The latest FLOW release, version 2025.1.0, delivers powerful new capabilities to media managers, streamlining workflows and making asset management more intuitive than ever. With enhanced scanning, uploading, and automation tools, EditShare One Organize simplifies complex tasks, saving time and improving efficiency. Let’s explore how these new features empower media professionals.
FLOW’s extensive range of applications often left users confused about which tools to use and how to install and maintain them. This limited user accessibility and acceptance and its why we created EditShare One. A simple browser based Interface that enables all users to access all of FLOW’s powerful tools for a variation of different workflows.
Time-consuming, manual processes are a thing of the past. FLOW Automation eliminates repetitive tasks like tagging, transcoding, and file delivery, allowing media teams to focus on creative work.
What’s New?
Right-Click Automations: Users can now trigger automation workflows directly from the Organize module, applying them to single or multiple assets with ease.
Automate across Projects or Media Spaces: Automate processes across entire projects, reducing manual steps and ensuring consistency.
Simplified Access to Templates: View only available automation workflows by asset type. Only relevant templates are displayed, keeping the interface clutter-free.
With these improvements, EditShare One is faster, easier, and more accessible—allowing teams to move media seamlessly through their production pipeline.
Keep Your Media Database Up to Date
Scan Assets Directly from EditShare One
Keeping track of media assets is crucial for efficient project management. The new scanning functionality enables users to update the FLOW database effortlessly—without leaving the Organize module.
How It Helps
On-Demand Scans: Update media metadata and add new assets to the database anytime.
Two Scan Modes:
Quick Scan – Ideal for detecting and adding newly created or modified files.
Normal Scan – Updates metadata for all new and modified files, keeping asset details current.
Direct Access in Organize: No need to navigate to FLOW Control for scans—everything is accessible where you work.
This feature ensures your database remains accurate and up to date, improving searchability and media organization.
Upload Files Faster, Smarter, and with Greater Control
Enhanced Upload Capabilities
Managing late arriving assets can be challenging, but the improved Upload function simplifies the process, giving users more control over their media.
Key Benefits
Batch Uploading: Add multiple assets at once, reducing downtime between uploads.
Advanced Metadata Options:
Prevent duplicate uploads with the Fail if asset already exists option.
Generate streaming proxies during upload.
Apply custom metadata tailored to your workflow including metadata triggers to automate workflows.
Global Ignore List: Admins can restrict unwanted file types, preventing unnecessary clutter in the system.
With these enhancements, uploading assets is more efficient and customizable than ever before.
Navigate and Manage Assets More Intuitively
Flexible layouts
Media professionals need a fast, streamlined way to organize and move assets. The new Flexible layouts in EditShare One – Organize, introduces a more intuitive layout designed for seamless asset handling
Why It Matters
Customizable Interface: Show or hide panels to tailor the workspace to your needs.
Multi-Select Dragging: Select multiple assets using keyboard shortcuts and move them together effortlessly with fewer clicks.
New Manage Viewpoint: Complimentary to the Log Viewpoint, the new Manage view stacks panels vertically providing simultaneous visibility of Media Spaces and Projects. Each view point can be utilized to maximise the layout specific to the task in hand from managing media to logging
Enhanced Searchability:
A new Results Panel categorizes assets into three tabs: Media Space, Project, and Latest Search Results.
Tabs remain visible even when navigating, eliminating redundant searches.
Breadcrumbs have been relocated for clearer navigation paths.
This update dramatically improves efficiency, making it easier to organize and access media in large-scale projects.
Performance Enhancements for Large-Scale Workflows
As more teams scale up operations, FLOW’s automation engine has been optimized for handling multiple workflows daily. A new Status View provides real-time insights into automation performance, allowing administrators to monitor system activity at a glance.
Get Started with FLOW Today
The FLOW 2025.1.0 release redefines how media professionals manage assets—offering automation, improved navigation, and more control over media workflows. Whether you’re handling high-volume uploads, triggering automated tasks, or optimizing media organization, EditShare One Organize ensures your team works smarter, not harder.
Boston, MA – July 20, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, is set to introduce EditShare One as its unifying user experience at IBC2023 (Stand 7.A35, 15-18 September). EditShare One gives a single, streamlined experience across all of the company’s high performance production asset management and media storage solutions.
EditShare One boosts productivity by simplifying interactions, with an intuitive user experience at every stage of the creative process. Initial applications include Producer View, for assigning tasks and delivering comments and feedback to the production team, making collaboration simple, even across multiple locations.
EditShare One Transcription View
The AI-integrated Transcription View is a powerful new application that speeds up identifying the key points in large media captures. Users will find Transcription View and other productivity improvements visible in FLOW directly as well as in the FLOW panel in the Adobe® user interface, and Resolve thanks to the seamless integration.
EditShare is already transforming post-production through Universal Projects, which allows projects to be set up, linked to bins, and synchronized with whichever editing software package is chosen. The new EditShare One user interface and its innovative debut applications will deliver even greater productivity and creative control.
“Our users around the world talk to us about the challenge of creating exceptional content within tight time constraints,” said Sunil Mudholkar, VP Product Management at EditShare. “That is why we have put the focus on strong workflows, using automation where it is practical. Now, with EditShare One, we have user experiences which are thoroughly intuitive and consistent, so you are able to sit at any workstation and understand the complete content flow and the state of any project.”
IBC2023 will also see the continuing extension of EditShare core technologies to support the modern media production industry. It is now common for content to be stored at multiple locations, in the cloud, and in remote workstations such as editors working on site or even at home. A single instance of FLOW maps all the content in every location and ensures it is ready. Automated proxy creation and integrated file acceleration ensure that the right media is always to hand.
“IBC brings the media industry’s leading creative people together“, Mudholkar added. “We are excited to show how we’re continuing to develop our platform to meet their real day-to-day challenges. More new introductions to the EditShare line up will be announced next month, so watch this space.”
Demonstrations of EditShare’s proven storage solutions and workflow software can be seen at IBC2023, on stand 7.A35.
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
Three tier storage provides rapid access and security
Boston, MA, July 19, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, has a continuing relationship with PROGRESS.film, one of the biggest theatrical distributors in Europe and owner of vast archives of historical film. As well as supporting in-house production, the EditShare storage network is closely integrated with AI technology from Veritone to build a platform to monetize the archive.
PROGRESS was founded in East Berlin in 1950 and, until the fall of the Wall, was the only film distributor in East Germany. Today it holds the complete film heritage of East Germany, along with exclusive collections from East and West Europe, Vietnam, Ukraine, the US and more. The archive runs to more than 26,000 films.
Part of PROGRESS is a production company, LOOKS.film, specializing in historical documentaries. Original footage shot by LOOKS is also added to the archive, becoming a resource for film-makers of the future. LOOKS selected EditShare as the best platform to support its production activities, and parent company PROGRESS recognized that the flexibility, security and power of the EditShare solution was ideal as the foundation of its archive projects.
The goal was to create workflows which would enable the team to bring online vast amounts of film at multiple locations across Europe, and link it with excellent metadata in part generated by AI software. By integrating the EditShare storage network with a highly automated commerce platform from Veritone using APIs to build a seamless solution, PROGRESS provides archive access to film-makers everywhere, with a cost-effective license and delivery workflow.
Gunnar Dedio, CEO at PROGRESS
“We acknowledge that our archive represents a unique library of unmatched historical and cultural significance,” said Gunnar Dedio, CEO at PROGRESS. “We wanted to make this as widely available as possible, by giving film-makers simple online access to search through our archive, select the footage they need, and to create a license and download their content. “After extensive technical trials, we identified the two best players in the field, EditShare and Veritone,” he continued. “They worked together on the APIs which enabled us to create the powerful, seamless system we have today.”
At the heart of this system is the three-tier storage network from EditShare. At the top layer is an EFS server with a total of 120TB of storage, providing fast and agile access for online users including eight editing suites. Supporting that is another EditShare disk structure providing 320TB of nearline storage, making all content in current use readily accessible, and providing a buffer layer to move content in and out of archive.
The third tier is an EditShare ARK LTO8 tape library. Currently this has around a petabyte of storage but can continue to grow, and provides secure backup as well as highly resilient long-term archiving. EditShare FLOW asset management manages all levels of storage and generates proxies as required, and runs on its own servers.
“This scope and significance of the archive project at PROGRESS is huge,” said Said Bacho, chief revenue officer at EditShare. “But it is achieved with standard building blocks from EditShare: server nodes, nearline storage and tape archives, brought together with FLOW software. We are very proud of this project, and it shows clearly what can be achieved with technology based on open standards and simple APIs.”
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
Remote and high throughput post for busy broadcast facility
Boston, MA, June 27, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, continues to work with Red Pepper Pictures, now adding a powerful EFS 450 storage system at the company’s Johannesburg headquarters. The EditShare media storage and management systems are also accessible from Red Pepper’s other facility in Cape Town, South Africa.
Red Pepper is a production and post business serving broadcasters, advertisers and corporate clients, in Africa and globally. Focused on creativity, across all their activities the company generates more than 4500 minutes of content each month.
This level of business calls for highly tailored workflows as well as carefully controlled storage and media management. This is particularly true in the case of high profile, fast turnaround reality television like the “Housewives” reality franchise, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, “Big Brother” and a popular Afrikaans music reality show “Die Kontrak”. Red Pepper initially invested in EditShare storage in 2013, and has scaled its facilities since then, most recently adding the powerful EFS 450 system, designed for demanding bandwidth applications.
EFS is a software-defined storage ecosystem built on commodity hardware and designed for practical workflows, with the ability to scale from a single storage node to an enterprise cluster, with a single namespace for simple management. The EFS 450 incorporates fault tolerance and very high bandwidth, with intelligent data distribution to ensure the timely support of large numbers of users.
It incorporates EditShare’s FLOW media management software with dedicated, redundant metadata servers. The workflow toolset is particularly important when multiple editors need access to content simultaneously, in applications like fast turnaround editing of programs with a very large number of sources.
“We turned to EditShare because we needed something that could manage high throughput, fast turnaround edits,” said Christian Nenkov, Head of Post Production Operations at Red Pepper. “We found that it could do the job far better than anything else on the market. Our staff are all comfortable with the EditShare toolkit, and it makes sense to continue to invest in it as our business grows.”
Protea is EditShare’s partner in South Africa, and provides the sales, installation and support for Red Pepper. “They are a really busy company, with some huge productions on their slate,” said James Macpherson of Protea. “FLOW lets them set up customised workflows for complex reality shows, and it is simple to add remote access to and from Lagos and Cape Town. We are pleased to continue this strong relationship with Red Pepper.”
“We’ve seen substantial growth in the region over the past two years thanks to Protea. Their ability to highlight the key end user workflows and requirements so that we can provide the right solution has been critical in the successful deployment of this and many other systems,” commented Said Bacho, CRO at EditShare.
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
Like many of you, I’m taking a big breath following an exciting week in Vegas for this year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference. As always, NAB provided a unique opportunity for us to connect with industry experts, showcase our latest products, get together as a globally-distributed team, and gather valuable feedback from our esteemed customers and partners. It was a great show – and we enjoyed seeing everyone who made the trip to our booth.
A few key themes seemed to dominate conversations during the show – this is what I noticed that kept coming up at NAB:
Collaborative Workflows: The importance of collaborative workflows in the media and entertainment industry has never been more evident. At NAB, we highlighted our latest innovations in collaborative workflows and shared storage solutions. Our new features, such as universal project sharing, enhanced metadata management, multi-site support and remote editing capabilities, were met with overwhelming positive feedback. We are proud to continue our commitment to providing cutting-edge collaborative tools that streamline media production workflows and foster creativity among teams. We continue to drive forward our strategy of creating amazing everywhere.
Hybrid Cloud-Based Solutions: As our CTO, Stephen Tallamy puts it, “everything seems destined for the cloud… eventually.” But the pace and sequencing of that move is different for every team. That’s still true here in 2023. While some teams are dipping their toes in the water, others are ready to take the plunge but aren’t quite ready to commit to moving all of their workflow to AWS just yet. As a provider of cloud-based solutions, we want to support customers who are ready to start their cloud journey while also acknowledging that the right first step looks different for every team.
At NAB, we showcased our latest advancements in hybrid cloud-based editing, media management, and storage solutions. Our hybrid cloud offerings give customers the flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency they need to meet the evolving demands of modern media production – sometimes that means a mix of on-prem and cloud, both in storage and media asset management. We’re excited about the possibilities that hybrid cloud-based technologies bring to the industry, and we’re committed to expanding our solutions to help customers stay ahead of the curve. If you’re thinking about a potential hybrid cloud strategy, we have more examples than ever about ‘what good looks like’ that we’d be happy to share.
We were also surprised by the number of those who have multiple EditShare deployments and are interested in connecting those workflows to create global efficiencies. This is an area where we are innovating and making investments, and we’re pleased that these investments were validated by the customers we spoke with. We’re going to continue investing here – check out our CTO, Stephen Tallamy, discussing our thinking on where hybrid is headed from the NAB floor here.
AI-Driven Media Management: Artificial intelligence (AI) has reached peak hype status, but it’s also transforming the way media assets are managed and monetized. At NAB, we demonstrated our latest AI-driven media management tools that leverage machine learning and automation to streamline media workflows, enhance search capabilities, and optimize media asset organization. Our customers were impressed with the increased efficiency and productivity that our AI-powered solutions bring to their operations.
While I was at NAB I also participated in the SET Future of Broadcast panel. Fernando Bittencort, former CTO of Globo moderated the panel. He kicked off the panel by reading the response he got when he asked ChatGPT “What is the future of Broadcast?”. We can debate the quality of ChatGPT’s answer to his question, but the fact that this is even possible should cause us to stop and recognize two things: (1) The world has changed, and (2) our industry is not exempt. The possibilities for what it can do – from search ability to documentation to customer support to how we test our products – the limit of how we apply AI and machine-learning technology to the problems media creators face. And I’ll leave it to smarter guys than me to talk about the limits and governance that should be placed on it.
The most encouraging part of NAB? Our industry is back. We had 120 channel partners in attendance from all around the world. We had more than double the product demos vs. 2022. Leads and opportunities coming out of the show were also up. Things are moving in the right direction.
As we reflect on this year’s NAB conference, we are energized by the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. We remain committed to our mission of Creating Amazing Everywhere by empowering media professionals to create, collaborate on, and deliver exceptional content.
Thank you for your continued support of EditShare. We look forward to spending more time together in 2023.
Technology has the ability to shape the way we work, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. With the introduction of new technology, such as cloud-enabled editorial tools, it can be an opportunity to consider a better way of working.
The Evolution of Video Workflows: From Bespoke Hardware to Cloud Operations
It is worth reminding ourselves that up until maybe 10 years ago, all the equipment we needed for media production depended upon bespoke hardware. You bought a box to do a job, and your workflows were defined by the boxes you owned and how you connected them together. That applied whether you were shooting in the field, in the studio, or in post.
The twin-pronged revolution came when processing power developed to be able to handle video in real time, and when standards were established to share content as data files, replacing SDI (which of course also required bespoke hardware). By opening the option to use standard hardware and open standards, video workflows became more accessible and the ability to process video in software made these workflows more flexible.
Virtualizing Post Tools: The Benefits of Cloud Editing
The next step was to virtualize the software, and build systems on microservices. In simple terms, we have moved from connecting boxes that we happen to have into assembling the precise functionality we need, in precisely the order we need. With the infinite scalability of the cloud, the architecture can flex to do what we want without the requirement for large capital investment.
And that is why we have the opportunity to take a completely fresh approach. We need to decide what it is we are actually trying to achieve, and how best to do it.
Take editing, for example. Online editing has meant a largish room in a post house, with room for clients to sit around. That costs a lot in real estate, and power, and catering, and security, on top of the salary for a top editor and the cost of the equipment.
It is the way we have always done it, because it was the only way we could make it work. But if we are starting with a blank sheet of paper, is it the best way?
Collaborating Remotely: Enhancing Productivity and Saving Time and Money
At EditShare we talk a lot about how post tools, like editing, can be virtualized alongside the storage network and asset management platform. These are the industry standard tools that editors expect: tools from Avid, Adobe, DaVinci and others. With remote desktop access technology such as PCoverIP, the editor will work exactly the way they are used to, whether the processing and storage is in the machine room in the basement or in an AWS data centre hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.
The logical extension of that is that the editor doesn’t have to be in the expensive edit suite in the city centre post house. They can be anywhere which is convenient for them. The idea of editing high-value content on someone’s kitchen table has always been a security nightmare, but with cloud editing the video never leaves the central, controlled environment in the cloud.
But of course an editor rarely works in complete isolation. Producers and clients want to know what is going on, and directors may well want creative input. That is why the expensive edit suites have large couches for all these collaborators. And having everyone in the room may be right for some projects.
But for others, producers, directors and other collaborators will need to understand progress and approve material, without watching the whole process. With cloud-based tools it is easy for remote contributors to securely access proxy versions of rushes and cuts for comment. . If you need real time collaboration, there is no reason why you cannot use Zoom as the communication tool.
That saves time for producers and the rest, who are not sitting around while the dull parts of the job happen. They focus their attention where it matters most. And they save time and money by not travelling to the post house.
Balancing Work and Life: The Importance of Staff Welfare in Cloud Operations
The travel point is becoming increasingly important. Commuting every day, only to sit alone in a darkened room until late into the evening to meet a deadline can be demotivating and sap creativity and productivity. Connecting with people in person undoubtedly improves a quality of life, so it’s a balance of travelling when it counts. With the ability to start work in one location and continue somewhere else helps address work/life balance whilst still keeping to commitments. .
The cloud could, and should, be transformative for video creatives. It should be boosting staff welfare, business economics, and creative collaboration. That is why it is important to draw up a list of what is important to your facility, and fit the technology around it.
Want to find out more? click here to book a demo, or a chat with your local EditShare team member.
Major UAE post house builds foundation for continuing expansion
Boston, MA, February 6, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, has implemented a comprehensive storage and media management platform for Last Cut Media, based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The system was implemented in conjunction with Advanced Media Trading, EditShare’s distribution partner in the region.
Last Cut Media was increasingly finding workflow limitations in its ad hoc storage systems, so was determined to move to a coherent and powerful single-point solution. Having evaluated the market, the company identified the EditShare solution as the ideal match for their requirements.
The initial architecture for the system features a 160TB EFS shared storage node with the full functionality of the EditShare FLOW media management platform. This works in conjunction with a 240TB nearline store for disaster recovery as well as rapid access to content as projects require it. Long-term storage is on LTO-8 tapes, using EditShare ARK archiving software and hardware.
“We provide state-of-the-art services to users across the Gulf region from our base in Abu Dhabi,” said Saad Duaibes, Founder & Creative Director at Last Cut Media. “The new workflow and storage system from EditShare allows us to be much more flexible and productive, delivering the performance and quality that our clients expect. We also appreciate the way that EditShare is designed for remote access and multiple locations: we have bold plans for growth including a facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the near future.”
Among the workflow improvements opened up by the EditShare video content management system is the capability of remote editing, allowing productions to access their files from wherever they are shooting and wherever the editor is working. EditShare FLOW ensures that, as content is ingested, so proxy files are automatically generated allowing remote editing from any location.
FLOW also provides for rigorous content and metadata management, and automated secure archiving according to business rules set up for each project. Last Cut Media covers the whole range of post from commercials to movies, drama serials and documentaries, so needs to be able to set workflows and functionality by project, with complete security between clients.
Said Bacho, Chief Revenue Officer at EditShare, said “Working with Advanced Media Trading, we displayed to Last Cut Media that we could provide solutions from a secure and orderly transfer of existing content to long-term archiving strategies, to comprehensive training.”
Bacho continued, “Having a strong presence in the Middle East also gave Last Cut the confidence that our solution is well supported as well as technically the best for their needs.”
For further information on all EditShare solutions, please visit the website at www.editshare.com
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
When you’re in a business like EditShare, the start of a new year means the time to think about what is going to be important in the coming 12 months. What are users going to talk about, what capabilities are they going to need, how will they challenge us?
Here is my view: this is going to be the year that hybrid production comes to maturity. Hybrid in the sense that it will be part on location, part remote; part using traditional tools onsite and part in the cloud.
Why 2023?
Before I explain why I think it is going to be important, let me just say why 2023 is the year when it is going to happen.
In media, we have a well-established four year cycle, driven by external forces, mainly sport. In 2024 and every four years from then on we have the Olympics (and a US presidential election). In 2026 and every four years we have the Winter Olympics plus the FIFA World Cup. In 2025 we have the European football championships. But in the other year of the four year cycle – like 2023 – we do not have any big events. So we have time to think, to develop sensible plans.
Think about this: there is no one size fits all post production workflow. If you are making a nature documentary you may be accumulating footage over years; but investigative journalism might be shooting almost up to the time of transmission. Movies will allow months for post production; sports broadcasters will want a fresh highlights package every time there is a break in play.
If you are planning a major sports event like the Olympics, or a major location-shot reality show that needs daily coverage, do you want to ship your post production team off to the location – where you will have to build facilities and pay for food and accommodation – or do you want to keep them back at base where they have set up their rooms just as they like them, and they know the quickest route to the best coffee shops?
Fast connectivity has changed everything
There are no right answers to any of these questions. But what has happened is that we have built workflows because, in the past, they were the only way that the technology allowed us to work. Now, thanks to fast connectivity around the world, we can take a step back and decide what is the best way to work on each individual project.
The cloud, of course, is central to all of this. That is not to say that it is compulsory: there will be plenty of workflows where traditional, in-place post is the best solution. The major nature documentary series I talked about earlier is a good example: getting all the content to a post facility for editing and finishing at a considered pace is probably the way to go (although you might want a security archive in AWS S3).
But if you do put all your content in the cloud, then you can access it from anywhere. You can call up processing resources when you need them, for instance for batch creation of proxies, or to do large-scale transcoding.
The real transformative technology, though, is cloud editing. All your media is in the cloud, as is all the metadata. With EditShare FLEX, you can host the edit software – whichever platform is your preference – within the storage network. If the post-production storage network is in the cloud, so too is your edit software. Remote desktop technologies like PC-over-IP (PCoIP) means you have the look and feel of a traditional edit suite, but it is all happening at some distant location.
You can access huge resources without the cost or time of moving large amounts of content. With good, automated proxy generation you can work with even a modest broadband connection.
Cloud editing is not for everyone, or for every project. That is not the point. What it does is open up new avenues and new workflows. You can take a step back and decide what is the best way for you to work on this particular project: what is best for staff welfare, for business economics, and for creative collaboration. Workflows your way.
MBC Group and a division of the Dubai Government focus on server redundancy and tape archiving
Boston, MA, January 23, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, has delivered two large-scale EFS storage network systems, alongside FLOW workflow tools, to clients in the UAE. The solutions were designed and implemented by EditShare’s systems integration partner in the region, UBMS (United Broadcast & Media Solutions).
This division of the Dubai Government has been a user of EditShare storage for over five years. To provide access to all users from a common location it has now returned to EditShare for an extended storage node, a fully redundant backup site in an alternative location, and an LTO tape-based ARK archive sub-system.
Leading regional broadcaster MBC Group, based in Abu Dhabi, needed to boost production workflows at its facilities, and has now implemented its first EditShare EFS storage network. Again, redundancy was important with two alternative locations and an ARK tape archive maintained in synchronization by the FLOW media asset management system that resides on the EditShare storage network. The result is that content can be ingested as soon as it is shot, and it is immediately available to all the editors, whatever editing software they choose.
“The EditShare platform provides all the functionality that these two very different customers needed,” said Rayan Nasser, Head of Projects at UBMS. “We were able to configure the systems as each user required, setting up business rules for synchronization and archiving to provide the highly resilient, highly productive solutions they sought.
“We have been working with this division of the Dubai Government for a long time, so we understand their requirements and workflows well,” Nasser added. “This was our first project with MBC, and we supplied them with the complete production system, including cameras from Sony and ARRI. EditShare sits well in such a high-profile production workflow.”
Said Bacho, Chief Revenue Officer at EditShare, added “We are delighted to be involved with two important high-profile storage implementations in the Middle East region. We understand the significance of protecting valuable assets and this fully fledged EditShare solution, with complete redundancy, ensures that robust, secure and cost-efficient workflows are maintained across these mission critical environments.”
The production platform for MBC is now online. The new storage network for this division of the Dubai Government is being implemented as part of a rolling program of enhancements.
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
The return of conferences and exhibitions in 2022 has finally given us all the opportunity to sit down and talk to industry professionals from around the world to discuss what’s working and where the current challenges lie.
Many of the conversations I’ve had at these events relate to the industry hot topic at the moment: remote production. This topic takes on many forms depending on the needs of the production and so to tackle them in a single blog would be ambitious (for me to write and for you to read). So instead, I thought I would cover a more specific scenario to show the sort of challenges I’ve heard and illustrate some of the techniques that can be applied to other scenarios.
Take for example a production company responsible for a popular reality TV show. Let’s say it’s set, and shot, in the south of France, although the production company itself is based in Paris, 500km to the north.
Like all reality shows, it generates a huge amount of content from many cameras running non-stop. It also has an extremely fast turnaround, with audiences expecting high production values in programs reflecting the action that took place on site within the previous few hours.
To meet these two requirements, the production company could have set up a large server network on site. Let’s explore some of the implications of this and what alternatives could be used to improve the workflow.
On-Site Production Challenges
In a single storage network scenario the program would have to base a team of editors at the location. This would add substantially to the production budget: these editors, edit assistants and edit producers would need accommodation and food over the months that the program was in production. Space would have to be rented to house the edit suites. Travel costs would be high because editors may not want to be away from home for extended periods of time, therefore they would be constantly rotated in and out.
What the production company needs is the ability to edit story packages, and packages into programs, within the facilities they already have in Paris (close to the homes and favorite restaurants of the editors and producers). However, the content is hundreds of kilometers away.
Bring On The Proxy
I’ve written before about how you should embrace the proxy. When content is ingested into EditShare storage nodes it can automatically generate a proxy, at a bitrate determined by you, but small enough to be regarded as portable.
This means that users anywhere with the right privileges can log in, view the proxies, add comments if necessary, and manage the content. In this application, producers responsible for each story strand could log in, from Paris for example, whether from a computer or tablet, and review all the footage available. They could very quickly identify what material to use and drag it into an appropriate bin. This can all happen in a web browser using the FLOW media asset management system. We are nowhere near an edit workstation yet.
An edit assistant could then go through the selected sequences for the story and set up the bin structure for the editor. Again, this is still in a web browser, at any location, using the proxy.
When everything is ready, the relevant clips are loaded into the edit software. We are completely agnostic: we can preload bins and projects into Adobe® Premiere® Pro, Avid Media Composer and Da Vinci Resolve. The editor can start cutting straight away.
Stay In Sync
With EditShare EFS we recently introduced a new feature called Swift Sync. This is designed to synchronize content between multiple locations. It incorporates file acceleration which can move media files, over a leased line or a VPN tunnel, as much as ten times faster than Rsync.
It also is extremely flexible in what it synchronizes. In an application like the reality show example, there may still be too much raw content to reliably move, even after the selections have been made. We have smart segmentation in mind during this process as it’s not necessary to synchronize absolutely everything. The key is to synchronize what’s required, automate and optimize. So the editor can cut on the proxies, and only when the story is complete, will Swift Sync move the required clips with handles. It can even conform the edit in the server node at the location and just move the finished story as one file.
Savings Abound
This is the architecture that can deliver huge operational savings for the reality show, while maintaining quality and boosting productivity. The same ideas are applicable for other situations too.
You do not need to have physical storage nodes in both the remote location and back at base. One or both of them could be in the cloud, using EditShare FLEX software and the AWS Backbone to move material as needed.
If you are shooting a drama in 4K Ultra HD, or even higher resolutions using RED cameras, it might even be most efficient and cost-effective to edit using proxies and deliver the selected raw clips back to base on disk drives using FedEx.
At EditShare we see our mission as supporting producers to create amazing everywhere. Proxy workflows are a practical and very flexible way of achieving that.
Want to find out more? click here to book a demo, or a chat with your local EditShare team member.
