During “normal” times, the award-winning media production company Taylor Made Media works from its creative hub in East London, collaborating closely with clients globally throughout the entire process. With strong and transparent client relationships, producers share content with colleagues and clients at each stage, requiring fast, efficient workflows and media delivery solutions.
When the UK went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ian McGinty, Head of Production at Taylor Made Media, approached innovative managed cloud services company BASE Media Cloud with the urgent need to deploy a solution for the company’s new remote working strategy. BASE Media Cloud provides integrated cloud storage and multicloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to high-profile media brands like BBC, COPA90, Formula E, ITV and Objective Media Group. As an Aspera partner, BASE Media Cloud uses Aspera on Cloud and IBM Cloud® Object Storage solutions to increase efficiencies in media distribution solutions.
As staff were forced to work remotely, Taylor Made Media needed to quickly shift from its on-premises storage and manual media workflow. To maintain the efficiency of media exchange with clients and colleagues, it had to immediately migrate all media assets to a cloud storage solution, almost overnight. Restricted access to data centers during the first weekend of lockdown posed significant data migration challenges.
“When we needed to implement a remote post-production workflow at short notice, we reached out to BASE who got us set up immediately,” says McGinty. “As soon as everything was online, we were given a tutorial on how to navigate and operate the system which gave us a clear insight into how we would use the service.”
Rapid Migration at Scale
Rapidly migrated 10TB of creative assets
Rapid Cloud Implementation
New cloud storage up and running within 48 hours
With several projects in progress and both staff and freelancers based at home with no access to its on-premises storage in London, the company needed a quick-turnaround solution with minimum disruption to familiar workflows and processes. It was imperative that assets like rushes, and editing, music and animation files be migrated efficiently and made accessible to all stakeholders through cloud storage. With each asset containing valuable client content, factors such as data security, resiliency and redundancy were all key considerations in finding a solution that would provide instant access backup, archive and file sharing capabilities.
To ensure this fast and seamless transition to cloud-based storage and remote working, Taylor Made Media needed a solution with minimal training requirements and continuous technical support for creatives working around the clock. With the time-sensitive nature of the situation, the team wanted a personalized service from a partner that understands its business and technical requirements. It was also important that the solution be modular to enable the company to future proof its production workflows and facilitate adjacent services such as media asset management and transcoding for the potential creation of a virtual studio in future.
Based on its long-standing relationship with BASE Media Cloud and previous discussions about virtualizing its storage, Taylor Made Media was confident that the company offered the expertise and support needed to migrate its storage and data workflows. Understanding the project’s urgent requirement — migrating 10 TB of data over a single weekend — BASE Media Cloud used the Aspera on Cloud and IBM Cloud Object Storage solutions alongside its migration and support services for the large data migration.
The decision was made on a Friday and Taylor Made Media’s employees were working seamlessly by the following Monday, accessing rushes and project materials quickly and remotely via their standard home IP connections. Due to IP connectivity restrictions at the company’s London production facility, the hard drive was transferred directly to the UK-based data center, using Aspera on Cloud to migrate the assets from there to IBM Cloud Object Storage.
The foundation of the solution is built on the Aspera on Cloud file transfer service, while the underlying IBM Cloud Object Storage, with built-in erasure coding, provides Taylor Made Media with increased security, resiliency and redundancy. The combined BASE Media Cloud–Aspera on Cloud service runs as a managed service inside IBM Cloud data centers in the UK, directly connected to the IBM Cloud Object Storage platform.
“Within a couple days of first contacting BASE Media Cloud we were completely set up for remote working and our team of editors and freelancers were happily sharing footage and collaborating on multiple projects,” says McGinty. “It has made our transition from entirely office-based to entirely remote-based working pretty much seamless, allowing us to pick up from our homes on the Monday almost exactly where we had left off in the office on the Friday.”
BASE Media Cloud was able to deliver a solution that has centralized Taylor Made Media’s storage in the cloud using the Aspera on Cloud and IBM Cloud Object Storage solutions, while ensuring that remote creatives can access valuable media assets and collaborate seamlessly. Taylor Made Media’s new remote working strategy has enhanced its workflows and created a more dynamic way of working, whether from the studio in London or from home offices.
The integration of Aspera on Cloud with IBM Cloud Object Storage has enabled Taylor Made Media to maintain its efficiency in delivering creative support to clients. Alongside BASE Media Cloud’s technical and migration support, it guarantees efficient workflows and future-proofs Taylor Made Media’s operations at an uncertain time.
Benefits:
- Centralized processes: the solution provides a single storage hub for creatives to access files.
- High performance: provides fast and security-rich movement of valuable assets via the cloud using home IP connections.
- Flexibility: enables staff to productively work from the safety and comfort of their homes.
- Future-proofed: potential to add more storage space and create a fully virtualized studio.
Founded in 2010, London-based multi-award-winning media production company Taylor Made Media (link resides outside ibm.com) has produced numerous films for some of the world’s leading brands, including Accenture, Barclays, Liberty Global and American Express. Its team of creatives is known for creating films that influence audiences and add value to clients’ brand messaging. From concept to creative, the team’s brand and broadcast experience ensures the delivery of high-value brand content.
About BASE Media Cloud
To meet the increasing challenges brought about by the rising volumes of media files being acquired, processed and delivered throughout the media production process, BASE Media Cloud (link resides outside ibm.com) offers a suite of ready-made cloud services comprising media storage, media asset management, cloud editing, file transfer, branded channels and content distribution.
The fully managed multicloud services are offered on a pay-as-you-go basis, reducing its media customers’ capital expenditure and operational costs, while adjusting to flexible production budgets.
BASE Media Cloud was launched in 2015 and has since gone on to service multiple clients across the digital media market, including sports, online video, production, post facilities, broadcasters, agencies, gaming and education.
Footnotes
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