Biscardi Creative Media finds HD editing success with AJA KONA
Feb 7, 2012 2:11 PM
Since 2004, BCM has been using KONA cards, which provide the flexibility needed to work with Final Cut, Avid and Premiere on the same machine.
Biscardi Creative Media (BCM) in Buford, GA, has been delivering HD production and post for broadcast programming around the world since its inception in 2001.
The winner of multiple Emmy, Telly, Peabody and Aurora Awards, BCM also has garnered a notable client roster, including NBC, Food Network and PBS. Its credits include television series like "This American Land" and "Good Eats," and documentaries such as "Foul Water Fiery Serpent."
In January 2011, BCM moved into a 6000sq-ft facility that houses five state-of-the art edit bays, each running Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5, Avid Media Composer 6 and Apple Final Cut Pro 7 together with AJA KONA 3G, KONA 3 and KONA LHi cards.
Since 2004 BCM has been using KONA cards, which provide the flexibility needed to work with Final Cut, Avid and Premiere on the same machine, said Walter Biscardi, owner, BCM. This setup allows BCM to use whatever tool is the best fit for the job at hand, he added.
Leveraging KONA's driver, Biscardi's team is able to edit with Premiere Pro, Media Composer and Final Cut Pro on the same partition without swapping firmware or requiring applications to run on separate OS X partitions.
"As each product evolves, we have to see where we are in a given production to choose the best one for editing, but at the end of the day we're covered, because KONA allows us to run all three at the same time," he said.
BCM recently edited its first project using Avid Media Composer 6 and KONA 3G, a special Colorado River news segment for NBC. Cut six different ways for six deliveries on NBC News and five local stations, the project is also set to appear in the PBS documentary, "This American Land."
"On a project like this, we work with stringers all over the country who shoot in every format under the sun, so we have to be able to work with any given format," Biscardi said. The KONA card provides the flexibility to deal with whatever format is used, he added.
When Avid Media Composer 6 was released in November, Biscardi began testing it with KONA 3G. After loading the driver, the card instantly began to work with Media Composer 6, he said, adding that even when used with older machines the cards supported DNxHD and ProRes.
AJA's Ki Pro is also playing a role in BCM's workflow for the recording of the Atlanta Cutters meetings, and will be used in the future to develop original programming.
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