Harbor post integrated Nara across global facilities to enhance infrastructure, support real-time collaboration and give producers, artists and engineers fast access to media across locations.
Harbor Picture Company has integrated Nara across its US and UK facilities. Now live and in use in Los Angeles, and rolling out in New York and London, Nara has been adopted to enhance Harbor’s enterprise-level infrastructure by giving producers, colourists, conform artists and engineering teams faster access to media, improving accuracy and supporting real-time collaboration across locations.
For most clients, this means faster turnarounds, more confidence in delivery, and the flexibility to work directly with Harbor talent regardless of geography.
Harbor is, in some ways, seeking continuity in a dynamic environment. “At Harbor, we are constantly evolving our pipeline to support the ambitions of our artists and the expectations of our clients,” said Massimo D’Avolio, EVP, Head of Post Production, Harbor. “Integrating Nara strengthens our enterprise-level infrastructure and ensures that we continue to deliver with speed, precision and creative confidence. The software supports our effort to combine artistry with innovation to unify the production experience for filmmakers, studios and brands.”
Real-time Visibility
Nara opens real-time visibility into media storage and metadata, enabling instant validation of file paths and rapid identification of assets, and integrating quality control on elements such as colour space, framing, versions and titles. The platform can support storage monitoring, giving Harbor more detailed oversight of media health and helping ensure projects move smoothly from dailies through final delivery.
By integrating Nara, Harbor is extending the life of its pipeline with tools designed to scale up and out alongside the on-going demands of filmmakers, studios and brands.
“Nara integrates with our existing tools, FilmLight’s Baselight and Daylight, which we use for dailies, VFX pulls, conforming and colour grading,” commented Zara Park, Director of Picture Post, Harbor Los Angeles. “These systems give us robust functionality, especially for managing complex formats like IMFs, DCPs and DCDMs. Now with Nara, we can view materials in multiple colour spaces. This flexibility improves collaboration across departments and locations, while maintaining the standards Harbor is recognised for.”
Harbor’s Los Angeles team uses Nara from the start of a project through final delivery. The system supports setup of storage volumes, and makes communication between operators and producers simpler. The Nara render engine, built directly from Baselight’s existing renderer, can export to over 160 codecs and formats, including web-optimised files, broadcast-ready formats, or specialised codecs, including VFX files. As a result, accurate renders and metadata are available at each stage.
Extended Integration
By extending the integration to New York and London, Harbor strengthens cross-site collaboration, its globally connected workflow and connected pipeline. Clients have the advantages of speed, consistency and creative intent across projects and locations.
An important, fairly recent development for Nara has been the Secure Client Review feature. Through FilmLight’s CONNECT service, users can directly stream media to clients with a very high degree of security and accuracy. The service includes enterprise-grade encryption and access controls to protect sensitive content. Nara’s streaming technology emphasises colour reproduction and frame-accurate playback, giving a team confidence that clients see exactly what is intended.
During review sessions, clients can leave time-coded notes and comments directly on the media. This simplifies feedback and clear communication between all parties involved in the review.
“Harbor is defined by our ability to connect artists and workflows across genres and geography,” said Massimo. “Integrating Nara further strengthens that network and allows us to move with greater speed and precision.”
Zara said, “Nara has become a powerful tool for our teams. It speeds up workflows, minimises disruptions and has quickly become second nature. Most of our operators now just say, ‘Look it up in Nara.’” nara.stream
