Media & Publishing Company Streamlining Cloud Storage Integration

The company operates within the media and publishing sector, supporting a team of approximately 46 producers distributed across two continents. The primary production team is located in a major European city, with a smaller satellite team based internationally. Their workflow involves managing large volumes of raw and edited video footage, often with sensitive content that requires secure handling and storage.

Currently, the company uses an in-house media asset management (MAM) and project management system that relies on on-premise SAN storage and an API licensed through a third-party vendor. Producers primarily work with local storage, manually organizing project assets through dropdown menus to create project folders on the SAN. Collaboration involves physically transferring files between team members or sending footage via Google Drive to their international team. Backup processes are in place, with automated transfers to secondary storage and cloud-based object storage (Amazon S3). However, producers often work independently with their own copies of assets, leading to duplication and inefficient asset sharing.

- The existing in-house system and hardware are nearing end of life within 14 months, requiring a complete overhaul. - Physical and manual file transfers cause delays and inefficiencies, especially for the remote international team. - Reliance on Google Drive for cross-border collaboration is clunky, lacking native media previews or scrubbing capabilities. - Duplication of assets is common, as producers tend to work from local copies rather than searching a centralized repository. - Some sensitive raw footage is not uploaded to the cloud due to security concerns, limiting remote accessibility. - The current setup, while functional for about 46 users, may not scale efficiently as the team or content volume grows.

Shade offers an AI-powered cloud NAS solution designed to centralize media assets and streamline production workflows. By integrating AI-driven features such as facial recognition, transcription search, and metadata enrichment, Shade would enable producers to quickly locate and reuse assets across projects without duplication. Company-side encryption would address security concerns for sensitive footage, allowing safe cloud storage and remote collaboration. Shade’s platform replaces manual file transfers and Google Drive-based sharing with seamless cloud access, improving collaboration between geographically dispersed teams. Moreover, the cloud-native system is designed to scale efficiently with growing teams and content libraries, supporting complex project management needs with intuitive interfaces.