How do you make a production process as clear and efficient as possible? At EMG, every client using ENG and/or post-production services gets free access to Butlers: a platform that shows the production status and makes information centrally accessible. This helps reduce unnecessary emails, phone calls, and app traffic, providing a transparent and fast production process.

Product Owner Cafer Poslu explains: "The custom-made software is available via butlers.emglive.com, where users can log in. They are then presented with an interface tailored to their specific role. For example, a production manager has access to appointments, planned resources, and the progress of the production. The platform is also available as an app for both Android and iOS."

Access to All Data
Five years ago, Guido van de Walle, then Business Unit Manager of the post-production department, raised the issue that working with different systems and contacts led to many customer inquiries. This sparked the suggestion that these questions could be answered more efficiently - by giving customers more insight into the processes, for instance. Cafer explains: “That’s how the idea came about to make data accessible, which eventually led to the development of the Butlers platform by the development team.” At that time, no specific management software existed for the media industry.

Bundled on One Platform
"Getting access to all data from us is in line with today's needs. It’s quite complex to have to retrieve data from different sources. One moment you’re contacting planning, then the media center, then you have to schedule ENG... We bundled all of that onto one platform, where you can quickly find answers to general questions. But also more in-depth questions like: ‘Is the person I requested scheduled for that day, how many hours have they worked, and how much storage am I actually using?’ Where previously, even for small changes, a PDF had to be updated, now you just call planning, they make the change, and it’s instantly visible on Butlers."

Clear Dashboard
During development, Cafer's team explored whether other business units could be integrated into the platform, which led to the addition of ENG. Butlers provides insights into storage usage, the schedules of editors and camera operators, among other things. To display all that information simply, there is a dashboard with agenda notifications. "And limit notifications. So, no more surprises, you have continuous insight." The system is not only useful for production managers, but also for executive producers responsible for multiple productions. "They can check how things are going per project and zoom in to see if everything is still on track."

Specific Services
With the popular remote editor and remote production modules, clients can get to work immediately after logging in to Butlers. Smaller production houses that don’t have all the tools can use them via Butlers thanks to EMG's data centers. Cafer explains: "Services such as transcoding, speech-to-text, frame rate conversion, and quality control are available and can be purchased on a pay-per-minute basis."

Continuous Development
Cafer joined the development team as Product Owner three and a half years ago. “My role is very diverse and varies depending on the phase. One of my responsibilities is to research and further develop the platform, involving stakeholders both at the start of a project and during testing of new releases. Innovation is key, and we are constantly evolving. We try to incorporate as many customer requests as possible into Butlers.” Cafer works on it with great enthusiasm: “There’s always something new happening, and we’re really helping both internal and external users. When a client tells us that Butlers delivers exactly what they needed, it gives me a lot of satisfaction!"

Are you not yet a client or do you only use Post production or ENG services with us? Then contact our sales department (sales.nl@emglive.com) for login details and let Butlers serve you.