Post Production
Prime Focus Technologies and microsoft forge a pivotal partnership to lead the Media & Entertainment industry to the cloud
MUMBAI: Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) has partnered with Microsoft to further strengthen its flagship CLEARTM Hybrid Cloud-enabled Media ERP Suite. CLEAR handles 1.5 M hours of content, and its extensive domain knowledge combined with Microsoft’s powerful Azure Cloud Services will create an intelligent, media-savvy cloud solution. The depth and breadth of this collaboration is designed to create new revenue streams for PFT by enabling it to develop new products and services for the Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry. PFT selected Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud hosting platform to best implement CLEAR across geographies with extreme reliability, scalability, performance, and global accessibility powered by Microsoft.
“We are seeing an explosion in the creation and consumption of media across platforms around the world. PFT has been offering global media brands the platform to manage their value chain from development to distribution to archiving. By leveraging Azure, PFT’s is positioned to deliver even more innovative, scalable solutions through Microsoft’s global, secure, reliable cloud infrastructure and advanced AI services”, said Meetul Patel, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft India.
With traditional revenues shrinking and costs increasing on the back of digital endeavours, this partnership will enable content owners to quickly and easily leverage the efficiencies, flexibility, and agility that the cloud provides-made possible by PFT’s flexible approach to virtualising business processes, content supply chain, and vision to build a connected enterprise. Microsoft Azure also enables innovation by the companies around new media workflows, new operational capabilities and, new business opportunities.
The foundation of the alliance begins with the immediate migration of all consolidated data storage to Azure for uninterrupted service, before the migration of core CLEARTM Media ERP to Azure coupled with Microsoft’s Cognitive Services. In addition, the companies will work in close cooperation on the overall go-to-market approach, which will help clients migrate to the cloud easily and more cost-effectively.
“Increasing accessibility and time to market for content creators is a necessity in today’s fierce and rapidly developing M&E industry. Our flagship product, CLEARTM Media ERP on Microsoft Azure will help M&E companies manage the content supply chain efficiently and create more time for the creative process by truly tapping into automation by CLEAR and agility of Azure,” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, Co-founder and CEO, PFT.
Combined with a full spectrum of capabilities and extensive media services available through 42 Azure regions across the globe-more than any other major cloud provider—Azure is exceptionally positioned to meet the needs of media enterprises and creative professionals around the globe. CLEAR allows M&E organizations to manage workflow orchestrations across the entire content supply chain on one system. It lays the foundation for streamlining content operations and helps M&E players enhance efficiencies across core processes like Acquisition, Review and Approval, Cataloguing, QC, Mastering, Distribution, Promos, and Localization. This exclusive capability by PFT will usher in extreme transparency across the content lifecycle, help automate business processes and lower Total Cost of Operations for M&E enterprises.
Mumbai: Astra Studios, a bold new force in global creative technology, has been officially launched. Founded by the former senior leadership from MPC, The Mill and Technicolor India – Biren Ghose, RK Chand, Rajarajan Ramakrishnan and Shajy Thomas, the company is backed by a strategic investment from the Hombale Group, creators of India’s most successful storytelling franchises including KGF, Salaar and Kantara along with Perpetual Capital.
The rise of Machine Learning & Gen AI is disrupting every layer of content production, triggering a reinvention of creative workflows, talent dynamics, and business models in the industry. Blending decades of global expertise in Creative Storytelling, Visual Effects, Animation, Immersive & Experiential Media, the Astra Studios leadership team is poised to redefine how high-quality content is imagined & produced. With next-generation workflows and a focus on compelling, character-led storytelling universes, Astra is setting out to empower filmmakers, brands and content platforms alike.
“Astra is our launchpad for a creative revolution – a studio purpose-built for the future of content. We are fusing world-class artistry with cutting-edge emerging technologies. We will play in the arena where cinematic brilliance meets next-gen computer graphics. This will redefine how stories are designed, created, shared and experienced. India is at an inflection point in the global content arena, and Astra aims to lead that evolution, creating new jobs while continuing to partner creatives globally.” said Astra Studios founder Biren Ghose.
“We are supporting the vision behind Astra Studios to help grow stories and movie franchises across different platforms using emerging technologies. Astra’s founding team brings a wealth of talent and experience as well as global connectivity and passion for new technology. This will enable the Hombale Group to undertake projects with greater scope and complexity to create powerful new ‘story worlds’ for our franchise fandoms.” said Hombale Films founder Vijay Kiragandur.
Astra Studios’ core focus areas include:
●End to End Creative Solutions for Films, Series and Brand Campaigns – Ideation, Visualisation, VFX, Generative AI Solutions and Post-Production
● Development of original Character Universes and Global IP
● Immersive Experiences across brands, AR/VR and Location-based media
● Premium Animation for both Streaming and Theatrical formats
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