Why the Cloud is ideally suited for post-production – Part 3

Posted: 26/01/2015

In this final edition, we will wrap up the reasons that make the cloud ideally suited for post-production.
Security
Data security is an issue with any IT-based system. The risks of losing data can be mitigated by keeping multiple copies of data in multiple sites — something that is much easier for a cloud provider to do well than for an individual broadcaster. And, since only low-resolution proxies are uploaded to the cloud, original files can remain on local storage.

Workflows and Adoption
Workflow changes take people out of their comfort zones and therefore happen much more slowly than changes to the underlying technology. A decade after the launch of Forscene, the understanding and adoption of cloud workflows is still diffusing through the industry. An increasingly technology-literate young workforce — already fluent with cloud technologies in their personal lives — will continue to advance cloud acceptance and adoption.
Beyond Post-Production
The future of cloud-based broadcast infrastructures goes well beyond editing. Maintaining different silos of equipment for different stages of production becomes less necessary when the cloud offers ingest, graphics creation, post-production, publishing, hosting, search, distribution and advertising.
Producers of genres such as near live sports for Internet and mobile distribution can already do all their post-production in the cloud. Dedicated cloud post-production platforms such as Forscene can take in multiple live HD video feeds (at one point during testing for the Summer Games, there were 200!), incorporate graphics from various cloud creation systems, perform all the editing and finishing, conform at full resolution, and hand over to another cloud solution for volume distribution. Clients can (and do) mix and match. In fact, Microsoft Azure is designed for just such a scenario.
Conclusion
The relentless advances in technology are transforming post-production. Traditional desktop IT solutions are being replaced with more cost-efficient and productive cloud-based solutions. This technology change is transforming the distribution and consumption end of the business as well. Suppliers of traditional post tools would do well to embrace the unending power of the cloud.