Israeli production and post-production facility Ha-Mitcham is serious about collaborative editing. In fact, it has just built its entire business around it.

By deploying the Avid MediaCentral platform, the industry’s most open, tightly integrated and efficient platform designed for media, Ha-Mitcham has created a unique environment for TV production in the Middle East. The leading facility prides itself on its ability to make remote editing and technology available to every production company in the region, whatever the size.

“We wanted the perfect playground for content creators to produce great quality television,” says Efraim Halevy Sela, CEO, Ha-Mitcham. “Our vision was to offer comfortable, creative production and post suites equipped with the best available technology, all under one roof. We wanted to enable people to come in with an idea, and leave with a movie or a series to broadcast.”

Ha-Mitcham, which is Hebrew for "The Complex", was established in November 2016, by co-founders Yuval Ullman and Hanan Gafter. From its initial planning stages, it was intended to offer a flexible, collaborative high-end facility for TV post-production, or be able to deploy cloud-based technology to enable remote production. However, the emerging company needed to invest in a versatile, easy-to-use and future-proofed workflow—one that had a stable cloud deployment component—to make this a reality.

“We set a high standard looking for quality and the flexibility to edit large projects on the same systems. We needed a solution that would work straight out of the box,” recalls Halevy. “We started looking at all kinds of collaborative solutions, and assessed all our options, visiting different countries and meeting with all the key players.”

After a visit to Avid’s booth at IBC 2016 and a demonstration of Interplay | Production with the MediaCentral | UX cloud-based user interface, the answer seemed obvious. “We were aware of various Avid solutions from our past roles, and Media Composer is still the most popular edit suite in Israel,” says Halevy. “At IBC we were able to experience how we could use Avid’s solutions for remote editing, on projects like reality television, with our partners across multiple sites.”

The benefit of remote production was pivotal in their decision to invest in the latest Avid workflow solutions. “Reality TV productions in Israel usually film on location and don’t touch, cut or review rushes until they are back at the facility,” explains the CEO. “If you need to take new shots, it can be confusing and you’re lost! You have no chance of reshooting once it’s at the next stage in post-production, so we needed a solution that a big production can use remotely, see rushes in real time and start the workflow immediately.”

With Interplay | Production at its heart, Ha-Mitcham is able to efficiently manage content creation, automate workflows, and empower collaboration. For editing, Media Composer has been deployed; the industry standard editing solution provides a familiar, yet highly sophisticated toolset that helps editors tell compelling stories. Both are accessed via MediaCentral | UX, the cloud-based web front-end to the MediaCentral platform.

Off-site post-production teams now rely on MediaCentral | UX to access material from anywhere with an Internet connection, with editors on multiple remote Media Composer | Cloud seats able to connect to the facility and collaborate with teams, to create stories fresh from a day’s shooting, rather than waiting until production wraps. “MediaCentral | UX enables you to have seamless rough cuts and to edit a whole sequence online from remote locations – even collaborate with different partners,” continues Halevy. “You can see the whole process from producer-logging onward—you can actually see it working.”

Back at ‘The Complex’, Avid NEXIS, the first and only software-defined storage platform designed specifically for storing and managing media, allows the technical team to streamline, expand and accelerate workflows as necessary while enabling real-time collaboration. Ha-Mitcham has also installed two Pro Tools | HD suites which provide audio mixers with advanced DAW features, as well as cloud collaboration functionality. Commissioning and training was provided by Avid Global Services.

The facility is already boosting the independent production sector in Israel, given that previously such technology was only available to larger broadcasters and networks. “It was important that we implemented the best remote editing technology available, and make it available to every production company we work with,” says Halevy. “If you’re not one of the big players here, you just would not be able to access this level of kit. Now, thanks to Avid, we can enable smaller companies to enjoy the benefits of using efficient, ground-breaking technology, allowing them to produce the same level of content as the big guys.”

Draco, one of Avid’s resellers in Israel, was brought in to design, supply and install the industry-leading technology, comprising a host of comprehensive tools and story-centric workflow solutions to create, distribute and optimize media. “Avid provided the best value for the money in the long term,” adds Halevy. “Short-term cheap solutions just wouldn’t provide good services and stability. We strongly believe that this is going to be a long and fruitful relationship with both Avid and Draco.”

There’s a bright future in store for the growing client and user community around Ha-Mitcham’s Avid-based complex. “We believe that purchasing this strong configuration of Avid technology will allow us to bring the Avid EverywhereF vision to life in our region,” states Halevy. “That vision rolled out into play will allow us to create far-reaching business opportunities for us and the partners we work with.”

“This is a post-production home, created by editors for editors,” he concludes. “Suites are themed, by association with sea or air for example, to create an environment that’s not just a factory. It’s an immersive collaborative experience taking place in a nice environment. That’s what’s needed to keep creativity flowing.”