Posted: 30/06/2022
By Ian McDonough, CEO, Blackbird
To hear some of the news reports coming out of recent trade shows, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the industry has suddenly cottoned onto the idea of producing content in a browser.
The advantages of doing so certainly have a Wow factor! The cost efficiencies alone of not having to buy any dedicated hardware should make the decision to move to the cloud a no-brainer. Factor in the unrivalled flexibility of ramping up seats of specialist talent located anywhere and the ability to produce broadcast quality content using all the financial flex of Software-as-a-Service and creators everywhere have a right to be excited.
Fully featured edit suite in a browser
This is not new. Blackbird has been providing professional editing in a browser since 2018 and we’ve been packing on the functionality ever since. Blackbird can do things in a browser that others didn’t think possible.
With Blackbird you have instant precision access to your video with frame accurate editing within AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure. With support for up to 12 video tracks and 36 audio tracks, the toolset is highly responsive and, to quote one of our bigger customers, ‘just glides’.
The sophisticated functionality is mature and stable and includes alpha channel overlays, pan and zoom and multi-cam capability, realtime transitions, colour correction and effects. Blackbird supports full multichannel audio workflows. The platform’s subtitles and closed captions comply with international standards and powerful logging and review capabilities harmonise with integration to any MAM, CMS and CDN.
This barely scratches the surface of its postproduction powers and doesn’t even mention Blackbird’s rapid publishing prowess.
What we’ve achieved is not easy. We have heard that directly from much larger companies attempting the same thing. Everything we have done to make the user experience of Blackbird supremely friction-free required elite engineers ‘polishing the pebble’ over a sustained decades long period of R&D, as well as the strategic and financial commitment that goes with that. .
Cloud Native is your Cloud upgrade
Blackbird has not become the industry standard for professional grade editing in the browser without ruffling a few feathers. We will not shy from challenging the industry to change-up what it means to move to the cloud.
One popular version of cloud is’ virtualized’ or ‘remote production’ using cloud based tools. These solutions are indeed superior to traditional Outside Broadcast (OB) technology since they slash shipping and transportation requirements of kit and crew. However, they still require dedicated hardware – it is simply stored somewhere and controlled remotely over the Internet.
Cloud native solutions like Blackbird do not use or require dedicated hardware or infrastructure. This is the only way the industry can unlock the real benefits of cloud – namely scalability, flexibility, and sustainability.
We can prove this. Using Blackbird generates up to 91% less CO2 than on premise and cloud based workflows. At the same time, you can save up to 75% on infrastructure costs.
Cloud native solutions are essential to achieving effective remote working, global collaboration and to driving more sustainable working practices.
The industry is finally waking up to the realization we made a long time ago. The onus is on companies to leapfrog to a browser-based future.
Download the white paper – ‘How Blackbird Works’.
Blackbird is best-of-breed
Jon Hanford - Group CTO, Deltatre