7FiveFive Extends Remote Edit Technology for A+E Networks® UK

London, UK, 10th June 2020 – 7FiveFive has delivered remote edit technology for A+E Networks® UK, to enable its team to successfully work from home during the global COVID-19 crisis. In response to lockdown measures implemented in the wake of the pandemic, A+E Networks UK needed to quickly increase its existing remote editing capacity. The priority was to ensure safe working practices and business continuity, by extending the existing on-premises post environment, to support compliance & re-versioning off-site. In addition to maintaining uninterrupted creative output, while its team adjusted to working from home.

A+E Networks UK is a joint venture between Hearst and Sky, the UK team employs 180 staff, with 28 team members based at its technical operations premises in London. The London office handles media operations, engineering, post-production and project management. A+E Networks UK required a solution that could be scaled within days and that was compatible with its existing workflows. Due to the prior installation of remote edit infrastructure, A+E Networks UK was able to build upon the systems that were already implemented by 7FiveFive. The unprecedented circumstances of the pandemic required swift action to be taken, within 8 days, 7FiveFive almost quadrupled capacity for team members to work from home.

7FiveFive deployed 16x GPU accelerated virtual machines which provided the same user experience as A+E Networks UK’s existing physical edit machines but only needed one VMware host for 4 of the GPU accelerated virtual machines. Increasing this capacity meant the team could access high-powered machines concurrently while working remotely. Subsequently­­, non-GPU accelerated virtual machines were deployed, which enabled the non-edit users to access internal systems and assets from home. A+E Networks UK is continuing with these remote workflows for the foreseeable future, responding to ongoing social distancing requirements. A+E Networks UK continues to implement internal processes to support its team through these difficult circumstances.

7FiveFive provides a customised technology consultancy service for the broadcasting industry. 7FiveFive has previously worked with A+E Networks® UK to deliver a refit for its Hammersmith post-production facility, introducing remote editing infrastructure to maximise capacity.

Matt Westrup, VP of Technology and Operations for EMEA, A+E Networks UK, commented;