At CES in Las Vegas, axle Video announced Drive - a new low cost product that gives producers and editors remote access to media assets via a web browser. Could this be a cheap and secure way of getting online approval of productions?
We have been sifting through the news from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas day by day and so far apart from the odd camera, drive or new TV screen, there has been little to directly interest us.
axle Drive did however get us excited.
So what exactly does axle Drive do? The unit connects to a Mac and makes a separate proxy of all the media on the drives. This media can then be shared, even across the internet.
Producers, clients or anybody with the right login can then view all the proxies using a web browser. This can either be on a local network with a director sitting next to the editor for example or remotely with a client viewing a cut and giving their approval.
Not too often a product like this has its own music video! (You'll notice which NLE is featured.)
The whole proxy generation happens in the background, the hard disk on the axle unit storing a proxy for each video, photo or PDF asset.
"Most of the media captured today gets stashed away on loose hard drives, with no ability to search or reuse the content at a later date without a time-consuming process of constantly plugging and unplugging drives, then playing through media to find the right items" said Sam Bogoch, CEO of axle. "Now, finding and using media is a simple and swift process, thanks to axle's unique software and increasingly affordable storage and networking technology. axle puts this capability within easy reach of any creative studio and even the living room."
So we can see this unit having two main uses. The first is allowing a director or client to view camera originals online. They can then make a choice which take or clip to use. We don't know if the axle metadata can be fed back into Final Cut Pro X yet.
The second use is the secure online approval of the finished production. No more paying for an online service, this box should do it for you if your internet connection can handle it.
This could be really helpful and remove the tedious process of having to upload a new version every time you make a change. No HTML wrangling either to get the video on a web page. Not too sure how it will handle long productions such as conferences and weddings.
axle Drive is available in three versions:
axle Drive 2 - Holds about 100 hours of HD footage, or 5,000 hours of H.264 proxy media. 2 Terabytes of usable storage with USB3 connectivity, and axle's radically simple browser-based media management system. Lightweight, portable hardware can be taken anywhere. axle Drive 2 comes pre-loaded with sample selections of stock footage, audio and images from leading vendors, plus a year of knowledgebase and email support from axle Video. $995 / €895 (Euro).
axle Drive 4 - Holds about 200 hours of HD footage, or 10,000 hours of H.264 proxy media. 4 Terabytes of fully redundant (RAID1) usable storage with dual Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and axle's radically simple browser-based media management system. axle Drive 4 comes pre-loaded with sample selections of stock footage, audio and images from leading vendors, plus a year of knowledgebase and email support from axle Video. $1,995 / €1795.
axle Drive 6 - Holds about 300 hours of HD footage, or 15,000 hours of H.264 proxy media. 6 Terabytes of fully redundant (RAID1) usable storage with dual Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and axle's radically simple browser-based media management system. axle Drive 6 comes pre-loaded with sample selections of stock footage, audio and images from leading vendors, plus a year of knowledgebase, email and phone support from axle Video. $2,995 / €2695.
axle's bigger systems that mirror SANs have been well received, so we will be watching these units with interest as we think they fill a gap in the market by providing a low cost method of remote asset management and approval.
In March, axle will also release an edit client that can rough cut on iPhones and iPads.
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
