What is ClearView Flex? The Complete Guide to Sohonet's Remote Review Platform

What is ClearView Flex?

ClearView Flex is Sohonet's Emmy-winning remote review platform for film and television production. It lets creative teams stream colour-accurate, real-time content to reviewers anywhere in the world, from a director on set to an executive at a studio across the world, with the quality, security, and reliability that professional post production demands.

Used by every major Hollywood studio including Paramount, Netflix, NBCUniversal, Lionsgate, Amazon Studios, and Bad Robot, ClearView Flex is the industry standard for session-based remote review in post production.

In simple terms: when a creative team needs to review work together in real time, from anywhere, ClearView Flex is how they do it without compromising on quality or security.

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Why remote review matters in post production

Post production has always been a collaborative process, but the teams involved rarely sit in the same room. Directors, producers, colourists, sound mixers, VFX supervisors, and studio executives are often spread across cities, time zones, and continents. Getting everyone looking at the same frame, at the same time, with confidence that what they're seeing is accurate, is one of the core operational challenges of modern production.

Generic video calls drop frames, crush colour, and introduce enough uncertainty that reviewers can't trust what they're seeing. Decisions get deferred, notes get lost across email threads and Slack messages, and what should be a real-time creative conversation becomes an asynchronous game of telephone.

ClearView Flex was built to solve exactly this. It delivers ultra-low latency streaming at up to 2K DCI, with support for up to 10-bit 4:2:2 HDR and Rec.2020 and P3-D65 colour spaces, so what every reviewer sees matches what the creative team intended. Review with confidence, wherever you are.

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How ClearView Flex works

ClearView Flex is session-based. The host, typically the facility or creative team, streams the output of their creative tool directly to reviewers, who join on any standard device: phone, tablet, PC, Mac, or Apple TV. No specialist hardware or software is required for participants. Only the host needs a Flexbox or cloud licence.

Sessions support up to 40 participants, scaling from a single supervisor to full studio sign-off within the same workflow. In-channel communication and frame-locked annotation tools keep all creative feedback in one place, tied to the specific frame being discussed, rather than scattered across separate communication tools.

Audio is supported at stereo and 5.1 surround via the Apple TV app, making ClearView Flex suitable for sound mix reviews as well as picture.

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Flexbox or cloud: two ways to deploy

ClearView Flex offers two deployment options to suit different production setups:

Flexbox is a physical hardware unit for on-set or facility use. It connects directly to the creative workstation and streams from there, making it the right choice for facilities with fixed infrastructure or productions that need on-set review capability.

Cloud (vFlex) runs fully virtually with no on-premise equipment required. It's the right choice for teams that need to get up and running quickly, productions with short timelines, or facilities looking for a per-project rather than fixed infrastructure model.

Both deliver the same ClearView Flex experience. The choice comes down to workflow and infrastructure preference, not capability.

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Security built for studio-grade production

Content security is non-negotiable in professional post production. ClearView Flex is built from the ground up for the security requirements of major studios and post facilities:

• End-to-end encrypted streaming
• Default air-gapped architecture
• Independently audited security
• Access-controlled sessions with watermarking
• Full session logging for compliance and audit purposes

Security is regularly vetted by studios and independent evaluations. For productions handling pre-release content, this level of assurance isn't a nice-to-have - it's a prerequisite for the work.

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Who uses ClearView Flex

ClearView Flex is used across the post production pipeline by:

• Editorial teams running remote cut reviews with directors and producers
• Colour grading teams sharing grades with DPs and directors for sign-off
• Sound mixers running mix reviews with producers and studio executives
• VFX supervisors reviewing work with production and studio stakeholders
• Post facilities managing distributed review across multi-vendor productions
• Studios coordinating review across international co-productions

It's also used in virtual production workflows, where near-set and remote review need to function as a single connected process rather than two separate, disconnected systems.

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Where ClearView Flex fits in the Sohonet suite

ClearView Flex is Sohonet's editorial review tool, sitting within the Review Suite alongside ClearView Pivot, which is designed for reference-grade and finishing review. For productions that need the highest possible quality for colour-critical finishing work, Pivot is the right tool. For the broader range of review sessions across a production, Flex is built for that job.

For asset management across the production pipeline, Sohonet Core provides the version-controlled register that distributed post teams depend on. For secure file transfer between facilities and partners, Sohonet FileRunner handles high-volume media movement without file size limitations or plugin dependencies. Together with Sohonet Media Fabric, these tools form an integrated infrastructure layer for modern production workflows.

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What does ClearView Flex cost?

Plans start from £493 / $683 per month. Three packages are available, Starter, Pro, and Glow, to suit different team sizes and project timelines. A demo includes a full pricing walkthrough tailored to your specific production setup.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is ClearView Flex used for?

ClearView Flex is used for real-time remote review in post production. It lets creative teams stream colour-accurate content to reviewers anywhere in the world, with in-channel communication and frame-locked annotation, replacing the need for in-person review sessions or low-quality video calls.

What quality does ClearView Flex stream at?

ClearView Flex streams at up to 2K DCI, with support for up to 10-bit 4:2:2 HDR and Rec.2020 and P3-D65 colour spaces. SDR and HDR are both supported, giving reviewers a colour-accurate representation of the content regardless of where they're watching from.

Does ClearView Flex require specialist hardware for reviewers? 

No. Reviewers can join a ClearView Flex session on any standard device, phone, tablet, PC, Mac, or Apple TV, over a standard internet connection. Only the host requires a Flexbox or cloud licence.

How many people can join a ClearView Flex session? 

ClearView Flex supports up to 40 participants per session, scaling from a single supervisor to full studio sign-off within the same workflow.

How secure is ClearView Flex? 

ClearView Flex uses end-to-end encrypted streaming with a default air-gapped architecture. Security is independently audited and regularly vetted by major studios. It is built specifically for the content security requirements of professional post production and pre-release content handling.

What is the difference between ClearView Flex and ClearView Pivot? 

ClearView Flex is designed for editorial and collaborative review across the post production pipeline. ClearView Pivot is designed for reference-grade and finishing review, where the highest possible colour accuracy and quality is required. Both are part of Sohonet's Review Suite.

What is a Flexbox? 

A Flexbox is the physical hardware unit used to host ClearView Flex sessions from a facility or on-set location. It connects directly to the creative workstation and streams to remote reviewers. For teams that prefer not to use on-premise hardware, a cloud option (vFlex) is available that delivers the same experience fully virtually.

How does ClearView Flex compare to using video calls for review? Generic video conferencing tools are not designed for colour-critical review. They compress video in ways that affect colour accuracy, introduce latency that disrupts real-time creative conversation, and lack the frame-locked annotation and session logging that professional post production requires. ClearView Flex is purpose-built for the specific demands of post production review, with studio-grade security, colour accuracy, and integrated communication.

Who makes ClearView Flex? 

ClearView Flex is made by Sohonet, a global media and entertainment infrastructure company founded in London in 1995. Sohonet has over 30 years of M&E infrastructure expertise and serves more than 1,000 media and entertainment companies worldwide.

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