Back to Workflows
Media Services Firm Streamlining Distributed Post-Production Workflow
Company Situation
The company operates within the post-production and media services industry, managing high-end commercial projects primarily for a major automotive corporation. Their team is geographically dispersed across multiple U.S. states, including key creative hubs on both coasts and several inland locations. The group is currently navigating organizational changes due to a corporate consolidation under a larger parent company, with potential restructuring impacting their operational base.
Existing Workflow
The company’s workflow revolves around a hybrid infrastructure combining cloud and on-premises resources. They utilize AWS cloud instances, local workstations, and shared storage solutions to support a geographically distributed team of artists and operators. Their shared storage backbone relies heavily on a legacy system (Lucid Classic) for real-time access, complemented by on-prem Synology NAS units and extensive use of Dropbox for data replication and medium-term archival of large volumes of media assets (several petabytes). This setup supports fast-turnaround commercial projects requiring high-speed data access across dispersed locations, including international collaboration.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The legacy shared storage technology is aging and no longer meeting evolving performance and feature expectations.
Newer versions of their existing tools have not improved on reliability or user experience, causing frustration.
Data management is complex due to replication across multiple storage platforms, resulting in potential inefficiencies and workflow bottlenecks.
Geographic dispersion of the team creates challenges in maintaining seamless, real-time collaboration.
The company is facing uncertainty amid company restructuring, making the need for a streamlined, scalable workflow even more critical.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a modernized, cloud-native media workflow platform that would replace the aging shared storage infrastructure and simplify data management. By consolidating storage and collaboration through Shade’s centralized system, the company’s geographically dispersed team would gain faster, more reliable access to media assets without reliance on multiple replication layers or disparate tools. Shade’s scalability and flexibility would support both current fast-turnaround commercial projects and future growth or restructuring scenarios, enabling the company to maintain high production quality while reducing operational complexity.
Benefits
- Simplified data management with a single, unified platform
- Improved real-time collaboration across distributed teams
- Enhanced performance and reliability over legacy systems
- Elimination of redundant data replication and storage silos
- Scalability to adapt to organizational changes and project demands
- Reduced operational overhead and increased workflow efficiency