Polycom Lowers Production Pressures of CBS Drama

By Nathesh, TMCnet Contributor

The producers of the CBS drama 'The Good Wife' are in a tight schedule - they have to make a new episode in a span of eight days and they can't afford to miss any minute. Polycom, a dealer in telepresence, video, and voice solutions, has stated that its telepresence solution has helped the filming crew who are located in New York collaborate with Los Angeles-based writers and editors.

For a media crew creating a new episode in eight days is an arduous task. 'The Good Wife' show has its writers in Los Angeles and the filming crew in Brooklyn New York. The shot footage is then shipped back to LA for editing and post production. Not only have the crew had to do their job but also they have to overcome the hurdles of the digital production workflow.

One of the producers of the show stated that there are a lot of new members of the team for each episode, and many don't know each other. Video allowed them to get to know each other much faster, and to stay much focused on the tasks at hand.

In Brooklyn, a Polycom (News - Alert) HDX 6000 room telepresence connects producers, episode directors, and actors with the writers on the West Coast. After each episode is planned and filmed, the content is sent to L.A. for editing. The Good Wife uses three Avid editing suites to produce its shows. The three suites are equipped with Polycom HDX 8000 room telepresence systems. The systems take content directly from the Avid platform for transmission over the public Internet. A pair of HDX 7000 systems was also installed at the writers' offices which enabled them to collaborate with the producers in NY.

According to Polycom, their HDX 6000 series solutions enables cost effective HD communications and offers high-def for everyone with 720p30 starting from 512 kbps with standard's based H.264 High Profile. It delivers Polycom UltimateHD technology: HD voice, HD video, and HD content for exceptional performance.

The HDX 7000 offers flexible, cost-effective, high definition communications from low bandwidths with H.264 High Profile technology. Its advanced HD video technology, offers smooth, natural motion and sharp clear images for outstanding video. The HDX 8000 series delivers HD video quality starting from as low as 512 kbps with standards-based H.264 High Profile technology. The solutions' Internal MCU supports up to four participants in a single conference in high definition with stereo audio.

The video communications infrastructure also incorporates a Polycom RMX 2000 conference platform and the Polycom Converged Management Application (CMA) distributed video solution.

The show's Executive Producer Brooke Kennedy has commented that since they themselves are selling an audio/visual product, it is crucial they have the best audio and video products to help them bring that vision to life. Clear communication also spares crew members from losing precious time to misunderstandings. In their production meetings, so much is said in someone's facial expression. With Polycom, they don't miss a thing.

(source: http://data-voice-solutions.tmcnet.com/topics/telepresence/articles/84225-polycom-lowers-production-pressures-cbs-drama.htm)