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Higher Education Team Supporting Digital Learning Media
Company Situation
The company operates within higher education, supporting digital learning initiatives through a multi-disciplinary team that includes video production, graphics, and VR/XR specialists. Their team is expanding, recently adding new video and graphics personnel, and they collaborate across multiple departments and with numerous external stakeholders such as instructors. The scale involves managing up to 50 instructors per semester, repeating this cycle multiple times a year, indicating a high volume of short-form media projects.
Existing Workflow
The team currently manages their digital assets using a combination of local hard drives for active editing, institutional cloud storage built on university servers for archiving, and Google Drive for file sharing. They use Frame IO primarily for review and approval processes but do not engage in much cross-functional collaboration on individual projects, as most work is handled independently. Communication extends beyond the immediate team to a larger group of instructors and stakeholders.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
Storage silos: Active files are stored locally, while archived files are kept on university servers, leading to fragmented access.
Remote access challenges: With some team members working fully or mostly remotely, accessing archived and active files is cumbersome.
Inefficient collaboration: Limited ability for real-time collaboration due to independent workflows and scattered storage solutions.
Multiple tools: Reliance on several platforms (Frame IO, Google Drive, local hard drives) creates tool sprawl and operational complexity.
Scalability concerns: Rapid team growth and project volume strain existing workflows and storage infrastructure.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a unified cloud platform that consolidates storage, review, and asset management into one seamless system. It creates virtual “drives” within a workspace tailored to teams or projects, making cloud storage appear and function like a local Thunderbolt drive through real-time streaming. This eliminates the need to download large files for editing, enabling quick access and smooth workflows even on remote setups. Shade’s metadata capabilities enhance searchability and asset organization, improving efficiency in finding and managing content. The platform supports multiple operating systems and integrates easily with creative tools like Adobe, streamlining production without disrupting existing processes.
Benefits
- Simplified storage management by unifying cloud storage, review, and asset management
- Seamless remote access with streaming file technology reducing download times and bandwidth use
- Improved collaboration potential with centralized, easily accessible assets
- Reduction in tool sprawl by consolidating multiple platforms into one solution
- Scalable infrastructure to support team growth and increasing project volumes
- Enhanced metadata and search functions for faster asset retrieval
- Cross-platform compatibility (Windows, Mac, Linux) ensuring flexibility for diverse teams