subject: Windmill Lane Pictures Looks To International Markets With Licensed Wireless [print this page] Like many indigenous companies, Windmill Lane Pictures was a strong beneficiary of the business boom in Ireland's Celtic Tiger years. Significant inward investment in film and television projects, as well as growing activity by domestic broadcasters and advertising agencies, kept the Windmill editing suites full to capacity. Not surprisingly, recession cutbacks have dampened domestic business, leaving the international market an increasingly crucial one for the Irish company.
But as a creative post-production house on an island at the edge of Europe, how can the company hope to lure producers from around the world to consider Dublin for their next big project? It's a challenge CEO James Morris is taking head-on.
"As we work to develop our international market, there will always be technical challenges in order to ensure that we're competitive," says James. "We're always going to have to overcome distance and location -- that's why the whole area of technology in general, and telecommunications in particular, is of great strategic importance to us."
Windmill's answer to the down market has been to invest in a completely new, High Definition server-based data production studio, together with high speed telecoms, and to move to a new location on Herbert Street in Dublin 2. The move was made possible by the sale of its iconic studios in Dublin's Docklands, the original recording home of U2. Representing an investment of 4.7 million, the technical and operational design of the new facility was conceived and project managed by Windmills Technical Director John Brady, and it takes post-production onto a new level.
It's a package that should be a strong lure for international clients, and it will also significantly improve the services and service levels Windmill can offer to existing clients in the Irish television and advertising markets.
Serious bandwidth delivers real competitiveness
The high speed connectivity to support this investment has been designed by long-term technology partner AirSpeed Telecom. The network boasts 2 x 10 Mbps links incorporating both licensed wireless and fibre, scalable on-demand to 100 Mbps. Licensed wireless is critical to the network's resiliency, ensuring Windmill's daily operations are not vulnerable to line cuts in the ground.
AirSpeed Telecom sourced and managed installation of the fibre and the licensed wireless broadband connection, and worked with Windmills chosen systems integration provider Bootstrap. Bootstrap provided and manages the building's state-of-the-art unified communications voice network which also includes 10 Gigabit core LAN, a high speed 802.11N wi-fi network and video streaming. Bootstrap and AirSpeed Telecom cooperate to achieve load sharing over the dual connectivity routes, wireless and fibre, to give Windmill Lane maximum availability and reliability. The building is directly connected via scalable links into the AirSpeed Telecom datacentre, from which point Tier-one connections can easily be created to any points abroad.
It all helps put Windmill exactly where it wants to be: in a position to offer fast, responsive service to any client, anywhere.
"The whole base and technology we're adopting in the new building is data-based, fast and flexible, and that opens up a lot of new combinations of services we can offer to our clients here at home and internationally," James says.
World-class telecoms support virtual post-production
One of the most exciting aspects of Windmill's new service will be the potential to offer high-end, virtual post-production. A premium service available to international clients, be they producers of film and television or global brands, virtual post-production allows split-location working: clients in a location like London or New York can watch and comment in real time on grading or effects work performed by Windmill Lane's specialists in Dublin.
AirSpeed Telecom is also providing strategic guidance on other services, including the incorporation of embedded security measures into Windmill's workflow and network, designed to protect confidential media streams from piracy, theft or loss. As a newly designed studio, Windmill Lane is positioned to benefit from the latest technological enhancements in the post-production industry, and a best-of-breed security offering could become a vital advantage when competing for new business, both domestically and on the international market.
With an eye on the future, and a firm grasp of how it can use technology to differentiate, Windmill Lane's investment in world-class technology and telecoms is the right move, James says. "This new level of technology and connectivity allows us to seek to develop clients in other markets -- from that point of view, it's absolutely strategic."
