Amazon Prime Video has added more companies to its Preferred Vendor Services Program.

Video and metadata software-as-a-solution (SaaS) provider Stockholm Stream Media AB has announced it has been selected to join as one of only four global Preferred Technology Vendors (PTV). The company’s Delta platform provides users with tailored delivery, rights management and media asset management (MAM) solutions.

Founded in 2018, Stockholm Stream has enabled implementations for platforms including Apple TV, Comcast and Vimeo, as well as Prime Video. The company has recently focused on developing AI solutions across subtitle automation and quality control.

CEO Patrik Littmann commented: “Being named a Preferred Technology Vendor for Amazon Prime is a significant milestone for Stockholm Stream. This recognition reflects the dedication of our team and the robust capabilities of our Delta platform. It also underscores our commitment to delivering best-in-class solutions that meet the exacting standards of the global streaming industry.”

Named as a Preferred Fulfillment Vendor (PFV) for Amazon Prime, Zoo Digital joins a group of vendors selected to provide Amazon and its partners with “global and regional expertise to support all media types and best-in-class quality.”

Certification enables Zoo to provide streamlined digital packaging and distribution processes for content creators and distributors, ensuring content reaches Amazon’s global customers efficiently. Its ZOOsubs, ZOOdubs and ZOOstudio platforms provide an end-to-end localization solution, while its global network of over 12,000 freelancers ensures content delivery is tailored to local audiences.

Syed Ahmed, head of international business development at ZOO Digital, said: “This partnership underscores our commitment to helping content creators bring their stories to audiences worldwide. Working with Amazon Prime Video as a Preferred Fulfilment Vendor allows us to further support their global expansion with reliable, high-quality localization services.”

Media logistics company Pixlo has also announced its selection as an Amazon Prime PFV. Established in 2008, the company leverages its AI-driven platform, Pixlo IO, to streamline digital content management for streaming providers and content distributors, among others.

Managing media assets from acquisition to delivery, Pixlo aims to enable further efficiencies across Amazon Prime’s content delivery processes, utilizing its experience in metadata management and secure distribution.

Commenting on the announcement, Pixlo CEO, Björn Isakson said: “Being selected as a Preferred Fulfillment Vendor by Amazon Prime is a testament to our team’s dedication and expertise. We are excited to continue supporting the industry with best-in-class fulfillment services.”

This story initially appeared on TV Tech sister brand TVB Europe.

LONDON—ZOO Digital, a global provider of localization and media services to the entertainment industry, has launched ZOO dubbing studios in Milan and established ZOO Italy. 

The announcement follows the successful acquisition of long-time partner LogoSound. 

Founded in Milan in 2006, LogoSound has been a trusted provider of Italian dubbing services to companies such as de Agostini Editore; Boing; Malvista Entertainment; Turner Broadcasting system Europe and CDI Camera Distribuzion. 

The studio will play a pivotal role in ZOO’s global end-to-end offering for major studios and streaming services. The TPN-approved dubbing facility will not only serve international entertainment giants but also empower local content creators to extend their reach by bringing Italian-language film and TV to global audiences.

“Italy is a key dubbing territory for the global media and entertainment industry, and with the addition of our Milan hub into our wider global network, we are well-positioned to meet the evolving needs of major studios and streamers across Europe,” Gordon Doran, president of ZOO Digital, said. “This strategic expansion not only underscores our commitment to the Italian entertainment industry but also reflects our dedication to the global needs of our clients – including the rising demand for authentic, modern dubs of originals and catalog content.”

ZOO Italia will be led by Mapi Lucchesi, ZOO's experienced creative director for Italy, ensuring a smooth transition and seamless integration with the wider ZOO production network.

"The launch of ZOO's dubbing studios in Milan represents a significant step forward for our Italian media localization capabilities,” Lucchesi said:  We look forward to combining dedicated local expertise with ZOO's global servicing capacity, to enhance the dubbing experience for our clients and audiences alike."

For more information, visit www.zoodigital.com.    

MUMBAI, India—As one of the largest players in the global content localization space, with offices worldwide, ZOO Digital is a technology provider for premium content brands. ZOO Digital’s localization services adapt original content for different languages, regions and cultures, and its media services ensure that content is technically compliant for all required streaming service platforms. With our services and global capabilities, content creators can extend the reach and financial opportunities for both new and existing entertainment content.

In 2017, when we were then known as Vista India Digital Media, we explored various automated AV quality checking tools in the market for our automated QC workflows—focusing in particular on their capability, scalability and speed.

Automated QC Support
The deciding factor in choosing Interra Systems’ BATON solution was based on three key aspects: BATON’s fit with our specific QC needs, its speed performance, and Interra Systems’ responsiveness and support. These aspects are paramount, as automated QC is the first in a long line of processes that ensures content qualifies for downstream flow—with QC being repeated once again at the finalizing stage. 

We also liked the responsiveness and support of the Interra Systems team who guided us through the trials we conducted ahead of full deployment, quicking answering all of our questions as well as providing flexible licensing options. This gave us a sense of the level of support we could expect from them, and I’m happy to say that they have been consistent.

We have deployed BATON for the QC of all of our mezzanine files for any video and audio anomalies such as drop frames, tics and pops, black frames, and more. These files are usually delivered to a variety of premium OTT platforms.

Speed & Quality
These partner platforms have highly stringent quality standards coupled with a need for fast turnaround delivery schedules. Any gaps in content files detected downstream will lead to the reacquisition of content and wasted resources and will also impact the delivery timeline. BATON has helped secure our QC workflow manifolds by saving time, effort, and identifying anomalies like frame corruption, digital hits, and more, which can easily be missed during “eyeball only” QC.

The AV material we QC with BATON ranges from HD, to UHD, to HDR10. With the volume of work we handle, we typically perform quality checks 24/7. We put BATON through its paces on a daily basis and I’m happy to say that we haven’t experienced any breakdowns since we started using it. BATON has stayed ahead of the curve with the ever-changing quality requirements of various content platforms with frequent upgrades, and shows Interra Systems’ commitment to deliver best in class solutions. 

Sathya Narayanan is CTO at Zoo India / Vista India Digital Media and has more than 25 years of experience in the media and technology space, covering a range of industries including film, animation, gaming, and media technology solutions. Narayanan’s passion is to architect technology solutions related to the M&E market, leveraging years of domain expertise in the media industry. He can be reached at
sathya.narayanan@vistaindia.com.

For more information, visit www.interrasystems.com.

LOS ANGELES—ZOO Digital Group is launching a mastering services division to support content creators with next-day air service on major streaming services and platforms, the company said today.

The division, which will provide mastering of UHD and HD content, will be led out of ZOO’s Los Angeles facility. It will leverage the latest hardware and software for mastering, QC and packaging, the company said.

Melissa McAllister, formerly with Fox Filmed Entertainment, joined ZOO Digital Group as director of TV mastering and servicing and will lead the division. McAllister has specialized in managing projects to deliver the highest level of quality while adhering to tight turnaround times.

“The biggest factors in delivering mastering services in the entertainment industry are exactly the traits that ZOO has made its name for. By always looking ahead at how best to tackle industry challenges, this has enabled us to hit the ground running with the new service line,” she said.

McAllister is leading an experienced team of mastering project managers, encoders, editors and QC technicians, the company said.

“The launch of a dedicated mastering service is the natural progression in our end-to-end client offering and positions ZOO to benefit from a potentially significant future revenue stream,” said Zoo Digital CEO Stuart Green. “The biggest names in entertainment are dealing with more languages, more platforms and more audiences, so having a vendor that can offer both multi-language localization and media services means greater efficiency, fewer delays, and simplifies the challenge of taking a project from post-production to platform.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Content QC and monitoring technology provider Interra Systems has announced that ZOO Digital, a global provider of cloud software-based subtitling, dubbing, and media localization services, has expanded its deployment of Interra Systems' BATON automated QC solution. 

BATON enables ZOO Digital to perform comprehensive quality and compliance checks on VOD content, resulting in faster and more efficient delivery of globalized media content for its customers in the TV and film industries, the company said. 

"Given the recent explosion in video streaming, we are anticipating an increased workload from customers globally," said Andy Saldaña, vice president of media services and special projects at ZOO Digital. "As the volume of media content that we manage grows, Interra's BATON solution will enable us to address the QC needs of our customers swiftly. BATON expedites the creation of subtitles, audio dubbing, localized metadata, media compliance, and more, allowing our customers to reach new audiences and boost their revenues."

ZOO Digital has production facilities in the U.S., U.K., and Dubai. Being a software- and cloud-based solution, Interra Systems' BATON provides ZOO Digital with a highly scalable architecture that can easily be expanded as its QC needs grow. BATON supports a wide range of media formats and offers comprehensive quality checks, including extensive subtitles and closed-caption verification, audio language identification, PSE correction, and loudness detection and correction.

"ZOO Digital was an early adopter of BATON and continues to be a valued customer that understands the important role that automated QC plays in global media distribution," said Ashish Basu, executive vice president of worldwide sales and business development at Interra Systems. "With BATON powering its QC operations, ZOO Digital can ensure that the content being delivered by some of the biggest names in the media and entertainment industry always has exceptional quality."

More information about Interra Systems solutions can be found at www.interrasystems.com.

When the sound in your production isn’t quite right, it’s hard to miss. From fixing inaudible dialogue to capturing a better performance or a newly scripted line, automated dialogue replacement can be a lifesaver.

The pandemic has necessitated a previously unthinkable shift to remote working across the film and TV industry. In the case of remote ADR, selecting the right recording platform, facilitating collaboration and reducing latency have presented significant challenges over the past 12 months. 

It’s been a steep learning curve, but the industry has adapted. Here are five top tips for producing a remote ADR recording clearly, simply and cost effectively:

Keep the technology simple 

An actor’s job is to act, and a director’s is to direct. Realistically, asking them to double up as sound engineers and IT technicians isn’t going to be fruitful. For an actor to get into character and deliver a great performance, they need a hands-off technical solution. There are now a variety of options available, including pay-by-the-hour virtual ADR stages or full-service remote ADR.  

Look for a plug-and-play recording platform that is simple to use but powerful under the hood—one that can analyze the recording environment and test reverb, background noise and volume. Thoroughly testing and validating these before recording can help avoid re-record delays or quality issues later down the line. 

Use the right mics for each project

We’ve all heard about actors needing to capture a final couple of lines by any means necessary—on a smartphone in the airport or in a hotel closet on a laptop. Nowadays, everyone has access to a microphone through their smartphone or laptop. However, this is a world away from professional remote ADR services. 

These services use the microphones that mirror those used on set, to achieve the most authentic ADR recordings possible and give the audience a seamless experience of the final audio. All remote ADR services should ensure access to this caliber of microphone.  

In-built collaboration is key

Capturing remote ADR for principal actors requires collaboration—ADR directors, dialect coaches, sound engineers, note takers and others all need to be connected in real-time and able to work creatively as if they were there in the studio with the actor. Look for a solution where no third-party collaboration tools are required.

For walla groups, whose job is to create the crowd sounds and overall atmosphere behind the main dialogue, working remotely can be challenging. The right remote recording platform should allow for an unlimited number of actors to be able to perform as part of the same session—all from different locations in real-time—to record walla effectively. 

Do what you can to lessen latency. 

“Oh sorry, there’s a delay.” How many times have we all heard this phrase in the last year? 

Latency—the delay between audio going into the actor’s computer and sound coming out at the other end—is the thorniest challenge in remote ADR recording. 

Latency can be minimized by connecting to the internet using an ethernet cable or ensuring the Wi-Fi connection is strong. It also helps to turn off unnecessary background processes on the laptop. 

The best course of action, however, is to select a software solution with remote recording technology specifically designed to remove latency. 

Prioritize security 

Security should be a top consideration when recording ADR remotely, especially when it comes to pre-released content. No one wants their season finale secrets ending up on an online forum. 

With the cloud security tools available today, remote ADR is as secure as any brick-and-mortar facility. Security measures such as multifactor authentication, watermarking, 256-bit encryption and secure video streaming ensure that content stays in the right hands. 

The future of remote ADR 

Remote ADR—which felt foreign and daunting just 12 months ago—is here to stay. Actors, directors and studios are all seeing the benefits in terms of convenience and production efficiencies. Actors can record on-location immediately after they’ve come off set while they are still in character. 

Or months after the production has wrapped, when they’ve moved onto a new production, perhaps on the other side of the world. With remote ADR, it’s simple to jump back onto a production and deliver those last lines needed to complete the content. 

Plus, as production begins to ramp back up, physical studios will likely struggle with capacity when on-hold productions resume. The availability of remote ADR will help keep production schedules on track by providing much-needed extra capacity. 

Andy Burns is product manager at ZOO Digital.

LOS ANGELES—To help streamline and simplify the delivery of movies and TV to streaming platforms, media services provider Zoo Digital has introduced a new post-to-platform service. The post-to-platform service is targeted to both streaming platforms and content providers. 

As part of the service, Zoo Digital will provide the end-to-end technical and management services needed to fulfill content packages to all major streaming services around the world. Based on the unique specifications of each streaming platform, it will create or conform all components required for the delivery package, including subtitles, metadata and graphics.

The service will be available from Zoo’s facilities in Los Angeles, Dubai and London. 

Zoo has been a Netflix Preferred Fulfillment Partner (NPFP) since 2016, delivering significant volumes on time and to Netflix specifications. 

“With our post-to-platform service, we’re looking to make life easier for both the streaming platform and their licensed content partners,” said Zoo president, Gordon Doran. “For the streaming service, we’re removing the challenge and time drain of managing all of their partners, dealing with queries and handling deliveries. For the content partners, we’re the experienced, safe pair of hands to support them through the process of delivering their valuable content into the platform. Our dedicated project management and media services teams will work closely with them throughout the process to ensure accurate, on-time delivery.”

For more information, visit www.zoodigital.com.   

LAS VEGAS—At the 2018 NAB Show, ZOO Digital will demonstrate a new security feature that employs machine learning and facial recognition to automatically obscure all areas of a video stream except for the actors’ faces or mouths, or any other areas necessary for accurate lip-syncing, subtitling and dubbing.

By deliberately spoiling the video, TV and movie assets used for localization would no longer have entertainment value, thereby reducing their value for piracy. The security feature obscures portions of each frame using a process similar to rotoscoping, a visual effects technique used to create a matte for a live action sequence for compositing purposes.

While using rotoscoping to spoil proxies has been around for a while, this manual technique is expensive and time-consuming. By automating the process, the facial recognition feature could be used on all kinds of high-value content, not just major Hollywood releases, for greater content security, without impeding the subtitling and dubbing process. The company also offers encryption, two-factor authentication and individual watermarking solutions.

The 2018 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 9-12. ZOO Digital will be in booth SL5724. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

Read up on all of TVT's NAB Show Sneak Peeks and other 2018 NAB Show news here.

EL SEGUNDO, CALIF.—Zoo Digital is using IBC 2017 as a platform to premiere its cloud-based dubbing platform, Zoodubs. The platform powers Zoo’s own dubbing service and is designed to improve how the process is managed by content owners.

Zoodubs supports the entire dubbing process, acting as an online dubbing studio, providing script localization and adaptation, casting, auditioning, recording and editing services. The software platform centralizes control, reduces error and simplifies management of end-to-end dubbing workflow.

Zoodubs users can track project progress, review scripts and join in live dubbing sessions online from any location. Collaboration efforts can take place in real time, in the cloud. There are also cloud-based security protocols to ensure all video, audio and dubbing reference materials are stored securely and are available to authorized collaborators.

Zoo Digital will demonstrate the Zoodubs platform at booth 5.B48 at IBC 2017, which runs from Sept. 15-19 in Amsterdam.

LONDON—Zoo Digital is dipping its toe into three new international markets, announcing partnerships with in-territory providers of localization services for South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. WhatSub Pro will handle in South Korea, Bossdom in Taiwan and Studio Ares in Turkey.

Each of the new partners will utilize Zoo’s cloud technology and tools for localizing and delivering TV and movie content around the world.

WhatSub Pro specializes in dubbing and subtitling and will use the Zoodubs platform. Bossdom offers localization services for Mandarin in both traditional and simplified Chinese, as well as working with territories like Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and Japan. Studio Ares, meanwhile, offers provides localization and dubbing service for Turkish, Kurdish and Farsi; this is Zoo Digital’s second partner in Turkey.