Illuminate Hollywood adapts to new media management needs with AJA Diskover

AJA Diskover Media Edition data management and preservation software has joined the pipeline of Illuminate Hollywood, a production and post-production services company facing increasingly complex workflows as a result of high resolutions and the HDR world.

With a project portfolio as rich as its history, Illuminate Hollywood has provided production, post-production and technology services to major Hollywood studios, television networks, digital platforms and independent producers and distributors for nearly three decades. Since the boutique opened its doors in 1995, it has performed scanning, editing, color correction, digital intermediate, visual effects, 2K/4K distribution, audio conform and layback work for episodic and feature film productions ranging from Sons of Anarchy to Gone Girl.

In all of its projects, Illuminate manages a massive load of data up to 4K stored on its Aberdeen and XStor storage systems, which requires well-organized files and data and an easy way to access them. To streamline this work across all departments, the company has decided to adopt the AJA Diskover Media Edition system.

Today, data operators use the software to find out how many files the installation has on all its volumes and servers. They can type a keyword in the search and see all the information in the user interface. On the other hand, from an administrative standpoint, Illuminate uses Diskover to get a global view of Illuminate’s data: if a customer wants to know what file or title they have, they can look it up, rather than having to check with operations first.

Quality Control and Process Agility with Diskover

AJA Diskover Media Edition has also improved Illuminate’s quality control process. With the CineSys CineViewer Player plug-in, the Illuminate team can review rejected or questionable files flagged by the QC operator, rather than having to travel to a separate facility to review them.

With this streamlined process, the Illuminate team can share more information more quickly with their customers. They can also easily enter work orders if they need the operator to work from a specific file, as file paths become more accessible with Diskover. In addition, they can easily confirm the file and aspect ratios available, as long as they are correctly identified. Another ket feature of operations with AJA Diskover Media Edition is the ability to grant Iluminate team members exclusive access permissions and view file sizes at a moment’s notice, ensuring that they only see the files they need to see at the right time, without compromising their integrity.