PORTLAND, Ore., April 22, 2020 – Titrafilm Studio, located in St. Ouen,
France is a dubbing, subtitle and voiceover studio and lab facility that
provides language translations and broadcasting material for television platforms,
film and other video and audio projects. Over the past few years, the studio
has seen a swell in demand for its services as the golden age of digitally
delivered entertainment continues to boom.

While it used to be that only major
theatrical releases and TV broadcasts would court demand for language
localization, the rapid growth of streaming services in the global market means
an increased reliance on translating content to make it more accessible for all
viewers and listeners.

This growth is exciting for Titrafilm Studio
– the company provides 27 of what it considers “basic languages” for
localization. But it can manage many more with the use of partners, making it a
provider for all types of projects – from major theatrical or multi-lingual
platform releases to region-specific art house productions. Currently, the team
tackles around 70 productions each year.

However, the increase in projects – both
in the number of clients and the scope of the work – comes with some technical
challenges in terms of signal and workflow observability, management, and
routing.

“As we grew in size it became
increasingly difficult to manage the workflow on site,” said Miguel Adelise,
Audio CTO at the studio. “When we had a few studios, we could handle a less
sophisticated setup. But then, we started taking on more and more projects that
required additional studios. Then we had films in Dolby Atmos, where we were
managing somewhere around 900 audio tracks from up to 64 devices and it had
just become unmanageable. We had to find a management tool to make our work
effective.”

The answer for Titrafilm Studio? A
networked media workflow that speaks Audinate’s Dante protocol and is enhanced
by multiple Dante-based tools, solutions and products.

The
Dante backbone

Dante is the de facto standard for
digital audio networking and distributes hundreds of channels of uncompressed
digital audio via standard Ethernet networks, with near-zero latency and
perfect synchronization. Dante allows audio and control data to coexist with
regular network data on the same network.

Adelise says that functionality is
absolutely critical in the work the studio does.

“It really is crazy to think of how
simple it becomes when you make the move to the network with Dante,” Adelise
said. “Titrafilm has two buildings currently, one with six studios and the
other with ten studios, where we focus on specific audio-related capabilities.
With Dante we can make sure the work is shared at any location at any time.
That’s huge when it comes down to both recording and direction on projects.”

The workflows vary at times, but largely
rely on a combination of the following Dante-enabled products:

• FOCUSRITE Rednet series devices (REDNET 1, 2, MP8R,
  A16R, HD32R, 128 PCIe Cards, D16R, D16 AES etc.)
• DAD systems (AX32, MOM, Avid MTRX)
• TRINNOV Processors
• Crown DCi Audio Amplifiers
• Klang Technologies headphones lines

Dante
Domain Manager helping to direct and secure the workflow

While each studio may
have a slightly different workflow, it is not atypical to have 64 Dante devices
in a single space.  To manage this
complexity both within the studios and across the facility, Adelise turned to
Audinate’s Dante Domain Manager software.

Dante Domain Manager is network
management software that enables user authentication, role-based security, and
audit capabilities for Dante networks while allowing seamless expansion of
Dante systems over any network infrastructure.

“Everything we do is on Dante Domain
Manager,” Adelise said. “We separate the studios on different domains to allow
for individual control of each. In total we have configured 22 domains across
the facility.”

This setup allows Adelise to set
individual user privileges and access control on a room-by-room basis. It also
allows him to see what devices are being added or removed from the network.

“Dante Domain Manager allows for some
very impressive levels of management,” Adelise said. “The security component
allows us to be more flexible with independent operators who come in and use
the studio. We can set them up with the right level of control and we know
there won’t be any unforeseen changes to the network as a whole.”

Networking
Existing Equipment with Dante AVIO

The studio added its second building –
with its 10 additional audio rooms – as demand for its services increased. It
was during that construction the studio made the full transition to Dante. But,
because the studio didn’t want to purchase brand new gear in its existing
studios, it turned to Audinate’s AVIO Adapters for a quick, effective, and
powerful upgrade.

Available for analog input or output,
for AES3 and USB conversion, Dante AVIO Adapters allow users to connect their
favorite audio gear with any Dante-connected system — delivering the
interoperability, performance, and scalability that only networking can bring.

“We built the 10 new studios entirely
around an IP workflow with Dante,” Adelise said. “But it was just as easy to
take the six old rooms and rebuild the infrastructure in there to make all our
spaces work together. Adding the AVIOs to the system was a great solution to
make the switch.”

Future
expansion with Video

The studio is preparing to build out an
additional 12 studios soon, and plans to migrate an existing movie studio into
a second ATMOS capable facility are underway. The beauty of that plan, Adelise
said, is the addition of the studios will be so seamless that no current
workflows will be interrupted.

“Our current team working in the studios
won’t be troubled by any changes,” he said. “That’s really amazing. It seems so
simple, yet it really is an important consideration.”

Adelise says four new television
recording studios, four mix studios – including two ATMOS capable rooms – three
more voice-over rooms, and one editing room are also in the works.

A critical enabler for that future
growth, Adelise said, will come via Dante AV. Dante AV is an integrated audio
and video networking solution, bringing to video all the benefits that have
made Dante the market-leading audio over IP solution: discovery, ease-of-use
and integrated control. Dante AV enables complete interoperability with the
more than 2,000 Dante-enabled audio products already on the market.

“One more step for us will be the
introduction of Dante AV,” Adelise said. “Our dubbing application is
particularly adapted to be Dante AV ready. We use a lot of video as sync
and content master for our work. When we bring it to our projectors and video
monitors via Dante AV it will allow even more simplicity in our work.”

In short, Adelise said, the business has
grown – and continues to grow – thanks to its Dante backbone.

“It’s an amazing tool and it has been
great for us as we’ve continued to grow,” he said. “We’re very, very happy with
everything we use that works with Dante.”