Many video content providers are already benefiting from having migrated production workflows to the cloud. Talent can access assets, tools and resources from anywhere, so the right person can always access the content when they need to, no matter where they’re located. Using the cloud empowers media organizations to increase productivity, improve efficiencies, and streamline workflows. But to fully capitalize on the advantages of remote production, media companies need the right setup and the right tools. In this blog, we’ll give three tips to help achieve successful remote production workflows.
Always prioritize interoperability
The cloud gives media organizations the flexibility to choose the tools and solutions that fulfil their specific needs. This multi-vendor approach allows media companies to select the best possible tool for the task in hand, whether that is for capture, ingest, media asset management, post-production, or archive. But this approach will only work if solutions are fully interoperable, and processes are interconnected. If solutions connect easily, not only will media flow through the workflow smoothly, but it will also be easier for media operators to share assets and collaborate effectively.
In an ideal world, interoperability between different vendor solutions would be guaranteed, but unfortunately, this isn’t the case. So, media organizations need to select solutions carefully, not only on the merit of how well they perform, but also on their ability to integrate with the rest of the workflow. By choosing solutions with high-quality, comprehensive and customizable RESTful APIs, media organizations can be assured that problems and delays caused by miscommunication between solutions and workflow processes are avoided. Prioritizing interoperability is also a form of future-proofing. As technologies evolve and new tools emerge, the media workflow needs to be able to adapt and incorporate new elements seamlessly.
Lay solid foundations with an effective ingest process
What happens at the point of ingest can have an impact on content management throughout the entire workflow. When the ingest process is carried out effectively and efficiently, raw footage is ingested in full, alongside all associated metadata. And if high resolution and proxy versions are ingested simultaneously to a cloud location, the footage is available immediately for editors to start working on.
The ingest process is not only critical for the smooth flow of assets from camera to post-production, it also lays the foundations for the entire media workflow. Capturing, storing and organizing the right metadata at the point of ingest leads to better content management throughout the entire workflow. By pre-defining key metadata keywords early on in the process and making sure they are consistently used and are searchable and filterable, media companies can speed up asset location, reduce errors, and enhance overall efficiency all along the media workflow.
Optimize processes for maximum efficiency
Naturally, to achieve maximum return on investment, media organizations need to manage and edit content as efficiently as possible. Each stage of the post-production process, from capture to archive, needs to be carefully considered to ensure it is operating as efficiently as possible. For maximum efficiency, it pays to record direct to the cloud. Not only does this reduce complexity for video production teams because all that needed on site in terms of hardware is a camera and encoder, it also brings significant time savings and increases efficiency. When both high-res and proxy versions are captured direct to the cloud, the footage is available immediately for the editorial team to begin editing or distributing to a live stream. Recording direct to the cloud also simplifies the critical backup process.
Cloud tools also empower media organizations to automate tasks and processes so that content can flow through the workflow at a quicker pace. Automating tasks such as backup, file transcoding, asset integrity verification, and archiving, significantly improves workflow efficiency. Another huge time saver comes when editors have the ability to edit and modify a file with an easy insert. With this function, it’s possible to correct a file without having to carry out a time-consuming full file export.
By using the right tools and systems, media organizations can increase productivity and efficiency, while simplifying the workflow. What’s not to love?
Empowering media companies
Cinedeck is dedicated to developing tools that empower media organizations to optimize workflows and enhance efficiency. We offer solutions to streamline camera-to-post workflows, delivering encoding for edit-ready formats and facilitating file delivery with our patented insert-edit technology.