In this video for Production Expert, Paul Maunder takes us on a tour of Spotterfish, a cloud-based screening room that allows spotting sessions to be conducted remotely, and in real-time.

With Spotterfish you can invite your team and watch 4k videos together in perfect sync. The built-in teleconferencing gets the conversation going and the powerful marker toolkit helps you capture good ideas before they get lost.

There’s a text chat system included, and WAV audio is supported, including surround sound. This is ideal when you’re working on a film project where you need to discuss and review the work in perfect sync with other participants.

How It Works

Spotterfish uses a sync server that works to ensure that content always runs in perfect synchronisation for all viewers. There are shared transport controls which mean that any of up to 5 attendees can control the video playback and skip back and forth as required.

One of the key features of Spotterfish is the marker system, an intuitive system for adding marked notes on the fly or when the transport is stopped. Markers can be tagged with various categories including Dialog, Music, Foley FX, ADR, Atmos and VO. Notes can be added against each marker too. The marker list allows users to edit any marker or easily jump to that location on the timeline. Once the session is finished, markers can be exported in formats compatible with most of the commonly used video and editing software including Pro Tools, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Audition.

Freemium and Premium

Spotterfish has three tiers, Free, Plus and Enterprise. Free is best placed for individuals and teams,. while Plus is for production and post houses. Enterprise is for large studios and universities that require multiple rooms of 10 or 20 seats. Accessing a Plus account is by invitation only

What’s Included In The Free Version

• Your own private screening room​

• 5 seats

• 4K, Wav & Surround Support

• Video chat

• Marker toolkit

• Shared transport

• Unlimited session length

• Unlimited bandwidth and storage

• Text chat

• 2-factor Authentication​

Content on the free version of the service is watermarked but there are no limits to the session length or to the amount of storage available. Projects can be created and accessed very quickly from within the screening room and can be opened and closed mid-session.

For users requiring the option of a branded room and no watermark on the video, Spotterfish offer a $10 per month service. For larger studios and universities, an Enterprise version is available.

Security

Spotterfish uses a 2 stage authentication process that, when enabled, requires both a password and verification from your mobile device to log in. All files uploaded to Spotterfish are encrypted using Google Firebase and can only be viewed in your screening room, which you can also choose to protect with an additional PIN number verification. Files are only deletable from within your Spotterfish dashboard.

For full details on Spotterfish, and to sign up for your free account, head over to their website.