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Television Production Team Consolidating Dropbox and LucidLink for Overseas Shoots
Company Situation
The company operates within the media production and post-production industry, handling a diverse range of content including long-form nonfiction, scripted work, and short-form branded advertising. Their team is hybrid, with roughly 40% of editors working onsite and 60% working remotely. They manage a mid-sized operation with approximately 17 editing machines and collaborate frequently with freelancers distributed across various locations. The company is expanding to include a second facility, aiming to scale their storage and production capabilities accordingly.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the company relies on a combination of on-premises NAS (network-attached storage) infrastructure and cloud-enabled workflows. They use remote desktop solutions for offsite editing and have experience with LucidLink as a cloud storage solution, primarily for co-productions. For file sharing and review, they utilize tools like Frame.io. Their storage footprint includes several hundred terabytes of active storage in their main office, with plans to add 650–700 terabytes at the new facility. Backup and syncing between locations are managed via traditional NAS systems.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
Scalability concerns with physical NAS infrastructure as the company expands to a new location.
Managing and syncing large volumes of data across multiple geographic sites is complex and resource-intensive.
Remote editors face slower and less efficient file access compared to onsite teams.
Dependence on multiple tools for storage, sharing, and review creates workflow fragmentation.
Desire to reduce infrastructure management overhead and improve operational flexibility.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a cloud-native media platform that integrates storage, file access, collaboration, and archiving into a unified system. By replacing or augmenting existing NAS setups with Shade’s cloud-based drives, the company’s team—both onsite and remote—would gain fast, seamless access to media assets from anywhere without reliance on heavy hardware infrastructure. Shade’s streaming file system provides instant access to files, automatic generation of proxies for efficient editing, and built-in review and approval tools that could replace external platforms like Frame.io. Additionally, Shade’s synchronization capabilities enable real-time syncing between multiple offices, simplifying cross-location workflows and scaling storage needs without the complexity of managing physical servers.
Benefits
- Scalable cloud storage eliminates the need for costly on-premises NAS expansion.
- Improved remote access with streaming file system technology enhances editor productivity.
- Integrated review and approval tools streamline collaboration and reduce tool fragmentation.
- Simplified cross-office syncing reduces data management complexity.
- Automated proxy generation accelerates editing workflows.
- Reduced infrastructure management overhead allows focus on creative work.
Technologies Used
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