While Silicon Valley start ups have been leveraging the virtual capabilities of the cloud for years, film and TV productions (essentially start ups that launch a single product and disband) are finding adoption harder because of workflow challenges presented by their "big data” video product and recent security incidents in the industry have only made it harder. But there is a way forward...

1. Driving rapid production
workflows in a virtual cloud
environment that puts
security first for high value
productions.

2. Life in a start-up
In Silicon Valley…
● lease temporary office space
● hire the smartest people and promise
them a big piece of the IPO or
company sale
● leverage virtual IT infrastructure, aka
“the cloud”, allowing rapid growth
without fixed costs
● develop “the product” in the cloud
with engineers are partners around the
world
In Hollywood…
● lease temporary production space
● hire the smartest people and promise
them a big piece of the back-end
● buy / rent equipment, manage local
storage, leverage 3rd party media
service providers
● collaborate on the production via
sneaker-net, FedEx, or fixed-cost file
transfer services on the internet

3. A typical post-production example
●a production shoots on-location in some remote part
of the world with globally sourced talent in all
disciplines of the creation process
●when “the shoot” ends, the majority of the creative
talent moves onto another production and small staff
of production and post-production experts stay
behind to edit and finish the film (director,
cinematographer, studio executives included)

4. A typical post-production example
●as many as 10-15 collaboration partners are chosen (often
through a bidding process), requiring rapid sharing of massive
video data repositories quickly and securely
●the incredibly short timelines demand late night and weekend
work from all parties
●the director, cinematographer, and studio executives often
need to manage multiple productions in different locations
around the world

5. The “big data” landscape of today’s productions
• 25 TB - 1 PB of video data on a single production
• 10-15 collaboration partners for sound mixing, color
grading, visual effects, editing, and studio approvals
• < 6 months of time typically available to the post production
process
• 2K workflows of yesterday are becoming 4K workflows
today, with even higher data requirements driven by high
dynamic range and wide color gamut science promised in
“Ultra HD” specifications - epsecially in VFX shots
• highly publicsized security failure events

6. The resulting challenges productions face
• Connecting multiple collaboration partners quickly and
securely
• Sending very large and rapidly changing media assets to
collaborators with delivery assurance
• Meeting the ever-changing challenges of production and
post production schedules (nights and weekends)
• Parking and landing large video projects in remote
locations on a temporary basis during the creative process

7. More challenges productions face
• Providing remote collaboration capability to supports
executives and talent who are often multi-tasking and
geographically challenged
• Accessing cloud service providers quickly and cheaply
• Delivering DR archival cost effectively
• Ensuring every media asset remains secure throughout
the process

8. The typical approach to meet the challenge
● While occasionally choosing specialized production studio
locations (i.e. Pinewood, Lantana) for post production, locations
are typically chosen for tax credits or proximity to distribution
studios.
● The result is often a scramble to find enough bandwidth for a
digital workflow between post production collaboration partners.
To compensate for timeline and bandwidth challenges, a “sneaker
net” approach is often taken, with hard drives or tapes being
ferried by courier, a “hodge podg”e of equipment installed in the
editing process, and lots of flights.

9. The typical result
●release dates DO NOT MOVE
●executives get frustrated
●workflow efficiency goes out the window
●security posture suffers (expediacy over security)

10. Best practices to meet the challenge
● Many “high value” productions these days are choosing to shoot
and post produce their movies at specialized production studios
that offer “modern post production technology services”
● Other productions are choosing to post produce their movies in
“media parks / offices” or with “studio partners” who have pre-
established access to high speed bandwidth, providing them
virtual access to “modern post production technology services”

11. Modern post production technology services
● High-speed bandwidth availability on a traffic-shaped or
uncontended network (i.e. not the internet)
● Responsive security services to establish private collaboration
between multiple partners
● File transfer services to share large video assets with multiple
partners seamlessly
● Digital storage service options for post production workflow
needs as well as the parking, landing, DR and short-term archival
of projects
● Real-time, high quality remote collaboration capabilities

12. SOHONET: A MEDIA SERVICE
COMPANY
For nearly 20 years Sohonet has been there side-by-side with our
customers, helping them deliver quality media content:
20YEARS
EXPERIENCE
• 400+ collaboration partners connected quickly and
securely
• Fast, Flexible and Phenomenal service
• World’s largest private network for media

13. Connected Cloud Services made possible by a global
private media network