Tyrell Cloud Takes Virtual Events Company E2 360 to New Heights
E2 360 is a London-based digital experience company that offers virtual site visits, 360-degree live streaming and virtual events. It launched in summer 2020 amidst the first UK Covid lockdown when live events were being cancelled and streamed online. In October 2021, as E2 360 was beginning to make serious inroads within the industry, its Director Nick Robinson purchased an AVIWEST BeOnAIR live streaming solution from Tyrell to ensure that it could deliver solid video streams even in the most challenging situations.
Once lockdown restrictions were lifted, E2 360’s customers began returning to on-site events and the scope of the company’s requirements grew. Robinson explains, “We work with a lot of companies now that want to do multi-location or multi-region streaming. They may have team members in Europe, America and Asia, and we have to be able to link everything together.”
E2 360’s traditional model included multiple on-premise laptops and workstations all handling different parts of the virtual production workflow, which didn’t support an efficient way of growing the business. At the start of 2022, Robinson and Tyrell’s Sales Director Dan Muchmore discussed plans for the year and Robinson mentioned he needed an AWS expert to help him create virutalised workstations to further his goal of true virtual production and scale. The Tyrell Cloud platform was introduced followed by several demonstrations of Tyrell Cloud Tyrell’s new Cloud platform allows anyone involved in content creation to take advantage of the power and agility of the cloud without the often-associated runaway cost or steep learning curve.
Robinson identified a project that he knew would be a perfect fit for the Tyrell Cloud workflow, a multi-city, multi-country livestreaming event for a global charity. He says, “I needed to have operators anywhere in the world, or anywhere in the UK that could operate our events without leaving their home, their office, or their studio.”
Using Tyrell Cloud, he was able to run several virtual workstations. Creating them as and when needed, configuring them with the desired software and scheduling them whenever they were required to run. This level of flexibility and agility is a huge benefit to small companies like E2 360 as it allows them to take on any production without worrying about massive capex costs.
Each workstation hosted vMix live video streaming software instances, Teams (x2) and PowerPoint sessions, and had a cloud hosted NDI network to manage routing between workstations for mixing in vMix. They could also deploy Adobe Premiere in the cloud for VOD edits in post. Tyrell Cloud automatically deploys a load balanced, dual redundant Teradici system in each Tyrell Cloud project which allows secure, low latency control of each workstation regardless of a user’s location.
Robinson explains, “This meant that we could have an operator in Europe doing the editing and another operator in the UK doing the live streaming. It allows us to really scale and spin up as many instances as we like. Traditionally, if we’d had a very large event the operator may not have had a heavy enough spec machine for what we were trying to achieve. Tyrell Cloud enables us to scale up, scale down and create the right piece of infrastructure that we need for any set project.”
AWS Media Connect provides Tyrell Cloud with a powerful and flexible way of managing remote contribution feeds and routing into the Tyrell Cloud account. It provides Robinson with a contribution route into his virtual production environment anytime he needs. He can also offer post-production services to his clients without needing any capital outlay; he simply runs up another workstation for an NLE, and using Tyrell Cloud Capture, he can capture the production streams and ISOs. Between productions he uses Tyrell Cloud to turn off the workstations and services he doesn’t need, giving him full control of his monthly costs.
Robinson says, “Using Tyrell cloud and AWS combined allows us to bill clients for every hour that the equipment is used. Another example is that a client may want to do a project just for one or two hours. This way we simply spin up an extra resource or an extra instance of a server and that means we can scale into the hundreds or thousands if we really needed to.”
This virtual production setup also means that he doesn’t need to send as much equipment out to the production site, giving him a faster setup and greener production credentials. Using Tyrell Cloud, every project has its own virtual workstations and infrastructure and users schedule projects to run as and when required providing a much more flexible and sustainable way of working. Robinson says, “Clients want us to be on location, on site, and traditionally that would mean putting a lot of boxes on a van or a truck and travelling to a venue. Now we’re able to cut out the amount of transport and deploy larger systems. It’s easier to scale and we’ve got that sustainability element, which a lot of companies are driving toward.”
AWS provides the most comprehensive set of services for media and entertainment and Tyrell Cloud provides the user with a virtual facility to take advantage of this power without the technical knowledge required. Anyone on the production project team can access and manage content in the Tyrell Cloud environment without needing technical cloud skills. It allows freelance editors working remotely to edit content in the cloud; they simply need the workstation address to log in.
“Using Tyrell Cloud Control web interface, we can create a really simple way that’s not time consuming and easy to understand to deploy multiple servers at the click of a couple buttons. The other important point to mention about Tyrell Cloud is scheduling. From a cost standpoint, I don’t have to worry about accidentally leaving a server on. Using the scheduling tool I can say, I need these machines turned on between eight and six and these specific machines between ten and eleven at night. It’s that easy.”
With Tyrell Cloud, E2 360 has really been able to hone its offerings and further define its vision and services all by using an opex model. Tyrell Cloud really is ‘Making Cloud Simple’.
We are delighted to announce that Tyrell Cloud has reached the AWS status of ‘Select Tier Services Partner’.
Year on year AWS led the way in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services (CIPS) report for their innovation, scale, and their ability to execute. For Tyrell Cloud, AWS’s knowledge and focus on the media and entertainment industry is the reason why they are at the forefront and make it easy for us to develop solutions for our customers.
Achieving the Select Partner status is a huge technical effort and puts us firmly on the path to be the market leading service provider and really pioneer the mass migration and adoption of public cloud in media and entertainment. We firmly believe that over next few years we are going to see a mass change away from the tried and tested on-prem model and side step the half way house of capex, private data centre alternatives.
Today Tyrell offers cloud consultancy, bespoke projects, and a fully managed service for post production and livestreaming. The public cloud offers our customers the chance to pivot, evolve and rethink their business direction and along with AWS we are ready to lead the way with our dedicated team of AWS engineers and developers.
To find out more about Tyrell Cloud services contact us at sales@tyrellcct.com.
Since we launched Tyrell Cloud at MPTS in May, we’ve been going from strength to strength. Recently, TVB Europe published an article explaining how Tyrell Cloud – a turnkey managed cloud service – is being used by UK-based production company Mallinson Sadler Productions (MSP). At MPTS, we also demonstrated Tyrell Cloud Capture, the ingest of live SRT streams with AWS MediaConnect and Cinedeck directly to EditShare shared storage. In this blog we want to elaborate on this so that producers creating fast turnaround TV, news, and sports can see the benefits that Tyrell Cloud brings to their productions.
For those who are unfamiliar, Cinedeck originally came to market with a digital deck that allowed users to capture from camera straight to disc. What was clever about this solution was that it allowed for a master file and a proxy file to be captured at the same time, bypassing the ingest and transcode process ready for immediate editing. Although quick and clever, this solution was very much about being on premise, where the deck digitises to itself or to network storage. More recently, Cinedeck has launched Capture2Cloud, an ingest server in the cloud supporting the recordings of ISO streams directly to the codec required for editing, making it simple for users to carry out on-demand cloud encoding of edit ready formats.
By adding Cinedeck into Tyrell Cloud we reduce the emphasis of on location infrastructure and capture live NDI or SRT streams to EditShare storage for immediate editing. Tyrell Cloud with Cinedeck, EditShare, NDI and SRT reduces geography, our value is making live events simple.
Tyrell Cloud Capture
The power of Tyrell Cloud allows users to login to their Tyrell Cloud portal, their virtual machine room and add the Tyrell Cloud Capture service without any cloud or vendor experience. Once launched the user enters the details of the stream to start securely ingesting from anywhere in the world. SRT is a secure low latency video stream; you can be an outside broadcaster using an SNG truck for example, a full OB, or even a small flight case with cameras feeding a video encoder. Because that video encoder is sending streams via SRT, all those cameras are going to land in Tyrell Cloud, synchronised and locked together. That content is available immediately in the cloud for editing and no one is having to shuttle drives or servers, back and forth between sites. Not only is it quicker and easier, it’s also a much more sustainable and greener way of working.
Making Cloud Simple
Backing up our motto ‘Making Cloud Simple’, we really do want to make it as quick and easy as possible for users to access and start editing live SRT streams. With Tyrell Cloud we have removed the requirement for our customers to have cloud knowledge, removed the user on boarding complexities and removed the fear of run-away costs. Our platform has revolutionised post production and streaming, productions can experience all the positives the cloud has to offer without the negatives. Anyone on the production project team can access and manage content in the Tyrell Cloud environment without needing technical cloud skills. It allows freelance editors working remotely to edit content in the cloud; they simply need to log into the virtual workstation as they would do a physical workstation. Customers can also choose a hybrid version. MSP, for example, has an EditShare both on-prem and in the cloud. The EditShare on-prem is used to land rushes and the team then choose which rushes go up into the cloud.
Tyrell Cloud provides huge flexibility; the customer can be running an edit facility in Tyrell Cloud and add an ingest server as a service as and when required. Customers can also decide when their service runs aligning operational costs with project cycles.
If you want to discuss further, don’t hesitate to give us a shout. We can have your Tyrell Cloud service up and running in a matter of days.
Originally driven by the need to move to remote workflows during the pandemic, Mallinson Sadler Productions worked with Tyrell Cloud to keep their editing teams working during Covid and beyond.
The media and entertainment industry’s evolving rapidly. When Covid struck two years ago, the production community had to come up with new ways of working to not only film and ensure safe practices for talent and crew, but also to adopt new workflows so that content could be edited and managed remotely. Despite the massive challenges that the pandemic created, we’ve witnessed the use of incredible technical innovations (think remote production and remote working) that have resulted in quantum creative leaps across our industry.
UK-based production company Mallinson Sadler Productions (MSP) was started in 2002 by childhood friends Crispin Sadler, a multiple award-winning documentary maker and Simon Mallinson, a multiple award-winning advertisement and film maker. They produce factual, ocean-themed programmes for a wide range of broadcasters all over the world with technical innovation at the forefront of their productions.
Over the years, MSP successfully took care of its own editing. In the early days as its production grew, it needed more engineering and the support of post houses. During lockdown, the team created 20 episodes of one of its popular shows and was heavily reliant on the post house during this time. Ken Robinson, technical manager, MSP says, “The pandemic and lockdown was a difficult time for everyone. The post house had to go through radical change and we found ourselves part of the teething problems in the workflow challenge that they had. As in all post houses there is never just one client, so delays were further compounded by lack of booking slots to complete important tasks. Staff aren’t assigned to one client and so little things such as file labelling could go wrong, causing problems later when auditing content.”
Time for change
MSP started looking for alternative workflows that would help resolve these issues. It needed six edit suites spread across two buildings in Bristol. Robinson says, “I was trying to figure out how to connect everything together and how to make it work reliably. It’s fine to say, ‘let’s build our own edit suites’, but you have to understand what that really entails without spending a fortune.” Luckily he didn’t have to pursue this idea any further: “A colleague of mine said his supplier Tyrell might have an interesting solution. I jumped on a call and was pretty much sold straight away.”
Robinson was referring to Tyrell Cloud, a set of services powered by leading manufacturers that allow anyone involved in content creation to take advantage of the power and agility of the cloud without the often-associated runaway cost or steep learning curve. Earlier this year the company successfully demonstrated the ingest of live SRT streams with Cinedeck directly to EditShare storage and more vendor solutions will be announced soon.
Tyrell Cloud Workstation
Bryan Malone, Tyrell’s MD says, “The cloud is the new technical frontier that allows us to rethink how we approach the next-generation of content creators. Using Tyrell Cloud, media companies have a turnkey managed service based on their project workflow requirements, which gives instant access to solutions from multiple vendors. Today, a Tyrell Cloud customer can enjoy an offline editorial experience with EditShare FLEX and AWS (Storage), FileCatalyst (File transfer) and Teradici (Virtual workstation control).
“AWS’ values are closely aligned with Tyrell’s. We did try other public cloud providers, but none have the media and entertainment customer and market focus that AWS does. Also, it’s our preference to be multi-region rather than multi-public. We believe it provides more value to our customers to support a production in any country. We want to be able to offer file or stream ingest at the closest AWS point and provide the lowest latency editing experience possible with multi-region support. Security is our absolute concern. By employing the latest AWS secure architecture, we can offer our customers the confidence that their content is more secure than an on-premise solution.”
The efficiency of Tyrell Cloud
Tyrell Cloud provides MSP and other clients with a way of facilitating remote working in a more sustainable way, bringing technology closer to the talent rather than the traditional travel to the centre of the city and completely turns the economic model of post production on its head. Tyrell Cloud allows facilities to expand and contract its technical estate freely when required and migrate their workflows to the cloud without ever seeing the cloud or needing any experience in the cloud.
Anyone on the production project team can access and manage content in the Tyrell Cloud environment without needing technical cloud skills. It allows freelance editors working remotely to edit content in the cloud; they simply need the server address to log in. Robinson says, “It doesn’t matter where the editor is if they’ve got at least a 20-50-Mbps connection. Our editorial is extremely important, and my goal is to make the technology work so that editors can focus on the creative task. We don’t need editors who have deep technical knowledge; we need editors who have very good storytelling abilities.”
Tyrell Cloud customers can also choose a hybrid version. MSP, for example, has an EditShare both on-prem and in the cloud. The EditShare on-prem is used to store the proxies on watch folders to be uploaded to each edit. It allows Flow to scan, so all the material is available to see on the Airflow web interface. Robinson adds “This whole story was an alignment of the stars. We’d already invested in EditShare, because we’d previously edited in house and are using the Airflow MAM to allow remote access to hundreds of terabytes of material. In addition we use an LTO 8 library to back up as we ingest. Using Tyrell Cloud, we were able to limit six edit suites to 13-15 terabytes of total storage. Plus, content only goes one way to the cloud; we send it up, but we don’t pull it back down because we have everything on prem. The content on the cloud is only used for editing.”
For the editors themselves, they don’t notice any difference. Robinson says, “It’s the same as if they were in an edit suite. The other beauty is we have one edit assistant who’s able to ingest, transcode and look after each of those six cloud-based edit suites. Because we’re our own client, unlike a post facility, we’re not dealing with 20 other customers all screaming to have their content ingested. We’re able to receive shoot drives at 9am, sync, transcode and have everything available for the edit by lunchtime the next day.”
The Tyrell Cloud platform allows customers to determine when services run down to the hour, removing the fear of runaway costs. Customers are always in full control. Using Tyrell Cloud, media companies can migrate away from the annual capex and align production costs to their specific production schedules running production servers when they are required rather than investing ahead of time regardless of commissioning cycles.
For MSP, Tyrell Cloud gives them back control of their productions. Robinson adds, “At the end of the production, I have peace of mind knowing everything is there— knowing it’s labelled accurately and stored and that we can quickly and easily find it at any time.”
Want to find out more about Tyrell Cloud contact our experts at sales@tyrellcct.com
Cinedeck have taken a bold step towards decoupling their ingest server capability from their own tin by providing CD2 software, enabling you to get all the benefits of Cinedeck ingest but on your COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) hardware. To make this easier, Cindeck have also opened capture card qualification to include Blackmagic alongside the more enterprise options of Bluefish and Aja.
Cindeck are also pioneering a multi-cam shoot with flexible ingest to on-premise storage and simultaneous cloud ingest without the usual transcoding step.
If you’ve never looked at Cinedeck’s ingest servers then here are 5 reasons why we think you should:
Form factor– the all-inclusive ZX85 12G all capable deck through to the all I.P LX ingest server.
Insert Edit– easily overlooked but the servers act like a tape deck enabling you to do a live insert edit, regardless of any file type wrapped as MXF OpAtom, Op1a or MOV files.
Simultaneous Master and Proxy recording– your selected master and a H.264 proxy.
SRT and SDI– the great thing about Cinedeck Ingest servers is that they all support SRT and NDI as input sources with 3G/12G and IP-2110 available on the ZX units.
They support the largest range of codecs– AVC-I, DNxHD & DNxHR (all), DPX, H.264, JPEG2000, JFIF, IMX, Pro-Res (All), XAVC – I, XDCAM50 and the following wrappers AVI, DPP, QT, Op1A, OpAtom.
Contact sales@tyrellcct.com to discuss Cinedeck Ingest Servers and arrange a trial with our demo units.
With the NEXIS F-Series release Avid is making a move to a subscription model for the Avid NEXIS | VFS virtual file system. Customers now have the choice of the following deployments:
Capex– Perpetual- the traditional higher hardware cost and annual support from Year 2.
Opex– Subscription- a lower initial hardware cost with a higher annual subscription to the file system that also includes support.
SaaS– Avid Edit-On-Demand- NEXIS and Media Composer on Microsoft Azure Cloud.
BYOC– Bring your own cloud- a small step for Avid outside of their SaaS offering. In this case your NEXIS|FLEX subscription will be in your own Azure VNET /VPC.
Avid are not the first to head down this path, but they have been clever in identifying that their customers see a future in cloud production. NEXIS F-Series users will be able to migrate their NEXIS|FLEX subscription from their on-premises systems to the cloud as and when they are ready to. NEXIS|FLEX subscriptions can be migrated to Avid Edit-On-Demand or to your own Azure cloud environment.
What do you need to know?
NEXIS|FLEX subscription is only available on the NEXIS F-Series chassis. Users of E-Series will remain with the traditional perpetual licensing structure.
NEXIS|FLEX subscriptions are an annual term but multi-year subscriptions can be purchased.
The Avid NEXIS Management console warns of impending subscription expiration 60 days before the license expires.
If a subscription expires, regardless of the reason Avid will allow TWO read only connections to allow you to move your data.
NEXIS|FLEX is available as an online and nearline annual subscription with each TB charged for as a flat rate. Unlike other manufacturers there isn’t a sliding scale which makes things clearer for the customer.
Want to know more about Avid NEXIS|FLEX Subscription or Avid NEXIS F-Series or place an order?
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
