Harbor Picture chooses Avid NEXIS for Audio

At Harbor Picture Company’s London studios, seamless collaboration and reliable technology are paramount to excellence. Harbor Picture, a multi-room, premium post-production company, required an efficient, reliable shared storage system to streamline their complex audio workflows. The result, after a review of options: Harbor Picture chooses Avid NEXIS for Audio. Here’s why. Specializing in feature films and episodic dramas such as HBO’s Love and Death and Amazon Prime’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Harbor’s projects demand high track counts and robust support for Dolby Atmos® mixes.* Paul Sisley, Harbor’s Head of Post Technology, shares his experience with integrating Avid's NEXIS | F2 SSD storage solution into Harbor’s audio facility — the first installation of its kind in the UK.

Meeting Demanding Requirements

The scale of Harbor’s audio operations is substantial, with three mixing theaters and two recording theaters running up to 12 Pro Tools sessions simultaneously. Each Pro Tools session can involve as many as 400 tracks, setting a demanding benchmark. Sisley sought a solution capable of seamlessly moving projects across recording theaters from pre-mix to final mix stages without compromising on resiliency, security, and workflow simplicity.

Harbor Picture chooses Avid NEXIS for Audio

Avid NEXIS is a trusted shared storage system designed to enhance audio workflows in post production, dubbing, and sound studios. It facilitates collaboration among audio teams by granting easy access to audio clips, session files, video sequences, and other media. With Avid NEXIS, audio professionals can centralize their work, enabling seamless collaboration on Pro Tools sessions, stems, audio files, and completed mixes.

Qualified and tested for up to 8,000 channels per Avid NEXIS | F2 SSD engine and 6x faster performance for audio punch-in finalization, Avid NEXIS | F2 SSD is a significant leap forward for audio professionals. With extensive audio configurations featuring thousands of audio channels and multiple Pro Tools clients, it is a form-fit storage solution for Pro Tools audio workflows.

Harbor conducted a thorough proof of concept with Avid, who provided extensive support throughout the testing phase. The process was smooth and problem-free.

"We switched it on, loaded up the clients onto the Pro Tools systems, and away it went,” Sisley affirms. “It worked. No issues. Perfect. It was an easy decision to make after that."

Streamlining Performance

The Avid NEXIS integration has significantly enhanced Harbor's workflow efficiency.

"It's all about ease of use," Sisley emphasizes.

The holistic support from a single vendor — HHB Communications, Avid’s pro audio partner — further streamlined their operations.

"If we do run into any issues, we have one vendor who understands the whole infrastructure," Sisley explains.

Avid and HHB worked hand-in-hand throughout the selection process to make sure needs were met. This experience of being heard in the integration process was essential for Harbor to have peace of mind.

“What Avid does well is they certify [the product] against requirements,” Sisley adds.

Avid NEXIS not only meets but exceeds Harbor's requirements by supporting large-scale audio configurations with centrally available media. It enhances the overall audio workflow experience, enables efficient and seamless collaboration between audio and video teams, and makes scheduling work for each room much easier, turning it into an invaluable asset for Harbor. Work conducted across the pre-mix in smaller theaters into final mix stages is now uninterrupted.

Avid NEXIS also allows for expansion as the facility grows. Harbor added media packs to their F2 SSD system to further expand the work they’re able to do.

This successful implementation underscores the importance of reliable storage solutions in high-demand audio production environments, enabling studios like Harbor to meet the demands of today’s industry, as well as scale and deliver content reliably and at high quality.

About Avid NEXIS

Get unmatched media storage performance and scalability for on-premise and cloud workflows. Optimized to accelerate media workflows, Avid NEXIS—featuring the Avid NEXIS | VFS virtual file system and Avid NEXIS | FLEX subscription—enables video and audio production teams to collaborate and adapt fast to the changing needs and unpredictability of today’s media production. Integrated with the next-generation Avid NEXIS F-series storage engines, or as a cloud or hybrid deployment, Avid NEXIS enables teams of all sizes to work from anywhere, delivering secure access to media and metadata across all tiers of storage.