Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/426320
18 cgw n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4 pre-defi ned cloud boundaries, it's far more secure. The fundamental premise of the cloud makes it a natural fi t for DME, a space where big data is commonplace and workforces are anything but conventional. A few minutes of a Hollywood-cal- iber scene shot in 4 k can now easily exceed 100gb – a magni- tude far too large to be copying frequently, be it across the offi ce or across the country. Mean- while, DME workfl ows are getting more complex and distributed. Productions of all budgets have become the product of not one site, but multiple studios, post- production houses, and visual eff ects contractors scattered across the globe, with head counts in constant fl ux tracking the peaks and valleys of typical production workfl ows. That double whammy of logistical challenges is where the Workspace Cloud comes in. Its basic premise? Upload fi les to one central, shareable, cloud- based repository. Then rather than have every staff member and project stakeholder down- load the source data fi les – creating delays and superfl uous copies – stream the pixels in- stead. The repository becomes a virtual workspace, where project members can contrib- ute, review, and even mark up and edit others' content. A great example of the Cloud Workspace comes in the form of Ci, an innovative cloud-based solution from Sony Media Cloud Services, a business off shoot leveraging the resources of both Sony Electronics and Sony Pictures. A browser-accessible production and collaboration platform, Ci lets project staff upload and share their content (for instance, the dailies) with a director or other team mem- bers with permissions to review. Once the content is uploaded to the cloud, reviewers can stream the content, either in original or smaller, transcoded proxy video formats. Particularly in the age of 4 k, uploading big fi les is unavoid- able, but Ci keeps transfer time to an absolute minimum. SonyMS built a concurrent multi-part HTTP upload to break up one big video fi le into many smaller pieces, uploaded in parallel and distributed across as many servers as is necessary. For the truly gargantuan projects, Ci also made Aspera's high-speed plug-in available, along with the bandwidth to make it fl y. A cloud-based work- space provides a unique and bandwidth-effi cient way for production teams to collabo- rate, whether they are made up of employees or contractors, and regardless of where they're located. The Weather Company exploited Ci's location-agnostic support to unite its geograph- ically dispersed staff at the recent Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. The team's Ci cloud workspace allowed for dailies review and remote access across the globe. Of course, content data can only stay in the cloud if it doesn't have to be brought down to edit. Ci's got that covered as well, integrating a small suite of applications, such as VideoReview and Roughcut, with features to create cut-lists, allow annotation directly on video frames, and facilitate real-time group discussions. Throw in postproduction publishing and distribution ca- pabilities to handle the essential to-dos – like checking, caption- ing, language, and tools – and you've got a robust, end-to-end video contribution, review, edit- ing, and authoring platform, fully contained in the cloud. A workspace in the cloud off ers value, even if all goes ac- cording to plan. But how many productions ever go accord- ing to plan? There's always a hiccup, and a cloud-managed workfl ow is equipped to adapt more quickly, without impacting everything else in the pipeline. Can't fi nd an editor to get on- site, or someone unexpectedly gets ill? It's easy to bring anoth- er into the project virtually, no plane ticket necessary. T H E H O S T E D G R A P H I C S D E S K T O P C L O U D The workspace cloud works especially well for natural im- ages and video – upload once, then share, edit, and distribute from the cloud. But that model breaks down when it comes to synthetic imagery, rendered 3D graphics where there's typically going to be more than just one upload. In all likelihood, ani- mators, modelers, and eff ects artists will update fairly o en, for example, when incorporating changes in response to a direc- tor's review. Now, given traditional IT environments, multiple uploads sound unavoidable. I mean, how else can content devel- oped on a local desktop or mobile workstation get to the cloud? To answer that question with another, what if creators THE WEATHER COMPANY RELIED ON CI'S WORKSPACE TO STREAMLINE COLLABORATION AMONG REPORTERS SCATTERED AROUND SOCHI, RUSSIA.