Back to Workflows
Media Company Streamlining Media Asset Management with Amazon S3
Company Situation
The company operates within the media and publishing industry, managing a global, hybrid team of editors and production staff. Their workflow involves handling large media assets distributed across multiple locations, with a focus on collaboration and efficient content management. The team size and scale require robust digital asset management and cloud storage solutions that can support remote work and varied connectivity environments.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the company uses a proprietary Media Asset Management (MAM) system integrated with Amazon S3 for long-term storage, mandated by their parent company. For collaboration and review workflows, they rely on Frame.io, which serves as a review-and-approve platform as well as a workaround for moving media assets around. They have also explored LucidLink as a potential tool to virtualize cloud storage and streamline collaboration but encountered legal and contractual roadblocks.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The mandated MAM system is difficult for editors and production teams to use as a collaborative tool, leading to low adoption on the front end.
Upload speeds and usability issues make it inefficient for day-to-day production work.
Legal and contractual challenges prevented further engagement with LucidLink, despite liking the product’s functionality.
The team lacks an effective "active storage" or front-end collaboration tool that seamlessly integrates with their existing MAM and cloud storage infrastructure.
Current workarounds, such as using Frame.io for media movement, are suboptimal and indicate a need for a more integrated solution.
The hybrid and global nature of the team requires a system that performs well even with unreliable internet connections or remote work scenarios.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a virtualized cloud workspace that can integrate directly with Amazon S3, providing an intuitive, drive-like experience that editors find familiar—similar to using Finder on a Mac. This reduces the learning curve and speeds up media uploads and collaboration. Shade’s architecture supports hybrid teams operating on varied networks, making remote work more efficient and reliable. Additionally, Shade is willing and prepared to work through legal and contractual requirements to support enterprise companies, easing procurement hurdles. Shade would serve as the “active storage” collaboration layer, complementing the existing MAM system used for archival and long-term asset management, thereby creating a cohesive end-to-end workflow.
Benefits
- Familiar, user-friendly interface mimics native OS file browsing, enhancing user adoption.
- Faster upload speeds and reduced friction in daily production workflows.
- Seamless integration with existing Amazon S3 infrastructure for cloud-based storage.
- Supports hybrid and remote teams with optimized performance over inconsistent internet connections.
- Ability to replace suboptimal workarounds like Frame.io for media movement and collaboration.
- Proactive support for enterprise legal and contracting processes.
- Provides a scalable collaboration platform that can evolve with future AI-driven and workflow automation capabilities.
Technologies Used
Want to see how Shade can improve your workflow?
Book a Demo