Five technical challenges of producing in-house video for your company
Most every business today is turning out video. How a company approaches creating their videos says a lot about who they are, no matter if they make shoes, robots or soft drinks. Do they invest in an in-house media team and studio? Maybe they hire a professional producer and crew to take over the office for a day or regularly work with a production agency. Do they incorporate animation, use employees as talent or hire actors?
If you work for a large company with video at the center of your brand voice, your company has likely developed a new arm that looks and acts a lot like a media production company. And you may be running up against many of the technical challenges that the Media & Entertainment industry has had to overcome, such as:
1. Quickly sending and sharing large video files,
2. Security concerns moving content over the Internet,
3. Tight production timelines and globally distributed editorial teams,
4. Distributing the same finished video to multiple locations around the world,
5. Managing video storage and archives both on-premises and in the cloud.
Video content off a set starts off very large, especially if capture is in 4K. So, even if your finished product is only three minutes, you’re probably dealing with huge files (e.g. > 10GB) that need to move quickly over the Internet to reach editing or review teams located some distance away.
If the video is only intended for YouTube and web or mobile consumption, that might be the end of your need to transfer big files. But if it’s intended to be viewed on location at various stores or at a trade show for instance, moving the finished product could involve many more transfers.
And that doesn’t even touch storage, archiving or moving it to the cloud for various reasons. Standard IP (internet protocol) technology cannot reliably handle files so large and many teams resort to shipping hard drives, which are difficult to track and secure, and cost too much time and money to use regularly. Luckily all of this has been figured out.
Borrowing technology from the media industry
Signiant was at the forefront of solving these issues for the Media & Entertainment industry. Our acceleration technology has lived in the technology ecosystems of large media enterprises since the dawn of digital filmmaking.
And, over the past few years, since making our technology available as cloud-native services, we’ve been able to reach companies of all sizes and kinds who need to securely send large videos, handle tight production timelines and incorporate cloud storage into their archives and workflows.
Most of our customers are professional broadcasters, production and post production companies. They make the films and television we all love, and the news that keeps us informed. Unlike other industries, the product they produce and value the most is video. So they have invested in technology that supports cost-effective, efficient, secure and scalable workflows. For them, Signiant is a critical component of their business, many comparing it to a public utility like electricity and the Internet.
“Signiant’s service has become a public utility for us. I don’t believe we can operate without it,” said Evan Schechtman, CTO of RadicalMedia
As video becomes more and more valuable to companies outside of M&E, many are looking to Signiant as well. Of course, the video production ecosystem of a computer or clothing manufacturer is quite different than that of a professional production company, but they are adapting our services to meet their goals. And we are excited to help them figure it out.
