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Advertising Company Consolidating Dropbox and Lucid
Company Situation
The company is a fully remote advertising agency specializing in producing TV spots and short-form video content. Their team is distributed across various locations throughout the country, handling a significant volume of raw footage and assets monthly. Their workflow manages hundreds of terabytes of media data, requiring collaboration not only among internal staff but also with external freelancers and contractors on a per-project basis.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the agency relies on a combination of multiple cloud storage and file sharing platforms to manage their media assets. They use Dropbox primarily for long-term archival storage and sharing external links to footage. Lucid acts as their active project workspace, where internal team members and collaborators access ongoing project files. For large file transfers from shoots, they utilize tools like MASV but still rely heavily on physically shipping hard drives due to limited internet bandwidth on location. Their infrastructure requires juggling between these platforms to move footage from ingest to editing and delivery, with frequent copying, uploading, and downloading across systems.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The agency faces several challenges with their current setup:
Fragmented systems increase complexity and risk breaking file sync across platforms.
Sharing footage with external partners is cumbersome because Lucid does not support easy external link sharing, necessitating continued use of Dropbox.
Physical transport of drives remains necessary due to insufficient internet speeds on location, slowing down the ingest process.
Managing multiple platforms leads to inefficiencies and potential version control issues.
Performance constraints require fully optimized network setups for smooth access to large raw video files.
Archiving and rotating footage between active projects and cold storage is a manual, multi-step process.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
By integrating Shade’s unified media management platform, the agency could consolidate their workflow into a single environment that supports end-to-end handling of footage—from ingest on set, through color grading, to post-production review and final delivery. Shade’s platform enables seamless cloud-based collaboration with robust support for large raw media files, reducing reliance on physical drives and multiple disconnected storage locations. With Shade’s cold storage tier and intelligent file management, the agency can automate archiving processes without losing quick access to active projects. Additionally, Shade’s secure, shareable links simplify external stakeholder collaboration, eliminating the need for separate sharing platforms.
Benefits
- Streamlined workflow with a single integrated platform for all stages of video production
- Reduced physical drive shipping by enabling faster cloud ingest and transfers
- Improved collaboration across distributed and external teams through secure, easy sharing
- Automated archiving and storage tiering to optimize active and cold media management
- Enhanced performance and reliability for working with large raw video files
- Lower operational complexity and risk of data sync errors
Technologies Used
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