additionally, Karl Soule, Senior Technical Business Development Manager, hosed a stream focusing on Remote video workflows and collaboration in the enterprise. If you sign up on this page, you can see his presentation.

Streambox
Streambox has introduced a pay-as-you-go software plan for video professionals who use its Chroma 4K, Chroma UHD, Chroma HD and Chroma X streaming encoder/decoder hardware. Since the software has been “decoupled” from the hardware platform, those who own the hardware can rent the software on a monthly basis, pause the subscription between projects and reinstate it as needed. By renting software for a fixed period, creatives can take on jobs without having to pay outright for technology that might have been impractical.

And last week’s offerings as well

Frame.io
Through the end of March, Frame.io is offering 2TB of free extra storage capacity for 90 days. Those who could use that additional storage to accommodate work from home workflows should email rapid-response@frame.io to get it set up.

Frame.io is also offering free Frame.io Enterprise plans for the next 90 days to support educational institutions, nonprofits and health care organizations that have been impacted. Please email rapid-response@frame.io to set up this account.

To help guide companies through this new reality of remote working, Frame.io is launching a new “Workflow From Home” series on YouTube, hosted by Michael Cioni, with the first episode launching Monday, March 23rd. Cioni will walk through everything artists need to keep post production humming as smoothly as possible. Subscribe to the Frame.io YouTube channel to get notified when it’s released.

EditShare
EditShare has made its web-based, remote production and collaboration tool, Flow Media Management, free through July 1st. Flow enables individuals as well as large creative workgroups to collaborate on story development with capabilities to perform extensive review approval from anywhere in the world. Those interested can complete this form and one of EditShare’s Flow experts will follow up.

Veritone
Veritone will extend free access to its core applications — Veritone Essentials, Attribute and Digital Media Hub — for 60 days. Targeted to media and entertainment clients in radio, TV, film, sports and podcasting, Veritone Essentials, Attribute, and Digital Media Hub are designed to make data and content sharing easy, efficient and universal. The solutions give any workforce (whether in the office or remote) tools that accelerate workflows and facilitate collaboration. The solutions are fully cloud-based, which means that staff can access them from any home office in the world as long as there is internet access.

More information about the free access is here. Certain limitations apply. Offer is subject to change without notice.

SNS
In an effort to quickly help EVO users who are suddenly required to work on editing projects from home, SNS has released Nomad for on-the-go, work-from-anywhere, remote workflows. It is a simple utility that runs on any Mac or Windows system that’s connected to EVO.

Nomad helps users repurpose their existing ShareBrowser preview files into proxy files for offline editing. These proxy files are much smaller versions of the source media files, and therefore easier to use for remote work. They take up less space on the computer, take less time to copy and are easier to manage. Users can edit with these proxy files, and after they’re finished putting the final touches on the production, their NLE can export a master file using the full-quality, high-resolution source files.

Nomad is available immediately and free to all EVO customers.

Ftrack
Remote creative collaboration tool ftrack Review is free for all until May 31. This date might extend as the global situation continues to unfold. ftrack Review is an out-of-the-box remote review and approval tool that enables creative teams to collaborate on, review and approve media via their desktop or mobile browser. Contextual comments and annotations eliminate confusion and reduce reliance on email threads. ftrack Review accepts many media formats as well as PDFs. Every ftrack Review workspace receives 250 GB of storage.

DejaSoft
DejaSoft is offering editors 50% off all their DejaEdit licenses through the end of April. In addition, the company will help users implement DejaEdit in the best way possible to suit their workflow.

DejaEdit allows editors to share media files and timelines automatically and securely with remote co-workers around the world, without having to be online continuously. It helps editors working on Avid Nexis, Media Composer and EditShare workflows across studios, production companies and post facilities ensure that media files, bins and timelines are kept up to date across multiple remote edit stations.

Cinedeck
Cinedeck’s cineXtools allows editing and correcting your file deliveries from home.
From now until April 3rd, pros can get a one month license of cineXtools free of charge.

Main Image: Courtesy of Adobe

More information about the free access is here. Certain limitations apply. Offer is subject to change without notice.

Nomad is available immediately and free to all EVO customers.

Adobe
Adobe has shared a guide to best practices for working from home, created in support of creators and filmmakers who may be shifting to remote work and need to stay connected with their teams and continue to complete projects. You can find the guide below and here.

Adobe’s Jason Levine and Karl Soule will also be hosting two livestreams this week that focus on remote workflows, in the hopes of offering helpful tips during this uncertain time – details are below.

Cinedeck
Cinedeck’s cineXtools allows editing and correcting your file deliveries from home.
From now until April 3rd, pros can get a one month license of cineXtools free of charge.

Main Image: Courtesy of Frame.io