We understand why organizations mandate this – especially if they assume that their assets need to be in the public cloud to enable remote collaboration. But no! You don’t have to forgo the cloud to maintain security. With a ‘vendor cloud’ solution like Aframe, your assets don’t traverse the Internet without being encrypted. Make sure your vendor encrypts uploads and downloads with the AES 128-bit standard for secure connections to every client. That it has layered protections spanning from the hosting platform to the browser using 256-bit SSL encryption to protect your
metadata, passwords, and proxies streaming from the cloud. Customer data should be stored redundantly in separate geographic locations at tier 1 datacenters that are SSAE 16 compliant and ISO 27001 aware. In the case of Aframe, the cloud solution has passed strict security audits from multiple organizations including the BBC, Fox Sports, Endemol and others, so its users are confident that their media is safe.
Myth 3: We have to work on private servers to keep our media secure
Myth 4: We already have a MAM system. We can use that for remote media access and collaboration
Be careful here. Media asset management (MAM) systems are a foundation component of the video workflow, designed to handle finished media − edited, approved pieces. Trying to make those systems do double-duty as a collaboration system for work in progress clutters them up with raw footage, short shelf-life pieces and other production assets.
Also, because most MAMs are designed for technical users, they don’t make it easy for non-technical users to find and use content. That’s exactly what you want your cloud collaboration solution to do − enable all users to share, organize and work with footage in an open, transparent way with videos being discoverable throughout the process. You want to be able to file media in controlled project folders, add relevant data right from the start, and then move projects into the MAM once they’re finished. And MAM’s don’t typically include transcoding capabilities that let you upload files in any format knowing that they will be homogenized into your house format automatically, as the best cloud video solutions do. In the end, trying to use a MAM for collaborative production won’t streamline your workflow, and could end up torpedoing your MAM.
Myth 5: We don’t create enough video to warrant a cloud solution. We get by with FTP/Dropbox/shipping drives
Let’s break this one down. Dropbox, Hightail and other file hosting sites are an easy, super cheap (or even free) way to make files accessible to remote teams. But they don’t centralize media and notes, enable true collaboration or save you any steps. Most will require additional tools to playback media, ad notes, merge metadata, and export results. Some don’t even handle high-resolution media. Think about how you approach the creation of even one video piece. How much time do you spend uploading, copying and downloading footage? (For a single point of comparison, Aframe’s transfer speeds are 15x faster than FTP.) Naming and grouping selected shots? Transcoding cuts into the different formats your reviewers need? Shipping DVDs and drives? How does the editor receive and keep track of notes? How many versions do you have floating out there during the process? How often do your reviewers have trouble playing back files? After the piece is finished, how easy is it to find and re-use footage from that project?
BROADCAST BEAT MAGAZINE
IBC Issue September 2015
49