Disney Studios Uses ednet to connect Disney NY, Disney Burbank and Lucasfilm Together for 'Hercules' Six Track Audio Mix Approval Sessions

When Disney Studios needed to connect three film studios together for soundtrack mix approvals on the Disney animated feature "Hercules" they contacted ednet. During the week long sessions, Disney executives in both Burbank and the NY Disney screening room listened to discreet six channel CD quality mixes coming from Lucasfilm in Northern California through ednet's bridging service. Both locations were able to view the film while listening to the mixes coming from Lucasfilm.

The combination of Dolby Fax audio compression and ednet's bridging means less time, less travel, which ultimately means less money. Much like a three-way videoconference, a production team can now be in different locations and still participate in the review process of scoring and final soundtrack mix approvals.

Ascend Communications inverse multiplexers were used for almost all of the connections involved with the six-channel 3-way bridge. The originating site at Skywalker Sound employs an Ascend MAX on a Primary Rate ISDN (PRI) line provided by ednet. At their Network Hub in San Francisco, ednet used a combination of Ascend Multiband Plus units on PRI, and Basic Rate ISDN (BRI) lines, as well as Ascend Multiband VSX units on BRI lines to handle the 37 B-channel calls used to facilitate the groundbreaking three way session. At the destination sites in Burbank and New York City, Multiband Plus units received the calls from the San Francisco Hub.

Placing 37 separate B-channel calls might prove time consuming under ordinary circumstances, but ednet's technical staff engineers, were able to set up data and speed-dial profiles in advance into the Hub Ascend units for the dozens of inverse multiplexed calls. The ednet team was able to bring up the entire session in just over two minutes!

ednet, the global leader in audio networking, provides the Dolby Fax systems with sales/rental/leasing options, data line installation and lots of hands on technical support. Located in San Francisco, ednet has been meeting the demands of the entertainment industry with audio, video and Internet solutions for over five years. For further information, visit ednet's Internet site at www.ednet.net.