Workspace Tools products from Marquis – comprising Workspace Backup and Workspace Sync – currently support large scale, backup and sync applications. Using Workspace Tools, all work in progress can now be secured in cloud infrastructure; this means the cloud can now become the main repository for project files and media. Simple navigation tools allow Media Composer editors to visualise and navigate into any version, project or bin in the backup, be it in Tier 2 storage and/or cloud.

Project Parking – the industry gold standard for Avid storage management, analytics visualisation and project portability – now also features cloud support, delivering seamless management for Avid ISIS® or NEXIS™ storage and an ideal productivity tool for film production, post and broadcast. Project Parking provides project analytics, visualisation and archiving and can be a valuable tool for billing for usage. It helps companies understand the capacity of productions, allowing them to easily export projects to tier two or cloud storage to make way for a larger incoming production on valuable ISIS or NEXIS storage space.

ΔP (Delta Parking) is a newly-exposed versioning capability for Avid Projects that have been externalised to cloud or Tier 2 storage by either Marquis Project Parking or Workspace Backup. It enables external projects to be restored and modified by editors and any subsequent edit changes versioned back into the external project. If at some point the project is restored back to a NEXIS, the versioning history is maintained.

Here’s an example of typical use for these capabilities: a customer has an Avid NEXIS project, which is largely finished but will need a few final editorial tweaks. The project is externalised to Tier 2 or cloud storage by Project Parking. A freelance editor is given access to restore the source project, either via network, cloud or removable media. They finish the edit on a remote Avid Media Composer and then version back the final cut of the production directly into the original project held in cloud or Tier 2 storage. Importantly, the delivery back only contains the project changes, or deltas (Δ).

Delta Parking enables Avid projects that are held in offline storage to be both version-able and distributable between local and remote Media Composer editors. Since only the changes are written back, huge network transfer or storage efficiencies can be realised, making remote productions practical even at the highest of resolutions.

As Avid moves towards a cloud-based production workflows, Marquis Broadcast tools will support this environment, offering a seamless ‘Cloud Ground’ experience for both Project Parking and Workspace Tools. The addition of ΔP capability will enable the easy deployment of extended workflows across many outboard storage technologies, not least the cloud.