An Introduction to The Dailies House

What does a digital lab actually do on a production, and when do you need one?

A digital lab sits between camera and the post house, managing media, colour and workflow throughout production.

As soon as footage is captured, it needs to be securely offloaded, verified, backed up and prepared for editorial. A digital lab provides the infrastructure and experience to handle this reliably and at speed.

Roles and responsibilities

  • Secure handling of camera media from the moment it leaves the camera.

    This includes checksum-verified offloads, multiple backups and clear data management protocols to minimise risk and ensure media is protected throughout production.

  • Organisation of camera media using slate information, flags and metadata to ensure footage can be easily searched, tracked and retrieved in editorial.

  • Setup and management of colour workflows to ensure consistency from set through to post-production.

    This includes applying LUTs or CDLs and ensuring what is viewed on set matches the final image during conform and grade.

  • Processing camera media into editorial formats such as ProRes or DNx, with colour applied and files prepared for immediate use in editing.

    Rushes are delivered quickly and reliably to editorial teams via drives or high-speed upload.

  • Long-term archive of media to LTO tape following studio-standard workflows.

    All archive processes are verified and documented to ensure media can be securely stored and retrieved when required.

What does a Digital Lab do?

A digital lab is responsible for handling camera media from the moment it leaves the camera through to delivery into post-production.

This typically includes:

• Checksum-verified offload of camera media
• Secure backups to multiple destinations
• Dailies colour and LUT application
• Transcoding to editorial formats
• Delivery & upload of rushes to editorial or cloud platforms
• Ongoing media management throughout production

These processes ensure footage is secure, organised and ready for editorial as quickly as possible.

Why productions use a Digital Lab

Modern productions generate large volumes of data that need to be handled quickly and reliably.

Modern productions generate large volumes of data and require fast, reliable turnaround of media.

A digital lab provides a structured workflow that reduces risk and removes pressure from production, ensuring media is handled consistently throughout the shoot.

This allows production teams to focus on filming, knowing that footage is secure and editorial delivery is being managed reliably.

Digital Lab vs DIT

On many productions, the digital lab works alongside the on-set DIT.

The DIT supports the camera department with colour, monitoring and camera workflows during shooting.

The digital lab handles media once it leaves the camera, managing backups, dailies processing and delivery to editorial.

Built on experience working on-set as DITs, Pixel & Process integrates both roles to provide a consistent workflow from set through to post.

Camera-to-Post Workflow

A digital lab forms part of a wider camera-to-post pipeline.

From ingest and backup through to colour processing and delivery to editorial, the lab ensures a smooth and reliable transition into post-production. With the digital lab designing and supervising your workflow and pipelines.

This integration allows productions to maintain control of media, colour and workflow at every stage.

Digital Lab Services at Pixel & Process

Pixel & Process provides digital dailies and lab services from our facilities in Cardiff Bay and Bristol, supporting productions across Wales and the wider UK.

Our lab is designed around real production workflows, providing secure media handling, fast turnaround of rushes and reliable delivery to editorial throughout production.

In-House

At the end of each shooting day, camera files are delivered to Pixel & Process for processing, transcoding, colour correction, & archiving. We support a talented roster of dailies colourists & technicians who ensure the creative intent is consistent throughout the pipeline.

Mobile

Shooting remotely and too far from our Cardiff or Bristol Office? We can offer custom, scalable, & efficient mobile post-production solutions for any location. Bringing all the benefits of a digital lab to your production.

• Experienced dailies colourists and technicians
• Consultative workflow design for camera, resolution and codec decisions
• Custom colour pipelines including CDLs, LUTs, ACES and HDR workflows
• Support across all major file-based camera systems
• Secure data handling with verified backups and archive workflows
• Fast dailies processing, transcoding and delivery to editorial
• Deliverables in industry-standard formats including ProRes and DNx
• Streamable dailies for platforms such as PIX and DAX

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