Back to Workflows
Media Production Company Consolidating Dropbox and Frame IO
Company Situation
The company operates within the media production industry, managing a team that has recently shifted from a centralized office environment to a more distributed and flexible setup. Previously housed in a large coworking space, the team now primarily uses the office for equipment pickup, while most editing and post-production work occurs remotely. Their projects involve large-scale video shoots with substantial data volumes, reflecting the high demands of professional media workflows.
Existing Workflow
The company currently relies on a combination of physical SSD drives for fast local editing and cloud-based platforms for file sharing and review. Their main tools include Dropbox for file transfers and Frame IO for company feedback and, more recently, file sharing. They maintain a RAID system for backup but face challenges transferring very large files (up to multiple terabytes) remotely. Internet speed discrepancies among team members further complicate data transfer and collaboration.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
Transferring multi-terabyte projects remotely is slow and unreliable, often leading to failed downloads.
Dropbox is slow and inefficient for large files.
Frame IO, while useful for review and feedback, is costly and lacks a local file mount, forcing full downloads even when only partial data is needed.
Internet speed limitations among remote editors create bottlenecks that degrade productivity.
Difficulty in organizing and locating specific assets within large volumes of media.
Manual tagging and metadata management are time-consuming.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a streamable file system that significantly improves remote collaboration on large media projects. Instead of requiring full downloads, Shade streams only the necessary portions of files—similar to how YouTube streams video—enabling editors to work directly with RAW media without waiting for complete file transfers. The local mount feature allows team members to access cloud assets as if they were on a local hard drive, caching data intelligently to optimize speed and efficiency. Shade also integrates review and approval tools similar to Frame IO but with enhanced performance and lower costs. Additionally, Shade provides advanced search and organizational capabilities to help catalog and retrieve assets quickly, with AI-assisted tagging options to reduce manual labor.
Benefits
- Dramatically faster file access by streaming only required data segments.
- Local mount functionality enables seamless editing without full downloads.
- Cost-effective alternative to existing cloud review platforms.
- Enhanced collaboration regardless of geographic distribution.
- Intelligent caching optimizes bandwidth usage and speeds up workflows.
- Improved asset management with robust search and filtering features.
- Scalable solution accommodating increasing data volumes and team growth.
- AI-assisted tagging to streamline metadata management and asset discovery.
Technologies Used
Want to see how Shade can improve your workflow?
Book a Demo