Research from listed software firm Blackbird has claimed that video tools not created in the cloud lead to inefficient workflows.
The London-listed firm, which recently won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise and was sixth on our MediaTech 50 ranking, is the creator of a cloud-native video editing platform.
The study – compiled with Caretta Research and based on a global survey of video editors, producers, managers and ‘prosumers’ – found cloud production and remote editing are now a universal part of content creation, used by 90% of video professionals; yet the impact on workflows risks being undermined by widespread use of inefficient methods for accessing content remotely that are not cloud-native.
It said 65% of users are now moving original high-res media files around the internet to support remote editing workflows, while many others are moving proxy files, or remoting back to an edit workstation in a facility, a model that is wasteful of expensive resources.
27% of remote editors are making use of a cloud-native browser-based production platform like Blackbird — twice as popular as using PC-over-IP to connect to a cloud edit workstation.
Cloud workflows were already in use by 60% of users before the Covid-19 pandemic but grew significantly as a result: 84% of users saw cloud production and remote editing grow in response, and 58% expect it to expand further as business gets back to normal.
Robert Ambrose, Caretta Research co-founder and MD, said: “From our experience of talking with hundreds of industry professionals, we’re seeing a distinct shift from cloud-enabled workflows to cloud-native workflows.
“This study shows just that – the flexibility of working remotely has unlocked new value and savings but has often been compromised by adapting legacy ways of working. We’re now seeing the adoption of workflows and tools that are optimised for cloud, avoiding the cost and security issues of constantly moving content around.”
Blackbird plc CEO Ian McDonough added: “We’re proud that Blackbird is once again able to put some much needed, independently verified data into the market around adoption of cloud production following our recent sustainability and total cost of ownership papers.
“This study is illuminating in that we can see that cloud tools are being widely used and having an impact, but true progress is hampered by deploying inefficient, non-cloud native workflows. These inefficiencies can be most evident in speed, cost and flexibility which also happen to be the most important factors in any cloud workflow, according to the data we have collected.
“The encouraging news is that highly optimised, energy and carbon efficient cloud native technologies exist to solve these issues.”
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