25+ Year Animated Series

This 25+ year running animated series is no mere cartoon, it’s an American comedy institution that has earned accolades for its irreverent humor, trenchant social critiques, and astonishing timeliness of content. When the show’s creators asked Alpha for a way to enable production to continue remotely during the COVID pandemic, we knew immediately that there would be no room for error or inconsistency in our recommended solution. Good thing Alpha had already performed pioneering work in remote production. In fact, our success in taking the 2020 NFL draft to the Cloud is what prompted the studio to contact Alpha in the first place. Armed with experience and due appreciation for the urgency of the task, we got right to it.

In a traditional production environment, there comes a time near the end of the process when the creators gather in a screening room to watch the nearly finished content and make final rounds of changes collaboratively on a high-quality, color-calibrated preview monitor. This stage of editing –a rapid-fire, “over the shoulder” interaction – is enormously difficult to recreate remotely due to the size of the files that are to be edited. Alpha enabled the team to remotely view and edit via remote desktop connections by equipping them with the Gallery Sienna Processing Engine, a Cloud software solution that we delivered via a drop-shipped server and subsequently connected and configured. After remote commissioning, staff were trained remotely. As part of the process, Alpha also equipped each team member with an in-home monitoring solution to ensure uniformity in their viewing experience.

Fans of this series can attest that their favorite program not only maintained its legendary speed from concept to broadcasting during the pandemic, but that the quality of the production and social commentary never flagged. The show stayed on track because, in Alpha, it had a partner that was both committed to helping the team carry out their vision and armed with the skills required to make it possible. Among the capabilities Alpha brought to bear: deep IT expertise, editing knowledge, and experience in post-production environments. That balance of hardware and software mastery won the studio’s trust – and gave our team some serious cred with the series’ legions of admirers.