GEAR. CLOUD EDITING
“The best way to tackle bandwidth bottlenecks is to centralise technology and access tool sets and storage remotely, reducing bandwidth at the localised end”
technology and access tool sets and storage remotely, reducing the necessary bandwidth at the localised end.” There’s more than one way to approach cloud editing – either onsite or via data centre. Founded in early 2021 by the former management team of The Farm, Racoon had the benefit of a blank canvas when it came to its approach for technology architecture and services. Its infrastructure is hosted in a data centre, with virtualised edit systems working within a private cloud. “Therefore all our productions are essentially ‘cloud editing’, whether the editor’s in our central London facility, at home, on-set or anywhere else,” Layton adds. “Ensuring a consistent user experience is key, and editors tell us their experience on our systems is second to none.” THE RIGHT TOOLS Although editing tools are limited, increasingly, integrations are available between cloud platforms and editing software. Adobe’s Frame.io, for example, integrates seamlessly with Premiere Pro for easy editing. Jess Nottage, operations and technical director, Clear Cut Group, explains how clients require the benefits of cloud computing, but aren’t concerned about how it’s achieved, providing their practical and budgetary requirements are met. Thus, the post house’s current services are based on providing the benefits of cloud without relocating infrastructure and services to third-party data centres. “With our high-performance, multi-site infrastructure, we can offer edit suite computers of varying spec plus multi-tier storage solutions with optional redundancy, accessible from virtually any global location,” he says. “We offer editing applications including Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and FCPX. The onboarding process for editors and producers can be achieved in a matter of minutes and is highly secure, using multi-factor authentication.” Racoon is agnostic with regards to its tools offering. “We offer Avid
Media Composer, Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve among others. It will always depend on what’s the right tool for the job on a production-by-production basis,” Layton adds. FLEXIBLE FRIEND Of course, each production and its requirements are different, so flexibility is paramount. Nottage says that Clear Cut finds most productions require a service that offers remote and on- premises editing (or even both simultaneously), and with multiple sites in London and Birmingham, his company manages that. “There are many reasons why we chose to build on our existing private cloud infrastructure rather than move to a data centre,” he explains. “As a mature technology provider offering creative services, we already owned what our clients needed and were reluctant to increase overheads on external cloud services.” AT WHAT COST? Total cost of ownership (TCO) comes into the equation, and Nottage says ‘it’s a point often raised’ when comparing cloud to on-premises solutions. “We have absolute confidence in our decision to develop our on-premises private cloud, as the ROI, including all the associated costs, makes clear sense.” He continues: “Increasingly, productions are considering internet transfer of camera rushes to a globally accessible storage device, but many productions still prefer to deliver drives to a trusted physical location. Often the connectivity at a production’s location is a barrier that introduces risks to the schedule. With editorial staff at dedicated facilities, there’s no risk of error with tight media transfer schedules. Our clients deliver camera rushes directly to us by utilising fast file transfer technology in the form of Signiant Media Shuttle.” Layton adds: “If we only used public cloud, then the costs would be prohibitive for our market. Cost is always a huge consideration, as production budgets and schedules are continually squeezed.”
HYBRID APPROACH Clear Cut Group offers cloud computing, but hosted within its own data centres
CAMERA TO CLOUD Camera to cloud (C2C) does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a system in which a camera captures content and sends it securely in real time to a cloud- based service. While that sounds like an ideal scenario, C2C is still in its infancy. Nottage says it’s a useful tool for reviewing rushes, but there remain some workflow challenges to overcome before it becomes the mainstream approach for post-production. “An increase in camera encoders that offer a wider range of supported proxy file formats for edit applications,
HEAD IN THE CLOUD Jess Nottage (left) and Paul Scurrell (right) agree that the future of editing is in the cloud
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