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The world of Media
and Entertainment is home to some of the most creative minds amongst us.
However, content production itself has long been plagued by the uninspiring
reality of managing vast amounts of data stored on hard drives, local SAN or
NAS, or cloud storage unfit for the high-intensity workflows of video
editors.
The right cloud
technology unblocks the limitations associated with traditional on-premise
workflows, and opens up a variety of creative and financial advantages to
production teams.
Cloud video editing
enables team members to collaborate on projects remotely from anywhere in the
world and on any device with internet connectivity. A unique advantage of these
distributed workflows is that productions can benefit from global talent, rather
than relying on local talent alone.
That’s why
cloud-based editing is becoming the new paradigm for content creation in
creative fields as diverse as live news and sports, short form social media,
feature animation, branded long form content, commercials, scripted TV or
documentaries, and narrative motion picture films. In this article, we’ll
explore what cloud video editing is and outline the benefits it can offer to
professional video editors.
What is cloud video
editing
Cloud video editing
refers to workflows that leverage the cloud rather than on-premise
infrastructure. Editors can share their data with the complete toolset of a
desktop-based non-linear editor (NLE). The key difference is that the data
itself is stored in the cloud, rather than on local devices. With the right
software, cloud-based video editing can also include tools installed on virtual
machines and performing parts of an editing workflow.
Cloud workflows
reduce the friction typically found in legacy on-prem facilities, lowering the
learning curve for new users, reducing costs, and simplifying how content is
distributed. Editing in the cloud also enables producers to easily scale their
projects and empower team members to collaborate from anywhere in the world.
The 5 benefits of
cloud video editing
Collaborate
remotely
The most immediate
benefit from editing in the cloud comes with collaboration. Cloud-based systems
and storage are inherently accessible from anywhere in the world. This enables
both hybrid and fully remote workflows for editing teams. Whether creatives are
in the office or working remotely from various locations and time
zones, workflows become seamless when files are continuously synced and
instantly accessible from cloud storage.
Save time
While it may seem
archaic, shipping hard drives by post remains a common method for sharing data
in the Media and Entertainment industry. Although the cloud offers clear
advantages when it comes to smaller files (like low-res video proxies), until
recently handling large files was an unsolved challenge for cloud video editors
due to lengthy upload and download times.
However, recent
advancements in cloud solutions have addressed this issue. LucidLink, for
example, has pioneered a cloud collaboration technology that provides immediate
access to files of any size. This means editors can start working on a file
while it’s still uploading, and changes are instantly available to all
collaborators. This innovative approach enhances collaboration and saves
creatives valuable time.
Save money
With no hardware
investment, you will find less need for IT management and therefore less daily
financial overhead. Switching to cloud-based video editing and taking advantage
of cost-effective cloud storage can see your operational costs reduce by a
staggering 80 percent.
Optimize
post-production workflows
Cloud-based
infrastructure does the heavy lifting for you, and instantly provides access to
huge media assets, videos, images, and animations as if you were working off a
local hard drive. Any creative, regardless of how performant their own
localized compute resources are, can perform editing and heavy duty post-production
work directly from the cloud. With LucidLink, editors can even render
directly to another workstation or a virtual machine, eliminating render
waiting times from their workflow.
Immediate feedback
Say goodbye to the
endless cycle of send, wait, and download as review and approvals occur. With
cloud video editing, multiple people are able to view and share time coded,
synced video. There’s no need to wait for files to download so notes can be
addressed quickly streamlining your productivity.
Cloud Vs
On-Premise
In traditional
on-prem setups, video and audio files live either on your computer’s hard drive
or attached to a SAN or NAS system within a facility. This approach requires
copying large files to hard drives or using file transfer services if
collaboration requires working with freelance talent in other locations other
than at the facility itself.
Even when working
with large amounts of raw video data, editors often need to search, analyze and
tag files, preferably in real time. The larger the file, the longer it takes to
download, upload, render, or share. High-performance SAN and NAS systems come
at a great cost, and that investment quickly lessens in value over time. Beyond
the costly hardware investment, these systems still don’t solve the problem of
waiting for files to download or distribute.
Choosing software
for cloud video editing
There are many
cloud video editing software solutions to choose from. The traditional desktop
editors and online finishing systems like Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut
Pro, Avid Media Composer, and Blackmagic Design Resolve tend to be favored by
professionals in the media and entertainment industry because of their full
suite of features and widespread global user base. They all also have versions
that work in the cloud.
Some cloud video
editing tools have been developed to have many of their features accessible
through a web browser. All of the processing required to power these tools are
performed by virtualized hardware based in the cloud. This type of cloud video
editing software is termed ‘cloud-native’ and is different from ‘cloud-based’
video editing tools which are generally those which began life as desktop NLEs.
Working with cloud
storage
Choosing the right
storage strategy is vital for any production. An optimal storage strategy for
video editing means that you will be able to work with larger file sizes
without concerns about delay, data loss, or insufficient capacity. On-prem SAN
and NAS systems can be very performant, but those benefits only exist in one
location: a facility. The need to collaborate anywhere however is not addressed
by these legacy approaches. This is where a cloud-based approach comes in.
Cloud storage
solutions give producers the flexibility needed to scale up (or scale down)
without locking themselves into proprietary local hardware systems that are far
less flexible, and were never designed to accommodate the distributed workflows
that are needed today. A cloud platform, optimized for video workflows, enables
users to store and access huge amounts of data without creating the concerns
that come from storing data on localized resources.
Most importantly,
multiple authenticated users can access the same data at the same time using
the same cloud platform. They can even edit within the same project
simultaneously. The right cloud video editing system and cloud storage
combination gives production facilities the flexibility to grow projects
fluently and cost effectively according to demand.
Post-production
supervisors can design cloud video editing workflows that accommodate the best
talent regardless of their physical location. And concerns of storage capacity,
connection speed, and reliability are either lessened or completely eliminated.
Using LucidLink for
cloud video editing
The best
alternative to copying files to a local drive is using collaborative storage.
Pioneered by LucidLink, collaborative storage allows distributed teams to
work with large files in real-time, from any creative tool, and from any
location.
LucidLink also
empowers cloud-based NLEs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer,
Final Cut Pro, and Blackmagic Resolve for highly performant remote
collaborative editing.
With LucidLink,
users can access files within a LucidLink Filespace from a browser from any
local NLE application as if stored on a local hard drive. LucidLink makes those
files available fast, so that the edit experience feels as smooth as if the
files were stored locally.
For example, if you
had five editors working on a single video project, the content would be
uploaded to a LucidLink Filespace, making the data accessible to all editors in
a shared account. Any number of creatives could access and edit the project
from their Filespace account without downloading the videos to local storage,
and without the danger of inadvertently overwriting files, something that
LucidLink protects for seamlessly.
With LucidLink as
part of your editing workflow, you can provide your editing team with immediate
access for remote work on massive video files. LucidLink also makes the
management and provisioning of cloud based storage incredibly easy.
Benefits of using
LucidLink for cloud video editing storage
LucidLink, a
cloud-native solution, is ideal for organizations that want to reap the
benefits of cloud storage economics for their applications, file systems and
high-performance workloads.
With LucidLink, you
can access, edit, and collaborate on any size or type of file in real-time from
the cloud. That means no wasted time creating low-res proxies or downloading
gigabytes of working files to your machine.
LucidLink tackles
the twin problems of geographic distance and network latency by providing
on-demand access to media files from the cloud. The result is a
highly-responsive cloud video editing experience where data is delivered
immediately without any latency or delays. This is how LucidLink makes its
cloud storage solution feel like you’re working off a local hard drive or
network attached storage.
Most cloud storage
services automatically make local copies of files and then have to sync data
any time a change is made, adding an enormous amount of time to your workflow.
With LucidLink, it’s simple: data is directly streamed to your system in real-time
via a single, centralized cloud repository secured with end-to-end encryption.
In short, LucidLink
is the cloud storage alternative for video editors that need immediate, secure
access to files.
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