Hedge, a Netherlands-born startup, founded in 2016, with the goal to simplify complex media workflows from acquisition and asset creation to post-production is back with good new for Avid editors. The company officially released Postlab full support for Media Composer, a cloud-native solution to enable collaborative remote editing workflows for Avid editors. Postlab serves as an extension to an on-premise Nexis or other Avid-compatible NAS/SAN storage.
Eliminating cumbersome access gateways and high latency associated with cloud-media workflows, Postlab for Media Composer provides a great user experience, regardless of available bandwidth. A flexible pricing model lets post facilities and media businesses use the Postlab platform without upfront commitment, and scale and shrink team sizes when needed.
“Media companies need a way to collaborate remotely right now. Given the uncertainty around the pandemic, many do not want to make significant investments or sweeping infrastructure changes,” states Paul Matthijs, co-founder and CEO of Hedge. “Postlab for Media Composer extends facilities’ on-premise storage investment by providing much-needed secure remote editing for a small incremental cost. It’s fast, secure remote editing that delivers the same great experience of being in the facility.”
The company claims that Postlab for Media Composer is intrinsically secure and doesn’t rely on slow and hard-to-configure VPNs, allowing editors to begin working immediately from anywhere, with no minimum requirement for an internet connection. Postlab keeps existing workspaces in sync and makes Avid’s incredibly useful Bin Locking feature work in the cloud so users can seamlessly collaborate on projects without overwriting each other’s work, a crucial component of any workflow, on-premise or in the cloud.
“Postlab for Media Composer is an Avid Nexis in the cloud with the benefits of a local station,” states Rich Camp, assistant editor at Jax Media, a production company that has worked on shows like “Russian Doll,” “Search Party,” and “Emily in Paris.” “Someone in Los Angeles can work on a show with someone in New York seamlessly. On a recent production, we were working in bins back and forth across the Atlantic, in real-time. It’s a great workflow.”
Postlab for Media Composer brings the best of the cloud with none of the drawback. Here are some of the highlights of the solution, described by Hedge:
- Immediate onboarding – Postlab has no middleware, storage restrictions or other limiting factors. It’s a seamless transition from on-premise to cloud, with essential features and characteristics of your Nexis (or Avid compatible NAS/SAN) workflow intact.
- Edit Even on Lightweight Connection – Postlab works with both fast and slow connections and where bandwidth is insufficient for real-time cloud operation, media files are prefetched and intelligently cached, so they’re available for immediate editing. Postlab’s Workspace feature also allows editors to cache a complete folder and its content locally, so only metadata and lock files require syncing, which is instantaneous.
- Familiar Workspace and Collaboration – Postlab for Media Composer extends Nexis and traditional Avid NAS/SAN storage workflows into the cloud, providing editors a familiar workspace, and capabilities like Bin Locking ensure that editors can collaborate without overwriting important work – just as they’re used to.
- Low Cloud Costs – Moving media files in and out of the cloud is often time-consuming and costly due to egress fees. Postlab for Media Composer cuts the costs along with the complexity of using the cloud through metadata and a “zero egress” policy; no hidden costs related to cloud storage – a rarity in a world dominated by Azure and AWS.
- Scalable, Without Vendor Lock-In – Pay-as-you-go based model allows facilities to pay a basic monthly fee and then add additional Postlab users for as little as one day, increasing or decreasing both storage and users on an as-needed basis – essential for facilities working on dynamic productions and employing varying numbers of freelancers.
Once more Hedge, the creator of modern, intelligent software for video professionals, puts ease of use at the top of its goals. The company’s flagship application, Hedge, set new standards for media backup, while Canister demystified the previously arcane process of LTO archiving. With the release of Postlab in 2019, Hedge made remote collaboration affordable for every editor working from home, and in the studio. Hedge’s products are in daily use by over 30,000 customers all over the world, from Hollywood productions to wedding shoots, and everything in between. Now Postlab for Media Composer takes Avid editors to the cloud.
Postlab for Media Composer works for all Avid Media Composer Ultimate editors, whether they’re working on-premise or from home, and supports all types of storage—an on-prem Nexis system, NAS or SAN—or no on-prem storage at all. Hedge’s 15-day fully functional trial lets facilities put Postlab for Media Composer to the test with zero upfront commitment.
The whole system works as a seamless extension of Avide Nexis, says Hedge, adding that “moving to Postlab is an easy step for facilities with an Avid Nexis, , with no training required and no change to the existing workflow. Media Composer editors will see their familiar workspaces and workflows, with the added benefit of being able to work anywhere.”
Avid Bin Locking is what allows editors to collaborate using shared storage. This is built natively into Postlab and works alongside Avid-compatible local shared storage whether it’s a NAS or SAN. Also, Media Composer Ultimate customers who do not have a centralized NAS/SAN storage solution can fully leverage Drive, Postlab’s shared storage in the cloud. An integral part of the Postlab platform, Drive allows for editing straight from the cloud without requiring to download all media first. Drive scales with a team’s needs, ensuring you never pay for storage that’s being used.
Visit Hedge’s website for more background on Postlab for Media Composer and to learn more about the new offering.