The last time I pontificated in these pages about OMFI and digital audio was over a year ago so it may be useful to consider what use it has been to us and the extent to which it is in current use. If you remember, OMFI was going to revolutionise the way sound editors, and particularly dialogue editors, work. It heralded the possibility of digital audio workstations actually being able to talk to each other and, better still, the potential to take edited tracks on a removable media to a dubbing theatre knowing that whatever digital system they use, your material will play back. Alas this state of grace has not yet been reached but encouraging progress has been made. A degree of compatibility has arrived in different ways ; for example Avid have both a picture editing product and a sound workstation - the AudioVision - both use a similar file structure which is Mac-based. This has enabled other Mac-based systems (Pro Tools to name but one) to achieve compatibility, via OMFI, with Avid, Another bilateral agreement is that which involves DAR and Lightworks - both systems which are DOS-based. In addition DAR have brought out a Mac to DOS translation station which, together with its new Genesis software platform, allows DAR users to import Avid and other .wav files. Manufacturers of hard disk dubbers such as Akai have also implemented OMFI software. Since adopting the Broadcast Wave format last year standards bodies such as the EBU and the AES have done great work in defining a multi-tiered approach to the complexities of audio data transfer. Taking lumps of 16-bit 48kHz audio to and fro is not difficult. The tricky bits are things like crossfades, EQ parameters, gain, panning, mix information. The beauty of the .wav format is that it apparently works on different levels. On one level when systems come across data they don't recognise, instead of falling over they just plough on and play out the audio. On another level, crossfades can be accommodated; even EQ is possible. What is most amazing is that all the major players in the hard disk audio business seem in agreement with this and appear to be lending active support to the four subcommittees of the AES tasked with defining a 'scalable interchange model for professional audio'. From the studio floor to the dubbing theatre this has to be good news, given the prominent role digital audio now plays in both cinema and TV soundtracks. OMFI audio post production to date has largely been confined to TV; as far as I know, the only feature films done this way have used Avid equipment for obvious reasons. It seems to me that the main area to watch in future will be the picture department, on whose shoulders will fall the task of not only synchronising but also digitising the master audio correctly. If we are to make OMFI work properly we must ensure that levels (hard to get wrong with a D-D transfer) are understood, sample rates are agreed, timebase is checked, and that we are getting true 16-bit (or better) audio and not some crummy compressed stuff. I have the good fortune to be currently working with a picture crew who understand these things and get it dead right; let's hope everyone does.
NICK LOWE