driving rapid production workflows in a virtual cloud environment that puts security first for high...
TRANSCRIPT
Driving rapid production
workflows in a virtual cloud
environment that puts
security first for high value
productions.
Life in a start-up
In Silicon Valley… ● lease temporary office space ● hire the smartest people and promise
them a big piece of the IPO or company sale
● leverage virtual IT infrastructure, aka “the cloud”, allowing rapid growth without fixed costs
● develop “the product” in the cloud with engineers are partners around the world
In Hollywood… ● lease temporary production space ● hire the smartest people and promise
them a big piece of the back-end ● buy / rent equipment, manage local
storage, leverage 3rd party media service providers
● collaborate on the production via sneaker-net, FedEx, or fixed-cost file transfer services on the internet
A typical post-production example
●a production shoots on-location in some remote part of the world with globally sourced talent in all disciplines of the creation process
●when “the shoot” ends, the majority of the creative talent moves onto another production and small staff of production and post-production experts stay behind to edit and finish the film (director, cinematographer, studio executives included)
A typical post-production example
●as many as 10-15 collaboration partners are chosen (often through a bidding process), requiring rapid sharing of massive video data repositories quickly and securely
●the incredibly short timelines demand late night and weekend work from all parties
●the director, cinematographer, and studio executives often need to manage multiple productions in different locations around the world
The “big data” landscape of today’s productions
• 25 TB - 1 PB of video data on a single production
• 10-15 collaboration partners for sound mixing, color
grading, visual effects, editing, and studio approvals
• < 6 months of time typically available to the post production
process
• 2K workflows of yesterday are becoming 4K workflows
today, with even higher data requirements driven by high
dynamic range and wide color gamut science promised in
“Ultra HD” specifications - epsecially in VFX shots
• highly publicsized security failure events
The resulting challenges productions face
• Connecting multiple collaboration partners quickly and
securely
• Sending very large and rapidly changing media assets to
collaborators with delivery assurance
• Meeting the ever-changing challenges of production and
post production schedules (nights and weekends)
• Parking and landing large video projects in remote
locations on a temporary basis during the creative process
More challenges productions face
• Providing remote collaboration capability to supports
executives and talent who are often multi-tasking and
geographically challenged
• Accessing cloud service providers quickly and cheaply
• Delivering DR archival cost effectively
• Ensuring every media asset remains secure throughout
the process
The typical approach to meet the challenge ● While occasionally choosing specialized production studio
locations (i.e. Pinewood, Lantana) for post production, locations are typically chosen for tax credits or proximity to distribution studios.
● The result is often a scramble to find enough bandwidth for a digital workflow between post production collaboration partners. To compensate for timeline and bandwidth challenges, a “sneaker net” approach is often taken, with hard drives or tapes being ferried by courier, a “hodge podg”e of equipment installed in the editing process, and lots of flights.
The typical result
● release dates DO NOT MOVE ● executives get frustrated ● workflow efficiency goes out the window ● security posture suffers (expediacy over security)
Best practices to meet the challenge
● Many “high value” productions these days are choosing to shoot and post produce their movies at specialized production studios that offer “modern post production technology services”
● Other productions are choosing to post produce their movies in “media parks / offices” or with “studio partners” who have pre-established access to high speed bandwidth, providing them virtual access to “modern post production technology services”
Modern post production technology services
● High-speed bandwidth availability on a traffic-shaped or uncontended network (i.e. not the internet)
● Responsive security services to establish private collaboration between multiple partners
● File transfer services to share large video assets with multiple partners seamlessly
● Digital storage service options for post production workflow needs as well as the parking, landing, DR and short-term archival of projects
● Real-time, high quality remote collaboration capabilities
SOHONET: A MEDIA SERVICE
COMPANY For nearly 20 years Sohonet has been there side-by-side with our
customers, helping them deliver quality media content:
20 YEARS
EXPERIENCE
• 400+ collaboration partners connected quickly and
securely
• Fast, Flexible and Phenomenal service
• World’s largest private network for media