We sat down with Jonathan Solomon, Partner Solutions Architect, Media & Entertainment at Amazon Web Services (AWS). We appreciate him joining us to discuss software that helps video editors collaborate. Let’s jump right into the conversation on the video editing collaboration software for remote teams.
AWS’s Jonathan Solomon on Video Editing Collaboration Software for Remote Teams
Question: Say I head up a project team working remotely on some video content for commercials for a client. I have no real workflow in place, and my team of editors, producers, and clients are spread out across the United States, and team members need to collaborate in real-time remotely. Tell me, what is the best way to edit videos with a remote team?
Answer: In response to COVID-19, the industry had to make the switch to remote production. This industry-wide experiment worked, and it became clear that it can be better for creators to work from the comfort of their own space and cost-effective too. Remote video production is here to stay. In the past, remote work was approached as a workaround. Creatives would access media via Remote Desktop from systems not designed for remote editing. Latency and low video quality negatively affected the user experience. Not the best conditions to get the creative juices flowing!
The best way to edit videos collaboratively with a remote team is to use a cloud-based solution that allows your creatives to interact virtually with the desktop but also allows producers and managers to supervise, review, and manage timelines. Web-based solutions have transformed these workflows. Editors can make changes, review and approval, and the whole team can see it live. A successful cloud-based video editing system will seamlessly integrate multiple platforms such as video editing and post-production, asset management, production storage, archive, playout, and workflow orchestration.
If you are a remote team without a workflow, finding a turnkey Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) system will get your team up and running quickly. Look for a platform developed by experts who are familiar with all the available tools and systems. You will want world-class support, so implementation is quick and easy.
Files must also be accessible to all so that collaborative editing, reviewing, and approvals happen in real-time and remotely. This speeds up production and reduces costs.
Additionally, the system should gather and populate metadata on ingest and make it easy to tag throughout the production process. This will help things move faster down to the line. Effective tagging also supports search and retrieval and makes it easy to repurpose and monetize content.
Cloud-based Media Management and Workflow SaaS systems are great for small and medium-sized video production companies. Once you free your company from onsite facilities, you can increase and decrease resources as you need. You pay only for what you use and don’t pay for idle systems.
Question: What are some of the basic requirements I should look for in a platform that has collaborative tools for high-quality video files? Production processes are changing fast. But teams still want quick review and approval while working with a large file in shared projects.
Answer: Increasingly, video production companies are turning to SaaS solutions. With a SaaS platform, an AWS Partner manages the underlying software and hardware, so you don’t have to manage or worry about the underlying infrastructure. You just use the software as you are used to using on-premises.
Finding a SaaS platform that is easy to implement is crucial. Being able to scale up and down quickly is part of the power a SaaS brings. If you have a video production that’s only scheduled for a few months, this translates to predictable spend.
The platform must have strong security with centralized authorization and be able to support not only the number of users and amount of media you need but also have the capacity to meet the needs of all of the platform’s other customers.
For resiliency, look for a platform that runs across multiple AWS Availability Zones so your creative team can keep production flowing uninterrupted. At AWS, we’re happy to be the resilient underlying infrastructure for Acorn Cloud.
Your work is your work. The system must have the capacity to store and retrieve large files. Ingesting should be efficient, and your assets should be easy to retrieve from The Cloud. Media assets and workflows should feel local when a creative is editing.
Supporting proxy workflows is important, especially if you work with 4K and other high-definition formats.
The platform should also integrate with the video production software that your team uses. Acorn Cloud is designed to work seamlessly with Adobe Premiere Pro as well as other products like DaVinci Resolve.
Question: What is the biggest learning curve for heads of post-production as they adopt remote workflows in The Cloud?
Answer: One thing the head of post-production won’t have to worry about is a learning curve for the creatives doing collaborative video editing. Cloud-based editing solutions like Adobe Premiere Pro have the same functionality and the same interface as the local applications they are used to.
Heads of post-production do have a couple of things to consider as they adopt remote workflows in The Cloud. I recommend looking at security and permissions first. For each user role, consider the least privilege people can have to get the work done. What permissions or access does an editor, a producer, or a colorist need? Then explore how to best leverage your SaaS tools throughout the production workflow.
With a turnkey SaaS solution, the workflow and media management experts have already done the undifferentiated heavy lifting. Creatives can just work on being creative and making some awesome content.
Find Out How Your Creative Teams Can Benefit from Acorn Cloud
Acorn Cloud is more than a workflow; it is a solution with full support and services behind it. Contact us today to see how Acorn Cloud can transform your video production process.
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