SNEAKY BIG Studios Brings in DigitalGlue to Integrate Massive New Production Facility

SNEAKY BIG Studios, a 15,000 square foot facility located in North Scottsdale opened its doors last August and is one of the largest and most technologically advanced production/post-production studios in the Southwestern US. Designed from the ground up as a fully integrated facility, SNEAKY BIG brought on systems integrator and software developer DigitalGlue to incorporate quality equipment, custom software, IP connectivity and flexible 4K- ready systems for a future-proof infrastructure capable of supporting a vast range of applications, including: television and video production, commercials, movies, corporate projects, music videos and recording sessions.

SNEAKY BIG Studios is the idea of Bob Parsons, American entrepreneur and philanthropist with credits that include GoDaddy and the YAM Worldwide. SNEAKY BIG Studios’ Recent work includes production of the Arizona Lottery’s latest multi-media ad campaign, a national ad campaign for rising women’s clothing line Yandy.com and the facilitation of live media interviews for the likes of NBC National news through its satellite media capabilities.

“Mr. Parsons has a reputation for building the best and producing nothing less than top-quality results in all his endeavors and SNEAKY BIG Studios is no exception,” says Sean Busby, President, DigitalGlue. “We were honored to be chosen as the studio’s primary technology contractor and given the opportunity to assist in fulfilling the vision to create a facility with services and capabilities rivaling studios in New York or Los Angeles.”

“DigitalGlue was a great partner as we set out to customize SNEAKY BIG Studios with the equipment needed to build the most technologically advanced studio in the Southwest,” said Marianne Curran, CEO of SNEAKY BIG Studios. “They listened to us and worked collaboratively throughout the process, ultimately arming us with top-of-the-line equipment. It was a great partnership and the end result speaks for itself.”

DigitalGlue designed a production workflow around a network of Barnfind Technologies’ fiber signal transport solutions for a sophisticated, fully integrated, and flexible infrastructure controlled by a simple GUI. All video equipment is connected with fiber for faster processing, and all signals coming in or out of a specific room can be multiplexed and sent over a single fiber strand to the Central Equipment Room. From there, a built-in 288×576 capable router sends the signals to their destination, providing an additional measure of workflow flexibility. The future-proof platform allows each room in the facility to be customized according to its current needs, and upgraded as technology evolves by simply swapping out SFPs.

Production Control Room

A 4,000 square-foot production stage, ideal for multi-camera and live television shots, commercial production, and music and training videos features VR capabilities and graphics via a VIZRT Virtual Studio. Sony and Canon high-end, 4K capable cameras are suitable for both studio and field work, and Sony F55 4K cinema/television cameras are supported on Vinten robotic pedestals for live production. A second stage accommodates small video shoots and still photography.

An eight operator Production Control Room outfitted with a 4K full monitor wall, Grass Valley Karrera 4 M/E K-Frame Video Production Center switcher and Grass Valley NVision 8280 router makes easy work of large-scale, multi-camera live productions. Connections to mobile or satellite trucks are also available for extra capabilities. An Audio Control Room works in tandem with the PCR for seamless live video production.

Extensive post-production facilities include five Editing Suites that incorporate the latest technology, software, and a 4K monitor for outstanding results. Each workstation has a SilverDraft Demon Supercomputer with Adobe Premiere Pro and is connected to a WhisperRoom for soundproof narration and voiceover recording.  A Harmonic MediaGrid 4000 shared storage solution serves as the active storage for editorial, color correction and grading, and VFX stages of the 4K production workflow in a demanding end-to-end ACES pipeline; a Harmonic ProMedia Carbon file-based transcoder facilitates content conversion.

An additional suite, dedicated to color correction, and product viewing, also contains a SilverDraft Demon, DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, 75-inch Sony Pro color calibrated monitor with gamma correction and 5.1 theater-quality surround sound with Genelec speakers.