Windmill Lane Pictures looks to international markets with licensed wireless
Windmill Lane Pictures, Ireland's longest-established film and
television post-production company, is relying on a leading-edge, dual
technology telecommunications network to bring its services to Irish
customers to the next level and help it capture a bigger slice of
international markets.
Like many indigenous companies, Windmill Lane Pictures was a strong
beneficiary of the business boom in Ireland's Celtic Tiger years.
Significant inward investment in film and television projects, as well
as growing activity by domestic broadcasters and advertising agencies,
kept the Windmill editing suites full to capacity. Not surprisingly,
recession cutbacks have dampened domestic business, leaving the
international market an increasingly crucial one for the Irish company.
But as a creative post-production house on an island at the edge of
Europe, how can the company hope to lure producers from around the
world to consider Dublin for their next big project? It's a challenge
CEO James Morris is taking head-on.
"As we work to develop our international market, there will always be
technical challenges in order to ensure that we're competitive," says
James. "We're always going to have to overcome distance and location --
that's why the whole area of technology in general, and
telecommunications in particular, is of great strategic importance to
us."
Windmill's answer to the down market has been to invest in a completely
new, High Definition server-based data production studio, together with
high speed telecoms, and to move to a new location on Herbert Street in
Dublin 2. The move was made possible by the sale of its iconic studios
in Dublin's Docklands, the original recording home of U2. Representing
an investment of €4.7 million, the technical and operational design of
the new facility was conceived and project managed by Windmill’s
Technical Director John Brady, and it takes post-production onto a new
level.
It's a package that should be a strong lure for international clients,
and it will also significantly improve the services and service levels
Windmill can offer to existing clients in the Irish television and
advertising markets.
Serious bandwidth delivers real competitiveness
The high speed connectivity to support this investment has been
designed by long-term technology partner AirSpeed Telecom. The network
boasts 2 x 10 Mbps links incorporating both licensed wireless and
fibre, scalable on-demand to 100 Mbps. Licensed wireless is critical to
the network's resiliency, ensuring Windmill's daily operations are not
vulnerable to line cuts in the ground.
AirSpeed Telecom sourced and managed installation of the fibre and the
licensed wireless connection, and worked with Windmill’s chosen systems
integration provider Bootstrap. Bootstrap provided and manages the
building's state-of-the-art unified communications voice network which
also includes 10 Gigabit core LAN, a high speed 802.11N wi-fi network
and video streaming. Bootstrap and AirSpeed Telecom cooperate to
achieve load sharing over the dual connectivity routes, wireless and
fibre, to give Windmill Lane maximum availability and reliability. The
building is directly connected via scalable links into the AirSpeed
Telecom datacentre, from which point Tier-one connections can easily be
created to any points abroad.
It all helps put Windmill exactly where it wants to be: in a position
to offer fast, responsive service to any client, anywhere.
"The whole base and technology we're adopting in the new building is
data-based, fast and flexible, and that opens up a lot of new
combinations of services we can offer to our clients here at home and
internationally," James says.
World-class telecoms support virtual post-production
One of the most exciting aspects of Windmill's new service will be the
potential to offer high-end, virtual post-production. A premium service
available to international clients, be they producers of film and
television or global brands, virtual post-production allows
split-location working: clients in a location like London or New York
can watch and comment in real time on grading or effects work performed
by Windmill Lane's specialists in Dublin.
AirSpeed Telecom is also providing strategic guidance on other
services, including the incorporation of embedded security measures
into Windmill's workflow and network, designed to protect confidential
media streams from piracy, theft or loss. As a newly designed studio,
Windmill Lane is positioned to benefit from the latest technological
enhancements in the post-production industry, and a best-of-breed
security offering could become a vital advantage when competing for new
business, both domestically and on the international market.
With an eye on the future, and a firm grasp of how it can use
technology to differentiate, Windmill Lane's investment in world-class
technology and telecoms is the right move, James says. "This new level
of technology and connectivity allows us to seek to develop clients in
other markets -- from that point of view, it's absolutely strategic."
|
