How our solutions provided by our partners can be integrated into a seamless workflow

The challenges digital media professionals face and how cloud native media services can help overcome those challenges 

 

When we meet with clients, we often encounter a common issue where many media companies still rely on legacy workflows and have data stored on on-premises equipment such as hard drives, LTO backups, and devices stored in different locations. They may also use online shared storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox. Many clients also struggle to collaborate effectively with their team members, whether they are in the office or working remotely. It can be rare to come across an organization that has completely restructured its processes from the ground up, starting with a blank slate. So, how can you implement cloud-based workflows in your processes? We explain all below and how our partners support us to deliver cloud native media services. 

Our partner’s involvement in our three-step digital transformation process 

 

Step 1: Migrate to the cloud 

 

We guide our customers through a three-step digital transformation process. The first step involves helping companies migrate to the cloud, regardless of the size of their data, whether it’s moving one terabyte of storage into an archive or multiple petabytes of data from various global locations. They aggregate all the data from on-premises locations, organize it into a compatible format, and then migrate it to a preferred cloud storage provider – we work with IBM and AWS. Our Professional Services team is equipped to assist and support our clients throughout this migration phase. Following this, we design a robust and scalable long-term cloud solution tailored to their ongoing business needs. 

 

If clients are looking for a hybrid cloud infrastructure, this involves collaboration with several of our technology partners. One of these partners is Backlight, which offers iconik, a media asset management solution that allows users to access content and collaborate from anywhere. It’s essential for reviewing, annotating, and commenting on ongoing productions. We onboard users onto iconik using the iconik Storage Gateway (ISG), which allows you to store your data on-premises while also syncing and uploading it to the cloud. With the ISG, your data remains entirely on-premises, utilizing your local resources to transcode lightweight proxies that are sent to the cloud. This way, your team can access the full content in web-ready formats while keeping the original masters stored securely on-premises. This solution effectively bridges the gap in today’s remote working environment. 

 

In scenarios where clients want to eliminate their on-premises storage and transition to a 100% cloud infrastructure, we have partnered with LucidLink to facilitate this shift. All the data is hosted on S3 Storage and can be connected to the iconik Media Asset Management (MAM) system, which functions as a content hub. LucidLink acts as a service that interfaces with the chosen cloud storage provider, making it accessible to applications used by end users, such as creative software that can read data from local disks. This setup removes the need to copy data and create duplicate versions, solving issues related to wasted time and the security risks associated with having data stored in disparate locations. LucidLink also supports hybrid workflows where organizations with a distributed workforce can ensure team members in the office and those working remotely can access the same files, fostering real-time collaboration with ease. 

 

A new addition to our partner network is Hiscale who provide transcoding and workflow automation. Together, we are working on a large project to ingest hundreds of thousands of hours of content in various formats. Hiscale specializes in handling raw camera formats and offers a natively scalable solution that can adapt to different workloads. They can transcode content regardless of its location, and their transcoding automation software also facilitates migration. This allows customers to scale operations up, enabling numerous processes to run simultaneously or to scale down when they’re in normal operation mode. 

 

Step 2: Create your content hub 

 

The next step is to create your content hub with a media asset management system. This serves as a centralized location where all digital media and associated assets can be indexed, processed, tagged, searched, managed, and made more readily accessible to authorized users worldwide.  

 

Every organization has media, even if they are not a traditional media company, and the amount of content being produced is rapidly increasing. As content volume grows, so does the need for effective organization, archiving, and cost management. Therefore, having a media asset management system is essential for effectively managing your media files. 

 

It’s not feasible to continually scale up your archive managers and media managers at the same pace as media is created. You need to organize these assets in automated ways and leverage available tools to keep costs down. Modern media asset management platforms are no longer just dusty archives, they also serve as research hubs where users can easily locate the content they need. 

 

The tagging features of a MAM system can facilitate content discovery, eliminating the need to dig through old tapes in a storage facility or contact former colleagues for help. As your organization evolves, personnel changes are inevitable, so it’s crucial to maintain control over your content through a media asset management system. 

 

Step 3: Transform your workflows 

 

Finally, we transform your workflows. Our software engineering team integrates specific base-approved tools and workflows to enhance usability for daily users. By focusing on the previous steps, our team of experts, who have backgrounds working for leading media brands, help our customers achieve a successful digital transformation tailored to their specific needs. 

 

By integrating IBM/AWS, Backlight, LucidLink, and Hiscale into a unified workflow, you can ingest media into the iconik MAM system to create proxies, leverage the transcoding automation, and capture live sources in your preferred production formats with Hiscale. You can then reposit data in LucidLink S3 Storage as your cloud NAS and archive it with your chosen cloud storage provider in one holistic solution. This approach is unique to base as you aren’t just purchasing a single product but rather a comprehensive solution that addresses challenges associated with large files, distributed files, rapid project turnarounds, and long-form projects. Editors and other members of the production team, can work in real-time on data as it flows through this streamlined workflow. 

 

The importance of security  

 

At base, we design and build our systems with security embedded at every layer. Two years ago, we achieved the ISO27001 certification, which is one of the highest levels of security accreditation available. When we build these solutions, we ensure that each layer is hardened. Our server infrastructure is hosted in the public cloud and is separated for each client. Access is restricted to certain individuals who are authorized for each software application, all of which also undergo security accreditation. 

 

We only partner with suppliers that have successfully met our information security standards. All data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Additionally, as you progress up the stack to user access levels, we provide multi-factor authentication and even biometric scanning through a mobile app to facilitate secure access to the system.