NAMM 2020: Annex Pro Insights & Reflections

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LOS ANGELES and VANCOUVER – (March 18, 2019) – BeBop Technology, provider of the most robust and secure platforms and solutions for moving media workflows to the cloud, today announced a strategic alliance with Annex Pro, North America’s next-generation Value-added Reseller, to bolster its sales and business development efforts in Canada.

“Annex Pro is excited to partner with BeBop to offer their unique and flexible cloud solution to Canadian customers,” said Kerry Corlett, Founder and CEO of Annex Pro. “The demand for moving Media and Entertainment workflows to the cloud is greater than ever, and BeBop certainly meets and exceeds that requirement for a wide spectrum of our customers.”

The BeBop cloud platform virtualizes processing-heavy workflows such as visual effects, rendering, editing, animation, and other post-production projects on extremely powerful and highly secure computers in the cloud, utilizing flexible high-speed storage.

“BeBop enables an unparalleled level of creativity, collaboration, power, scalability, and security for artists, producers, and VFX and post-production professionals across the globe,” said BeBop Technology President of International Claude Gagnon. “We are thrilled to work with Annex Pro and leverage their 35-year history serving Media & Entertainment.”

Creatives can use the BeBop platform to process, render, manage, and deliver media files in the cloud from any computer anywhere on as small as a 20mbps internet connection. It offers access to industry-standard tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud applications and Autodesk software under a “bring your own license” model. Key features include BeBop OTS (Over The Shoulder) for secure and affordable remote collaboration, review and approval sessions in real-time, and BeBop Rocket, a roundtrip ingest solution for incorporating the cloud into on premises workflows in a powerful, fast, and economical way. BeBop is deployed on all of the major public clouds, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure.

About BeBop Technology

Los Angeles-based BeBop Technology was founded in 2015 by veteran entertainment industry executive Bruce Long and Cloud technology expert David Benson. The company creates the most complete, secure, and innovative solutions for moving workflows to the Cloud.

Bryon and Kerry visited NAMM and we asked them 4 questions:

Kerry Corlett
CEO and Founder, Annex Pro

What was your favourite product/announcement that you saw at NAMM?

Dolby Atmos Music. If you haven’t heard it yet, find a way. Atmos Music for the home starts under USD$200 for the Amazon Echo Studio (yes, you read that right!) and some engineers at NAMM were saying that Atmos Music is the biggest advancement in music recording since Stereo replaced Mono. Combine that with the rise of Dolby Atmos for TV and film (driven by new mix specs from Netflix and most of the other streamers), and Dolby technology is on a very exciting trajectory.

Was there anything at the event that surprised you?

Friends. Not really a surprise, but it’s always wonderful to meet up with people I’ve known for decades, who are not only making a difference in an industry they love, but also enjoying every minute of it. And again, no surprise, but I never tire of hearing a live performance by a truly talented musician, on a finely crafted musical instrument (or in the case of Bobby McFerrin, simply the human voice – if you ever get the opportunity to hear him live, take it, as I did at NAMM this past week).

What’s the most important thing you took away from the experience?

Pride. Let me explain, I’m extremely proud that Annex Pro started in the music and recording side of content creation solutions in 1983, just like a lot of our customers who got their start playing and recording music, but today work mainly on visuals side. Interestingly, some of our competitors actually paint our expertise in music and audio as a negative, whereas I’m told by customers that it’s a positive: they say that we better understand the entire workflow of content creation, which gives Annex Pro a unique perspective on the solutions we bring to customers in animation, VFX, TV/film editorial, game dev and IT infrastructure. I agree with them and am proud that music and audio remains a strong part of our overall business.

What was your favourite experience on the trip outside of the NAMM event itself?

Disneyland. I always try to make it there, any time I’m in or near Anaheim. I’m lucky to have been able to visit Disneyland pretty much every year since I was a kid, and it never gets old.

Bryon Low
Senior Account Manager, Annex Pro

What was your favourite product/announcement that you saw at NAMM?

Avid Pro Tools | MTRX Studio. It was the talk of the NAMM show and is the latest addition to the MTRX family aimed at music and post-production smaller rooms capable of Atmos 7.1.4 immersive monitoring. This and its companion the Pro Tools Ultimate Thunderbolt3 HDX system and a laptop or Mac Mini is the perfect 2U travel system.

Was there anything at the event that surprised you?

Focus. NAMM is always full of surprises, but I found it interesting that each exhibitor had a very focused story they wanted to get across. It was also nice to see Dolby and their drop-in lounge become a meeting point for many of those attending.

What’s the most important thing you took away from the experience?

Customers’ perspectives. Aside from the technology releases and the new products, meeting customers at the show, finding out what creative, technical and business objectives they had for 2020, then starting a plan to help meet those goals together, was the most important thing I took away from this experience. It’s all about the personal connections and helping others succeed!

What was your favourite experience on the trip outside of the NAMM event itself?

“Mario Kart”. Driving to YVR early Wednesday morning to catch our flight to NAMM (which got delayed for 3 hours because of all the snow coming down). It was like a scene out of Mario Kart – cars were sliding and stuck everywhere after what seemed like a foot of snow overnight. I’m usually not good at video games, but apparently, I ace’d this one. Oh, and we also still made it in time to squeeze in a trip to Disneyland.