M&E’s return to the suite has remote baked in

copywritten for LucidLink

As the pandemic recedes in parts of the world, the media and entertainment industry is busy planning a return to the facility where the workspace itself has been permanently altered.

https://www.lucidlink.com/blog/mes-return-to-the-suite-has-remote-baked-in/

Global broadcasters, indie content producers, picture post houses, and VFX boutiques alike are seeking to formalize a long-term strategy that incorporates flexible solutions for remote and sustainable production.

Remote production advanced

At the start of COVID, everyone was in a rush. The broadcast and post community moved to nomadic working and had to quickly spin up reactive solutions such as using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or running remote desktop or PCoIP sessions. These were temporary solutions. No one really had the time to design for the long term. 

But for all the frustration and anxiety of the enforced period of working from home, it also proved that cloud technology offers vital benefits for a more balanced, productive, and cost-efficient work environment. 

Among other things, cloud-based workflows free the business from the dependence on housing data, hardware, or people at a particular location. 

Instead, centralized cloud storage eliminates the need to deploy, set up, and manage bespoke hardware. Realtime collaborative workflows are enhanced by enabling anywhere, anytime access to data on virtual workstations. Productivity is further boosted with flexible work patterns that encourage a healthier work/life balance and less time lost in the commute. What’s more, offering clients the choice of where and when to interact with their media is now a service prerogative for many.

Recent reports lay out the dilemma facing employers as they restructure the workspace. In a WeWork and bright spot study spanning a range of sectors 90% of employees said they want to be in an office at least once a week.  

A TellyCast/ WorkShare report focussed on the TV industry also suggested that less than 10% of staffers want to return to the office full time. It found that the vast majority of TV industry workers who would normally be required to attend the main office desire a balance of working environments post-pandemic.

Optimize production workflow

Any media organization not considering adding remote collaboration solutions as a resource is an outlier. Even if they move to the cloud won’t be made in one bound, the ratio of on-prem to cloud infrastructure has made an irreversible leap forward. There is a huge wave of interest in reducing real estate footprints and moving workflows to the cloud in a ‘hub and spoke’ model. This is the next step toward full virtual production.

The sudden increase in remote working has driven forward the demand for a seamless working experience regardless of location. With LucidLink Filespaces the cloud becomes an extension of your hard drive. Authenticated users access cloud-stored assets as if they are on a local drive for real-time collaboration on all professional NLE and finishing tools MAMs and DAMs including Adobe Creative Cloud, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut, and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve.

If you believe, along with more than half of respondents to the TellyCast/ WorkShare report, that the content industry is going to witness a ‘roaring twenties’ effect as society gets back to normal, then cloud-enabled agile workflows and superfast connectivity will help us all build back better.