At the Hollywood Professional Association Tech Retreat in February, I was inundated with the latest technological advancements for video production. From new technology used on Avatar to effects in Lord of the Rings, I was amazed at what technology can do. That said, the most exciting innovation unveiled at HPA wasn’t a flashy special effect. It was a revolutionary solution for post-production workflows.
GB Labs released a new feature of Unify Hub that tackles two common challenges faced by customers: the need to efficiently download entire film projects instead of just specific segments for editing, and the difficulty of managing data across various locations. Read on for what I learned about this solution and how it is going to remove a lot of frustration from post-production.
What Unify Hub and Nebula can do
The GB Labs Unify Hub is an innovative video editing storage solution that caters to customers who want both cloud and on-premise options. Unify Hub connects on-premise workspaces and cloud services to remote users. It provides remote workers with a seamless on premise experience, regardless of their location. It now also provides fast data access thanks to Nebula, their cloud-based media storage solution. Nebula is powered by Storj cloud storage, adding deeper intelligence and global functionality to Unify Hub. This allows users to work directly from the GB Labs Cloud with project files that are always in sync and accessible from anywhere in the world.
Nebula also includes advanced security features such as two-factor authentication, encryption, and 24/7 monitoring to ensure that all data stays safe and secure. In addition, it provides quick response times, ensuring that remote workers never have to wait long for their data or documents. With Unify Hub plus Nebula, studios can be sure that their data is always secure and accessible wherever it is needed.
The real time saver is in file access
Block level acceleration was a big improvement in helping studios work remotely. This allows editors to download a segment of a file from the cloud to work on it. Unfortunately, while this enabled remote work, it cripples workflow for those on premise. Every editor at the studio is trying to pull down content from the cloud and it kills bandwidth.
The GB Labs solution gives studios the best of both. This new solution enables local downloads so it is super fast for those at a corporate location, while still allowing remote access from cloud storage.
Here are some key features of Unify Hub that helps make hybrid access work:
- Connectivity: Unify Hub connects on-premise workspaces and cloud services to remote users. This provides remote workers with a seamless on-premise experience, regardless of location. Remote workers can access the same data and applications as on-premise workers, without any lag or latency.
- Fast data access: Unify Hub works in conjunction with remote workers' GB Labs storage to provide accelerated and self-managing caching area. This enables remote workers to access data faster, regardless of the location.
- Secure: Unify Hub provides authenticated access with secure connection protocols. This ensures that your data is secure, even when accessed remotely.
- One set of data: Unify Hub ensures that there is only one set of "Work in progress" (WIP) data that is easy to manage and implement backup and DR strategies. This means that all workers, regardless of location, are working with the same data set.
- Scalable: Unify Hub is highly scalable, which means you can add more workstations with instant access to one set of data. This makes it easy to expand your remote workforce without worrying about data management.
- Flexible: Unify Hub works with all GB Labs storage and Nebula cloud storage. This means that you can use the storage solution that best suits your needs.
- Unify Hub Client Software: GB Labs provides client software to mount and synchronize the storage that a Unify Hub can control. This makes it easy to set up and manage Unify Hub for your remote workforce.
- Bi-directional synchronization: Unify Hub ensures that home users are kept in sync with the central set of data in the on-premise storage. This means that everyone is working with the most up-to-date version of the data.
Unify Hub from GB Labs is an ideal solution for organizations that want to streamline their remote workforce. It provides fast data access, secure connectivity, one set of data, scalability, flexibility, and bi-directional synchronization. This makes it easy to manage your data and applications, regardless of where your workers are located.
Studios need hybrid solutions to be effective
Unify Hub aligns local user permissions with cloud accounts, enabling single sign-in and streamlining secure access to cloud accounts on-premise. GB Labs technology powers the Unify Hub, speeding up user experience and reducing costs while saving internet bandwidth. And their system for smart cache saves egress because regularly used files do not require repeated egressing. This process is fully automated and managed to ensure only one true copy of data is in sync at all times.
I spent a lot of time at HPA talking with GB Labs and listening to their conversations with big name studios. The enthusiasm for this new solution was very apparent. It was clear that GB Labs is solving a very painful problem for studios that will improve productivity across a hybrid and global workforce. With Unify Hub plus Nebula, studios will be able to quickly pull file segments or the entire video file without bandwidth issues. While the special effects talks were amazing, I had a blast being there at the soft-release of this new technology at HPA. And I’m confident studios will be rapidly adopting the Unify Hub and Nebula solution this year.
