It’s 2024 and I (wrongly) assumed that the ‘cloud’ was a well understood concept. That said, one of the top Google trends on the cloud is still surprisingly questions like “what is cloud computing?” and “the cloud”, and it shows that what I thought has long been common knowledge might still need some ‘clarification’.
In addition, I have had some ‘interesting’ conversations with some production companies and studios that also suggest that the cloud still is not well understood. Without mentioning any names, one of the funniest conversations I had recently was with a producer who informed me it was company “policy” not to use the internet or cloud, and yet the entire business was entirely dependent on cloud hosted SaaS services like Google Drive!? When I (politely) challenged this, they went on to explain how their files were on their computer, not in the ‘cloud’ (despite having shared links to these files with me via Google Drive and other cloud services). It was conversations like these that inspired me to write a course on the cloud for the IABM. Given that this is still happening, I thought it worth a super-simple summary of what the cloud is in this article.
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Studio Network Solutions (SNS) is a leading media technology company in the broadcast and post-production industry. Best known for their high-performance EVO shared storage solution, SNS has turned heads with the launch of EVO Cloud, a fully cloud-hosted solution for media production teams that is setting a new standard for remote and cloud-based creative workflows.
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I think it is safe to start from the assumption that every media business is moving from a smokestack approach – a production line of bespoke, application specific devices – to a software-defined, cloud smart architecture. This will include large elements of intelligent automation, eliminating the mundane to let people concentrate on where they generate real business value.
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File and object storage are both common technologies used for persistently storing digital media. While files and objects have many similarities, there are some notable differences.
A key difference is that while the contents of a file can be changed at any time, the content of an object can only be set when it’s originally created. An object can be replaced with an entirely new object with the same name (or “key”), but parts of an object cannot be changed independently. Simplifications like this facilitate improved scaling, reliability and data durability when all that’s needed is a mechanism to reliably store and retrieve fixed blobs of data.
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I was quite pleased to be asked recently by a Canadian colleague what our “theme” would be for the upcoming IBC show. For me, theme reflects the ethos of the Blue Lucy approach to trade shows; we don’t tend talk about product features or the specific capabilities in our roadmap.
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Technological transformation offers a host of benefits: it streamlines workflows, reduces inefficiency, and makes life easier for media professionals. So why is such beneficial change frequently met with resistance?
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Cloud-based asset management, post production and distribution are now the norm in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry. If you want to stay competitive, you need more than a technical partner who simply recognizes your business demands. You need a partner who inherently understands how cloud-native architecture provides unique benefits and possibilities that can keep your company ahead of the curve.
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Recently, the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) released its Media Hash List (MHL) specification to bring standardization to the media transfer process. The raw amount of data produced in the media and entertainment industry has never been greater than it is today, and will continue to grow well into the future. Similarly, there are now more data transfer points than ever before.
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Cloud adoption in broadcast and media continues to grow with most media businesses have had adopted cloud technology, and this was largely driven by COVID. The move to remote production and the increasing volumes of data due to M&E convergence have all contributed to the accelerated cloud adoption.
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This is the age of multi-tasking and multi-production. Behind the scenes of every news, sport and live broadcast channel is a team of people who make the content come to life, and here in 2022, almost every aspect is driven by computer technology. These live production environments rely on multi-server, multi-PC and multimonitor infrastructure, where people take control through our default peripherals; the keyboard and mouse.
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