The cloud is evolving rapidly from simple upload/download to embrace sophisticated world-spanning shared data environments. Shiv Rajagopal looks at five of the leading services.
In the modern world, post-production cannot be restricted by physical boundaries. In a post-COVID world, collaboration through remote work is becoming the norm. Filmmakers don’t need to live in the same cities to collaborate anymore. In this landscape, cloud collaboration, shared file systems, and global data environments are leading the change. These emerging technologies allow filmmakers to do all their post-production work entirely on the cloud.
Let’s look, in strict alphabetical order, at some companies innovating in this space and allowing filmmakers to collaborate like never before.
Frame.io is a cloud-based storage platform for video files and assets. The platform is built with collaboration in mind, primarily catering to filmmakers working with clients and people outside their organization. Its review, comments, and approval process is one of its standout features. Guests can comment on specific frames and highlight elements within the frame using draw tools, while users can invite unlimited guests to review their files for no additional cost.
Recently, it has expanded to integrate with all the major editing software, allowing users to upload their editing sequences directly onto Frame.io. Guests can comment on the timeline and provide notes. This feature effectively removes the need to export any rough or assembly cuts.
In 2022, Frame.io was acquired by Adobe, which has expanded its integration with Adobe products. One of the highlights is ‘Camera to Cloud’, whereby users can upload their footage directly from the camera to the file bins on Premiere Pro and After Effects. This removes the friction of file transfer between the production and post-production crew.
Frame.io’s plans start at $15/mo per user. It is ideal for those working on commercial productions that require interfacing with clients, though pricing is not flexible making it hard to scale over time.
Hammerspace provides data solutions to companies working with different data centers and cloud-based platforms around the world. Usually, larger enterprises need a dedicated IT team to wrangle the data and ensure all users see the same files; Hammerspace creates a sandbox to manage all these shared file systems to ensure the data is managed efficiently.
Hammerspace integrates all the existing storage solutions into what it calls a ‘Parallel Global File System’. This is a vendor-neutral system that can adapt to include existing storage solutions. This platform allows a decentralized post-production workflow that can save money and enable remote work at a global scale. At its core, Hammerspace helps IT administrators distribute data globally so the users see the original files (and metadata) regardless of where it is stored. It is an all-in-one solution for managing post-production data distributed across multiple countries.
Hammerspace is not a specialist software catering specifically to the media and entertainment industry. However, the collaboration ability and vendor integrations make it an ideal solution for companies working on large-scale global productions. If interested, users must schedule a demo to learn more about their pricing.
LucidLink is a shared file system that directly streams data from remote storage to your computer. Its motto is to make cloud storage feel like it’s local storage, and, as such, LucidLink’s solution offers real-time collaboration, fast access to cloud data, and security.
Setting up the LucidLink file interface is straightforward. Users must create a domain and filespace on their website. Then, they must connect this file space with their cloud storage provider and initialize. Users will then need to download and install the LucidLink client. Users can log in and access their cloud data on their local device using the desktop client. This software removes the need to export, upload, and download post-production files, thus eliminating all the time wasted during data transfer.
The platform is compatible with the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, Avid, Davinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro. The biggest benefit is that you can now share files with your post-production team without uploading or downloading. Therefore, video and sound editors can complete their work on the cloud faster than before. Creating a centralized, fully encrypted hub for all your project’s media removes time spent waiting during the review and approval process.
LucidLink’s Basic plan starts at $20/mo per TB with Wasabi storage included.
It also offers plans that allow you to connect with IBM storage or custom plans if you already have an existing cloud storage service.
Lyve Cloud is a cloud service offered by Seagate, which is perhaps best known for its external hard drives and SSDs. During the Covid pandemic, Seagate made a massive leap into the cloud by launching Lyve Cloud.
The reason is that the old model of data centers and hard drives is hard to scale as companies begin to expand. Lyve Cloud removes the necessity for physical infrastructure and is flexible to grow as needed. It offers limitless capacity so that users can centralize all the media files stored across different storage solutions in one place. Older companies with extensive film archives might also be interested in Lyve Managed Migration, a separate service that can digitize and bring the archives to the cloud for easy access.
One of Lyve’s selling points is its predictable pricing with a pay-as-you-go model. Users only pay for the data and however long it is stored. Furthermore, there are no additional charges when users decide to move their data from the cloud (egress fees are charged by most other cloud storage companies and can take up a sizeable chunk of budget). This scalable pricing model is cost-effective and allows teams of all sizes to scale at their own pace.
Suite Studios improves post-production workflow by enabling editors to work completely in the cloud. Imagine the platform as a virtual computer and hard drive that exists on the cloud, allowing users to collaborate seamlessly. Users can access the platform through their web browser and create a remote workstation. Once installed, users can download applications (such as editing software), access their files, and edit on the platform. Team members can access up-to-date versions of these files without transferring anything. A crew member must install the Suite Storage application to upload media files to Suite Drive. All other team members can view these files through their workstations.
Suite Studios is compatible with leading editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and more. Many leading file storage companies use a sync feature to keep all the files synced across different devices. Suite Storage is designed differently as it is built to integrate with the file system on your device. Leveraging a shared file system between multiple entities allows users to handle larger files (such as raw footage) without experiencing any issues. It also saves time and money spent mailing hard drives or transferring files.
Suite Storage is best for larger teams working with big files, and this is reflected in the pricing as plans begin at $40/mo per TB. Smaller teams might not require the features or solutions provided by Suite.
The cloud is evolving rapidly from simple storage solutions where users upload and download files to something far more sophisticated. The companies mentioned here are innovating so that files in a global data environment can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, at any time. This has the potential to revolutionize the post-production process. And of course there are others available too: the really big cloud players - AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure - are all chasing the media and entertainment space hard.
The result is that media and entertainment industry is migrating to the cloud at an accelerating rate, and not just for storage. Cloud computing allows filmmakers to edit and render much faster and at a higher quality. It also eliminates waiting hours for files to upload and download. These solutions also unlock collaboration like never before, so filmmakers are not landlocked to any region either. While replacing a physical hard drive with a virtual cloud can seem scary, it is the obvious solution to save time and money while increasing productivity like never before.