EditShare Shows Technology to Support Creative Storytelling at MPTS
Continuing developments driven by user experiences
Boston, MA – April 25, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, is bringing its latest productivity and creativity developments to the Media Production & Technology Show (stand D40, Olympia London, 10 – 11 May). All the new functionality is designed with user experiences in mind for even greater creative freedom and simpler workflows.
EditShare provides both powerful content storage devices and the management layer to control workflows and track assets. This allows media to be stored on premises, at multiple locations and in the cloud, ensuring that users can work the way that is most convenient for them.
FLOW is the asset and workflow management software, supplemented with FLEX for fast cloud implementations. New at MPTS this year is Swift Sync, which gives users a way to share media across different EFS storage systems, with FLOW multi-site software automating the tasks of generating proxies and ensuring content is available where it is needed.
A major boost for productivity and creativity is the ability to support all the popular professional edit packages – Adobe, Avid, BlackMagic and others – directly. Editors will see the material relevant to their project appear as bins in the edit software, eliminating set-up time and the wait for material to transfer. Thanks to EditShare’s unique Universal Projects cross-platform tools, edit assistants can create bins and even rough cuts without even knowing which edit software will be used to finish the job.
“The great value of an event like MPTS is the chance to show just how sophisticated and supportive our architecture really is,” said Said Bacho, CRO at EditShare. “We have time to talk through a user’s real requirements, and show how our software can be used to link EditShare storage nodes and deliver the workflows, securely and productively. Ultimately, our users just want to get on with creating their work, and our continuingly evolving software automates the underlying management and transfers to achieve just that.”
Demonstrations of EditShare’s proven storage solutions and workflow software can be seen at MPTS 2023, on stand D40.
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.
Major South African production company adds third storage network
Boston, MA, April 05, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, has added a third EFS-300 storage solution at Homebrew Films in Cape Town, South Africa. Homebrew is a leading producer of high quality television for the home and international markets.
Based in Atlantic Studios, Homebrew provides a complete production service, with its own 4k Ultra HD studio with audience seating as well as outside broadcast and single-camera shooting capabilities. It has long-standing contracts with leading broadcasters in South Africa, producing soap operas, drama, documentaries and popular entertainment shows. It is the home of MasterChef South Africa, and the installation of the third storage network was prompted by the start of work on the game show Deal or No Deal.
EFS is the open storage solution from EditShare. It is a software-defined 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. It incorporates EditShare’s FLOW media management software with dedicated metadata servers, and ensures content flows are managed and prioritized to deliver against the practical demands of busy facilities.
“EditShare has served us well over the last three years, and we were confident to continue investing,” said Jaco Loubser, CEO of Homebrew Films. “As we grow, remote editing and workflow automation tools become ever more important, and EditShare supports those well.”
The installation was provided by Protea, EditShare’s channel partner in South Africa. Protea’s James Macpherson said “We have a strong relationship with the team at Homebrew, and they know they can turn to us at any time for backup and support. In turn, we know we get the same level of support from EditShare, so this is a really solid offering for them.”
“We appreciate Protea’s ongoing support in delivering EditShare’s innovative solutions to Homebrew Films” added Said Bacho, CRO at EditShare. “Our EFS storage solution, in combination with Protea’s expertise, ensures that Homebrew’s growing media production needs are met with speed, scalability, and reliability.”
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.
Storage network allows iconic production to grow and develop
Boston, MA, March 16, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, has supplied two post-production storage nodes to the production responsible for This Old House, US television’s hugely popular restoration show which focuses on the crafts that go into renovating buildings. The show reaches audiences of tens of millions of enthusiastic fans and has 21 Emmy® Awards and 119 nominations.
This Old House started in 1979 and is now in its 44th season. Based in its own facilities in Concord, Massachussetts, the company was recently acquired by the streaming platform, Roku and has seen a huge upsurge in activity.
Working with EditShare’s channel partner T2|Computing, This Old House recently installed two EFS300 160TB storage nodes. The initial goal was to supplement the existing storage and asset management system with a more flexible, more dynamic store to meet the workflow and throughput challenges of the expanded output.
Michael Svirsky Post Production Manager, Roku Inc.
Michael Svirsky has been overseeing post-production systems and solutions at This Old House for 16 years. “The Roku acquisition has driven a rapid expansion with new shows and more output,” he said. “The result is that we need new workflows and much greater accessibility to our media.
“EditShare understands the requirements for post today, which is one of our main reasons for choosing them and to move increasingly towards the workflows that they can offer us,” he continued. “Reliability is also very important to us: when you have a huge number of assets and over 1,000 episodes you cannot risk the slightest chance of anything disappearing.”
Said Bacho, CRO at Editshare, added “This Old House has been making programs for four decades, and using shared storage for 16 years, but Michael Svirsky and his team recognize that they have to continually develop and refine their workflows to ensure they are delivering the best creativity in the most ordered way. They also face the challenge of originating in 4k, and even 8k, so the storage demand is growing exponentially.
“They are a great team to work with. I am very pleased that we have been able to provide the agile storage they need, and we’re looking forward to helping them with new, dynamic ways of working in the future.”
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.
There is no doubt that, with ChatGPT making waves with immediate writing capabilities and stable diffusion enabling creatives to create incredible imagery based on simple prompts, artificial intelligence is the hot topic of the moment. Making sense of it all is quite a challenge, especially for us in the media and entertainment industry.
The talk at the moment is about the “creative” capabilities of AI. But that raises a lot of ethical questions for content producers. Who is in charge of the work? Where are the boundaries between fact and AI generation? What are the intellectual property implications? When AI can create completely convincing images from a brief text description, what is truth, and when does it matter?
These ethical dilemmas can make media businesses a bit uneasy, but let’s not forget that AI can be a lifesaver in some areas. It’s like this: people are great at the fun, creative stuff, while computers excel at the dull, repetitive tasks. AI is just another example of this age-old truth.
It’s all about the metadata
Asset management is the way we find stuff in our content stores. We describe the content using metadata, and the more detailed the metadata, the easier it is to find what we are looking for. Indeed, with really good metadata – and maybe some AI help in the search – we may find content that will take our productions off in a new, unexpected and delightful direction.
At EditShare, we’re all about helping you keep track of your content. Whether you’re producing blockbuster movies or TikTok videos, our FLOW asset management software bundled with our storage systems is the way to go. One fundamental truth with all asset management platforms is the better the metadata the easier it is to find the raw material to tell your story.
The real timesaver: Intelligent software
Completing good, detailed metadata is a time-consuming business and sometimes, it is not an especially rewarding task – which can lead to human fatigue and, in turn, errors. Spending hours or even days in a darkened room manually tagging hours of video can be tough, but it is needed if you want to be sure you can later find the people, places and items you need; to sort the best takes from the OK; to find new and informative B-roll to tell the story.
But computers are good at repetitive tasks, so this is an ideal application for AI. If the software is intelligent enough, it can reliably tag objects, people, locations, and even emotions. It can process audio, transcribe the speech and lock the script to timecode, so that users can quickly jump to the part of the clip they need. Processing audio and video together helps fine tune the script tracking and understanding of emotions.
This all sounds great in theory – a real timesaver at the point of ingest, and throughout the extended life of the content. But can it be done in practice?
FLOW AI for Superhuman Vision
At EditShare the team studied the market, and saw that a start-up based in Berlin had all the right vision coupled with an incredibly powerful technology stack. The company is called Mobius, and their AI platform is called Superhuman Vision, which is pretty much what we wanted to achieve.
Facial recognition
So we have integrated it into our FLOW asset and workflow management system. We call the add-on FLOW AI. It adds yet another layer to our already highly automated environment. FLOW AI can process content for keywords in a scene, automatically tag people based on facial recognition and improve the post environment with intuitive scene and detection algorithms.
One of the operational considerations in AI is that it has to be trained to know what you know. FLOW AI is supplied with a lot of basic knowledge already in its database: as soon as you plug it in it can recognize more than 5000 objects, emotions, actions and even 10,000 famous people. And you can teach it more – you can add people to the database, for instance, and it will index them every time they appear in your archive.
Detailed image analysis
FLOW AI also includes intelligent support when searching for content. User requests can be very specific or quite vague, and the retrieval system will suggest relevant clips beyond the usual, so that stories become more interesting.
Obvious applications are systems with a high throughput of content, like newsrooms and sports broadcasters. Say a golfer hits a hole in one: you can quickly find all the other times this golfer has done it; or it has been achieved on this hole; or even disastrous triple bogeys at the same place.
It is a powerful tool for other users, too. Say you are producing a multi-part drama serial, and you need some cutaways to manage the pace of the story. By framing your request by mood, weather, time of day or people in shot, you can help the editor by offering clips that will match and flow seamlessly. For post houses versioning content for different markets, it can help by identifying the points which may need conformance editing, like nudity or swearing.
The partnership with Mobius is already proving very worthwhile. The algorithms in their software not only save time but offer more accurate, richer results, and as users get into the capabilities of FLOW AI, the benefits continue to grow. Object detection is just one string to our AI capabilities, with other integrations including speech to text and translation, but that’s something for a future blog!
It is said that AI is a powerful tool when used to support human decision-making. That is why we see FLOW AI as a great enhancement for our storytelling platform.
Want to find out more? click here to book a demo, or a chat with your local EditShare team member.
Continuing enhancements deliver a great leap forward for productivity
Boston, MA – February 2, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, will use NAB2023 (booth N2100, Las Vegas Convention Center, 16 – 19 April) to unveil its latest productivity and creativity enhancements. The continuing development of EditShare core functionality is targeted at creative freedom and simpler, more resilient and secure workflows.
EditShare’s workflow solutions are driven by its market-leading EFS Storage and FLOW media management – these are combined in FLEX for fast cloud implementations. By integrating post-production storage on premises, at multiple locations and in the cloud, connectivity is at the heart of the workflow and serves multiple market verticals and applications in broadcast, production, post, education, sports, news, corporate/enterprise, and houses of worship.
Swift Sync gives users a way to share media across different EFS systems in the cloud, on prem or in between. Users can select all or some of their media spaces in any location and bring it into their workspace, whether they are in a facility, working at a remote location or using cloud editing via a desktop emulator. FLOW provides support for multiple streams of multiple codecs. In addition the latest EFS release delivers as much as a 60% increase in throughput for certain codecs/configurations from the previous hardware/software.
Editors use the tools of their choice because FLOW and FLEX integrate with software from Adobe, Avid, BlackMagic and others without having to change screens. Included in this spring release are a number of features and improvements to our FLOW Panel for use with Premiere® specifically. Collaborative teams can easily connect with each other using EditShare’s unique Universal Projects technology, providing a seamless means of exchanging projects between post production users and platforms.
EditShare’s advanced set of open APIs means it’s easy to integrate tools from partner companies and third-party vendors, whether that is capture software from Cinedeck, workflow orchestration from Helmut, cloud hosting from AWS, AI capabilities from Audimus and Mobius, NRCS systems and more, many of which will be demonstrated at the show.
To ensure that mission critical content flows – like channel playout or fast turnaround editing – are never compromised, users can now manage storage access bandwidth to guarantee quality of service for each workstation, user or group with EditShare’s new bandwidth control capabilities in EFS. The latest release also moves to streamline and simplify still further the new web user interface in FLOW, and to make FLEX Cloud Edit+ easier to deploy through intuitive user interfaces without the need for cloud specialists.
“At EditShare, our goal is always to let creative users get on with the storytelling, by making the technology transparent” said Sunil Mudholkar, VP Product at EditShare. “The more we make the infrastructure & services intuitive to use – whether it is on premises, in remote locations or in the cloud – then the greater the availability, the reliability and the productivity. That is what our users tell us they want, and that is what we are striving to deliver.”
The latest versions of all of EditShare’s proven storage solutions and workflow software can be seen at NAB2023, on booth N2100.
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.
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.
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.
