Splice TV is spending £250,000 upgrading its archive and remote editing capabilities after landing a three-year multi-series contract to post-produce Shine TV and Ziji Productions’ Masterchef franchise in the UK.

The Masterchef contract covers offline, grade, online and audio for the main amateur format as well as both the Masterchef: The Professionals and the Celebrity Masterchef spin-offs. A deal for Junior Masterchef series has yet to be agreed.

The Shoreditch facility will add a 2.5 petabyte Spectra Logic T380 tape library, using LTO-7 tapes, and a second Avid Interplay Production Asset Management (PAM) system to aid production of the show.

Splice will also employ two staffers from Molinare where the show was previously post-produced.

Online editor Rory Ferguson and dubbing mixer Steve Speed will join under TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment) regulations on 1 December. Ferguson has been at Molinare for more than 20 years, 16 of those alongside Speed. Both have worked on the Masterchef format since 2006.

“We have worked with [Molinare] to reach a successful conclusion for both parties,” said Splice creative director Duncan Western, who added that the company is also looking to hire a tracklayer and an edit assistant. 

Once installed, the new T380 tape library will be managed by Storage DNA, making use of DNA Evolution, and integrated with Interplay which will provide automated ingest and automated conform and, alongside Avid Media Central and Media Composer Cloud, allow for cloud-based logging, editing and review. Azule provided the asset finance for the new equipment.

Media Composer Cloud will be used for remote editing as part of a bespoke workflow that that will initially see Root6’s ContentAgent create multiple resolutions of Avid OP-Atom media and check the AAF’s into Interplay.

The high-resolution files will be created in XDCAM HD 50 and stored on an Avid ISIS 2500 with the low resolution being compressed 10:1 and kept on an ISIS 5500.

The offline edit will be completed using the low-res media via Interplay (v3.1) and Windows-based Media Composer (v7.0.4.4). A Media Central server will allow for cloud/web-based review and simple editing to take place using the media on the ISIS 5500 estate. 

On completion, a number of Media Composer suites will mount the ISIS 2500 workspaces and relink to the high-resolution XDCAM HD 50 media, enabling the sequence to be exported and delivered.

The series of Masterchef: The Professionals currently airing on BBC2 was posted at Molinare.

Shows post-produced by Splice will be delivered in the New Year.

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