CloudMediaHub?

Here at Strategic Blue, we have spent the last 18 months looking at how IT is used in the media to enable digital workflows for content production, manufacture and distribution. We started with Hollywood studios, trying to understand the best way to deal with the transfer and manipulation of very large high resolution files in a cloud computing context where concern over security is critical. Next, we looked at live TV where the emphasis leans towards ultra-reliable uptime and management and rapid manipulation of sheer volume of less extreme resolution digital content. We’re currently involved with customers engaged in content management, digital asset management, encoding and transcoding, VFX and rendering, digital distribution, cloud archiving and many more.

One thing that struck us was that we came across very few people who had a deep understanding of the entire workflow. Everyone is a specialist in a niche area trying to keep up with the latest tools and best practice for their chosen discipline – increasingly difficult as more products are launched, each of which covers more areas of specialism.
Coming from a cloud background, rather than a media one, our team now has a good overview and is deepening its knowledge of the areas of media where cloud computing is becoming established as best practice – a knowledge that we are happy to share more widely if it will assist IT users or suppliers to “get on the cloud”.

We have been particularly fortunate with our contacts in Hollywood who have taken the time to share their knowledge of the industry with us, and we are very grateful for this. These contacts, including various decision makers at major content owners, have made senior level introductions for us to their colleagues and peers, regularly make time in their frantic schedules to meet with us, and have gone out of their way to attend events we have held. We believe this is because we bring them updates on third party cloud computing infrastructure and software services that we have identified as of interest to them. These major content owners educate us about how digital content is created, manufactured and distributed to help us select services that are as relevant as possible to their upcoming digital challenges.

CloudMediaHub Online gives both us and prospective media cloud users a directory to find services that are relevant to particular media workflows.

The CloudMediaHub Forum provides a place to both find outwhat the vendors think of their own products, but also to hear what their partners and customers think.

The Strategic Blue team add the human touch to CloudMediaHub…if you want to embrace the cloud for a digital workflow, but can’t find the right solution at the right price on the right payment terms, please get in touch by phone or email, or meet us in person in London, or in the USA at the Hollywood Post Alliance Tech Retreat or at our stand N3222I at NAB. 

We’re always interested in hearing about more products that might be of interest within Hollywood. If you are a vendor with a media-relevant software product that you are looking to offer under a cloud model, and would like to find out more about CloudMediaHub, please get in touch with Rob Kay at cmh@strategic-blue.com.