Back to Workflows
Live Entertainment Company Streamlining Animation Collaboration with Microsoft Tools
Company Situation
The company operates in the large-scale live entertainment industry, specializing in drone light shows. Their creative team, led by a creative director, consists of 18 animators and is growing rapidly to keep pace with an ambitious production schedule—delivering approximately 1,000 shows annually. Their work involves complex animation creation, rendering, and multimedia production, requiring efficient collaboration and asset management across a sizable creative workforce.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the company relies heavily on Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive for internal file storage and collaboration, alongside tools like Blender and Maya for animation, and Adobe Creative Suite for post-production tasks. They use Microsoft Teams for team communication and Brandfolder to share final content externally with companies and content teams. Their file search and sharing processes are largely manual, based on naming conventions and links shared via chat.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The company faces several significant challenges:
Slow upload speeds and throttling during peak hours, causing delays in accessing and updating large files.
An unreliable sync company that is buggy and resource-heavy, leading many users to avoid using it altogether.
A critical incident where the sync company deleted 300,000 files, highlighting risks in data integrity despite backups.
Inefficient search functionality that hinders quick retrieval of past projects or assets.
Fragmented workflow with separate tools for internal collaboration, external sharing, and asset management, complicating review and approval processes.
High storage costs due to the large volume of data (approximately nine terabytes) managed on existing platforms.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a unified, high-performance cloud-native content platform designed to address the company’s core pain points. By replacing the current fragmented system with Shade’s solution, the company would gain:
- Faster and more reliable uploads and downloads regardless of time or network conditions, eliminating throttling bottlenecks.
- A robust synchronization mechanism that minimizes local storage demands and reduces risk of data loss.
- Advanced search capabilities that allow the team to quickly locate assets across large datasets without relying on naming conventions alone.
- Streamlined workflows for sharing, review, and approval within the same platform, reducing the need for multiple tools and platforms.
- Cost-effective storage optimized for large media files and collaborative environments.
- Hands-on support from Shade’s go-to-market team to ensure smooth trial, implementation, and onboarding tailored to their creative and operational needs.
Benefits
- Increased productivity through faster file access and reduced wait times.
- Enhanced data integrity and security with reliable sync and backup mechanisms.
- Improved collaboration and communication within the creative team and with external companies.
- Simplified asset management with powerful search and organizational tools.
- Reduced storage and operational costs by minimizing inefficiencies in existing platforms.
- Scalable solution to support ongoing rapid growth and expanding team needs.
Want to see how Shade can improve your workflow?
Book a Demo