Categories
Workflow

Share links that are truly adaptable

..

Many companies offer to share media files.

But is their share service adaptable enough for the professional workflows required for film and TV productions?

As we know, the devil is in the detail


ioGates share links are adaptable

“Adaptable” -in our world – means that you can change any options on the share link after the link has been sent.

This could be:

  • Downloading Master, transcoded or proxy preview files
  • Multifactor authentication (MFA)
  • Enabling direct uploading on the link
  • Commenting by user
  • Download comments as Avid markers or PDF
  • Multifactor authentication (MFA)
  • Edit expire date
  • Automatically notifying on new files
  • Meta Data search and viewing
  • Enabling Personalized Watermarking
  • Automatically upload and download (Desktop app)
  • Adding and removing files/folders to a link

 

All these options are editable per user and not per project or folder.

Each user can have their own share option and they can be changed after the share link has been emailed.

Changing a setting will not require to send out the link again but just for the receiver to re-fresh the link to see the new settings.

 

Why would you change the share options AFTER having sent the link?:

 

..

CHANGE SHARING OPTIONS TO GO BOTH WAY

 

Imagine you’ve sent a link to your client Antony.

You find out that Antony has a reference clip you should see. Now, all you need to do is to add “upload rights” to Antony’s share link, and Antony can then upload the clip directly on the ioGates share link.

Even from his cell phone.

 

..

CHANGE PROXY PREVIEW RIGHTS

 

You’ve shared the production’s Dailies with Antony, and now he wants to download all the hundreds of proxy previews files.

You just add download rights for proxy on Antony’s share link, and he can now download the files, no resent of the link.

Antony can even make the ioGates Desktop app download the files automatically. He just copies the share link into the ioGates Desktop app, and the files will automatically be downloaded.

 

..

ADDING FILES TO AN EXISTING SHARED FOLDER

 

Antony has a link from a folder in the ioGates library.

You need to share more files with Antony but would like to keep the files in the same folder structure in the library.

You just make a copy of the selected files and drag them into Antony’s shared folder, and immediately Antony can see them. Antony will even get a notification email with a link to the new files.

Adaptable Share Links are truly adaptable at ioGates.

You can send the same link to several people, but each person can have different accesses and options with the link.

You can even make access timebound – and revoke access after having sent it.

 

Remember you have the option to try ioGates for free, for 14 days – put us to the test and see for your self that our share links are truly Adaptable Share Links.

Categories
Workflow

The Eurovision Song Contest Workflow

..

Over 1500 songs have been performed, and they equal 72 hours of listening


Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) has used ioGates as the central HUB for all media sharing and receiving between 43 countries, at 7 of the last 8 shows.

 

We thought that such a huge and diverse group of people might contain some insights you could use when you use ioGates.

 

So, we made a demonstration showing you how Eurovision Song Contest uses ioGates.

The demonstration was shown during the DPP Media Supply Festival which we are proud members of. (Security is vital for us)

 

What is the Eurovision Song Contest?

But before we jump into the demonstration, a little history lesson, to fathom the scope of ESC.

It’s safe to say that the contest and the technical needs have evolved over time – and still are:

  • The contest started back in 1956 with 7 countries. Today there are 43 countries!
  • Over 1500 songs have been performed, and they equal 72 hours of listening. Not to mention all the rehearsal takes, marketing material, and other production files must be shared, reviewed, and approved.
  • There are also preliminary contests within the countries, semi-finals, and the “grand final.”

All of which increases the need for an advanced technical solution that lets non-techies and non-producers share and watch production clips.

 

This is why we are so proud to be a part of ESC – but it’s also the reason, why we thought a demonstration of how they use ioGates could have a broader interest.

 

Whatch the demonstration

We hope this will inspire you in your daily use of ioGates:

  • How they use ioGates library to share and distribute files
  • How to upload and share
  • How they automate workflows
  • And the end, you’ll also get a quick overview of the security features.

 

Grab a cup of coffee ☕🍵 and watch the 9 min demonstration here 👉https://share.iogates.com/show/535266/367404-tdf8jus2akp3kqjz

Categories
Workflow

Secure Screening Rooms for your dailies

As a film producer or content owner, you need a secure platform to protect content to successfully produce and sell films worldwide.

Enter: Secure Screening Rooms from ioGates

Secure screening room for dailies
Secure screening room for dailies

How does a secure screening room work?

At ioGates the secure screening rooms let your clients receive customized screener links with easy-to-use two-factor authentication login.

Clients can create comments locked to the time code, and you will receive their comments and reply from any device.

You can read more about the ‘contextual commenting’ feature here

Of course, all ioGates screener links have DRM encryption and watermark protection where the receiver’s e-mail is burned into the proxy video preview. 

As well there are no limits on:

  • How many video files you can upload
  • The file size
  • Invites 

Workflow-wise you have:

In regards to the security you have:

The Secure-part of the screening room

ioGates comply with DPP and TPN for secure content delivery

DPP
Trusted Partner Network (TPN)

Contact us if you want to hear more about setting up a Secure Screening Room for you:

Categories
Workflow

Direct drag-and-drop from desktop to ioGates library

..

The wheel of evolution turns on a (drag-and-drop) revolution.


Drag-and-drop your desktop files

We’re so happy to announce this new drag-and-drop feature which we think is a big one – and the way you do ioGates will change forever.

 

We’re actually ecstatic 🥳 – and we do hope that you find this a huge help in your daily work

 

Since the inception of ioGates we have wanted this to be the way you worked.

But until now it hasn’t been possible in a safe and secure way. And security matters to us. Because we know it matters to you.

Some walls have been put in place to keep prying eyes out. However, other walls have kept you, the ioGates user, from working in a more simple and intuitive way.

The new ioGates uploader

Introducing the new uploader!

Well, technically it’s a new uploader but it feels more like we got rid of the upload concept altogether.

Because now you can drag files from your local desktop directly into any ioGates library folder and it will be copied in with subfolders, files and all.

Just like you know it from folders on your local computer!

Watch the video

With great power comes great responsibility

This means that a single drag and drop can move massive amounts of data to the ioGates library.

So as a result of releasing this power, we made the new uploader more robust and with a resume feature. If the connection accidentally drops, your upload will resume from where it broke, so you don’t have to upload the entirety again.

Where can you use drag and drop?

There are three areas in the ioGates interface you can drag files to.

No. 1
When you drag files into the ioGates library, the folder you are hovering over will become darker, and when you release your files, the upload will begin.

You can view the progress in the top right corner.

No. 2
You can also select a folder in the ioGates library and then drag your files into the area above the menu bar. I find this to be the easiest way.

No. 3
The third way is dragging your files to the area under the ioGates menu bar and letting go. Drag files onto here, and they will be going into the classic “inbox”.

We hope you all like the new features because as evolutions go, this one is quite the revolution!

All the ways to make input/output workflows

These new features bring the total sum of ioGates input/output workflows to nine:

  1. Drag and drop to any library folder.
  2. Direct FTPS upload to any library folder.
  3. Automatically upload and download with ioGates Desktop app.
  4. Upload on all ioGates Smart links
  5. Cell phone upload from Smart links
  6. Upload app for Android and iOS cell phones.
  7. AWS S3 upload and download.
  8. Public upload point.
  9. massive.io accelerated upload.

 

Watch the video
Categories
Workflow

This is how post-production work from home EVEN if their computers are slow or old

..

The Global Pandemic forced the post-production to find new ways to work – or they would’ve gone full stop.
In this short article, we’ll show you how one company did

The global pandemic and the restrictions accelerated a technological change in the filmmaking process: To face this challenge our concept called CloudStudio was born.

 

The first step was to set up a central exchange, where the raw media could be accessed by the crew. We used – and use – ioGates. An extremely flexible cloud-based storage platform, easily accessible with secure login credentials for those who wish to access the data.

 

An obstacle emerged as many computers were not up to running applications like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. To solve this we turned to cloud computing – which is a virtual computer-based in the cloud.

The actual human interface was solved by the lockdown itself. The plethora of platforms like Zoom and Teams allowed everyone to work together and share ideas as the production evolved.

Finally, we introduced an image restoration process developed by us.

 

In all, CloudStudio is a futuristic solution to the editing process.

It is the fruit of writers and directors working together with technology experts and scientists to find a better way to create better films.

 

Watch the movie (2 min) via our Smartlink

Told by Blake Jones, Director French Television
Categories
Workflow

Case Study: Post-production workflows are changing

The pandemic has blown the production industry apart, but now it’s starting to pick up the pieces and join them up. Working remotely from other production colleagues needs a new approach. ioGates-user Blake Jones explains how ioGates’ combination of ease of use, functionality and security has transformed his workflow – and there’s no going back.

Conventional production workflows

Until recently most Production, Editing and Color Grading workflows were “conventional”. This was fine until the Pandemic forced us to rethink and adapt due to the strict limitations imposed on us. We needed to devise a workflow that allowed the same degree of interaction between the Producer, Director, Editor and Colorist – even though they were in different countries or cities. Combining various online tools turned out to be the key in solving this issue. However, there were three obstacles that needed to be addressed:

Post production workflows are changing
Post-production workflows are changing

Sharing cross country

The first was how to get the media from the location shoot to the other members of the crew – some of them in different countries. We achieved this by using ioGates, which is an extremely flexible cloud-based storage and media transfer platform. It’s extremely secure and automatically generates lower resolution proxy copies of the original media during upload. Having these lower resolution media files is great as it allows the editor to use them instead of the full resolution media: obviously an advantage when working remotely. It’s also a simple task to generate login credentials for each member of the crew who might require access to the data.

Too old/small computers

The second obstacle was that several members of the crew were not totally prepared for the prospect of working from home. Many had computers that were not good enough to run applications like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. To solve this, we turned to cloud computing.

Cloud computing is essentially a virtual computer based in the cloud. There are several providers available, including Shadow Tech, Eclipse Tech or Bebop Technology. When using either of these providers, you simply login to their system and you’re greeted with a computer desktop. You can configure your virtual computer and install the applications you want to run. This method means that even though you might be using an older and less powerful computer on your desktop, your virtual computer is totally up to date. Another advantage to cloud computing is that cloud-based storage becomes even faster to work with as waiting for downloads from the cloud becomes a thing of the past.

The human touch

The third obstacle is the actual human interface. Zoom has become extremely popular for interaction between people separated due to the Pandemic. However, there are some companies that have expressed concerns about security. We opted instead to use a platform called DooZZoo. DooZZoo is in many ways similar to Zoom but allows you to easily see everyone’s desktop with the click of a mouse. We decided to use this service for maintaining the human interface. This meant that everyone could work together and share their ideas as the production is developing.

Cutting time in the editing room

We used our new workflow for a documentary to be shown on French Television. The director, Blake Jones, summed up beautifully his thoughts about the production.

“Our 52-minute film about the Italian comic Totò for the French channel Ciné+ Classic let us put our ideas into practice thanks to a system called ioGates. Our idea was to establish a central exchange of rushes, archival extracts etc. where everyone could easily find what they were looking for. Suddenly we realized that even the editing room had become irrelevant as the pandemic restrictions forced us to stay at home. The ioGates system allowed the editing to continue. By letting everyone access the material, our physical presence in the editing room was reduced to a mere 6 days. 

There is a story about Stanley Kubrick who had fifty rolls of the same scene and would ask “let’s see number 35, and now 41” – etc. ioGates provided a tool where the director could do just that himself, without “asking”.

The pandemic and the restrictions imposed upon us have simply accelerated a technological change in the editing process that was long desired. Quite honestly, a hidden fear lurks in the minds of most filmmakers who enter the editing room – that a lack of computer skills will deprive them of control over their creation. Even if this fear is compensated by the so-called “director’s cut” in documentary film making, sloppy editing can skew a message or even destroy the film entirely.”

A new production normal

We decided to expand the usage of ioGates to not only look after the Raw media from the project but in the end also the rendered deliverables. It means that we can easily have all the versions for different regions available as well. It’s extremely simple to create unique share links for customers with or without watermarks and it’s fantastic that ioGates even supports DRM.

As our ioGates storage is composed of multiple volumes, we opted to reserve one volume for an archive. This allows us to move the source material to this volume after the completion of the project. Managing our media in this fashion allows us to free up the other volumes for the next production. We found that this process worked so well it has become our new standard for future production and post-production projects.

Told by Blake Jones, Director French Television

Categories
Workflow

How to use AVID and ioGates together

AVID and ioGates works great together! Make automated media workflows with the Desktop App and save time. We’ve listed 3 different scenarios for you below, so you get the most out of the integration between the two systems.

Create dynamic and automated media workflows

Avid has a neat feature called ‘Dynamic Media Folders’ managing your media with watch folders looking for specific files and assigning them to your workflow. When combining ‘Dynamic Media Folders’ with the ioGates Desktop App, you can create dynamic and automated workflows pushing files to predefined destinations.

All you need to do is to link a folder in the ioGates Cloud Library to an Avid ‘Dynamic Media Folder’.

Avid imports and exports

WORKFLOW NO. 1

Files added to your assigned production folder in the ioGates Cloud Library will automatically be transferred and ingested into your Avid workstation.

You can also create links to your ioGates production folder, which will allow clients and partners to add new files. These files will then automatically be available for the editor to work with.

In the Cloud Library, as part of your automated workflow, ioGates can transcode any uploaded file to an Avid DNxHD file. This is useful if for example uploaded files originate from a mobile phone and need to be transcoded into a professional file format that can be used in the edit.

When exporting a sequence from the Avid to a dedicated Desktop App folder in ioGates, it can be shared with your clients. A notification email will automatically be issued alerting them to new material ready to view.

TV Stations (Broadcast Workflows)

WORKFLOW NO. 2

Reporters can, with the ioGates Desktop App, export directly from a local laptop to Avid. The Desktop App will upload rendered files to the ioGates account and send out notifying emails to the editor (back home) that new files are ready to be viewed and edited.

ioGates will seamlessly fit into any TV station’s workflow as well, managing uploaded files in the Cloud Library so that they are forwarded to the TV station’s own MAM.

ioGates can as well transcode incoming material into a preferred “in-house format” as well as issue notification emails and posts to the ‘Team & Slack’ channel when new files are ready.

Feature Film workflow

WORKFLOW NO. 3

Upload your feature film’s dailies and camera raw files to your ioGates library. The Desktop App will trigger the transcode of camera raw files to DNxHD in ioGates and push the DNxHD files to your Avid edit station. Links to uploaded dailies are emailed to the production crew and producers for instant viewing.

Categories
Workflow

Digital Film Workflows in the mid 90’s

Written by ioGates co-founder Jesper Andersen

1994 Destiny 601

Before Digital Film Lab, Kris Kolodziejski founded the company Destiny 601. Destiny 601 was a small company in a rough neighborhood in Copenhagen. It was only Kris, VFX artist Anders and me doing around-the-clock-commercials in a combination of linear Digibeta editing and VFX on a small Discreet Logic Flint workstation. Already at that time, Kris pushed for 2K, and somehow, we managed to get a 30-sec commercial through the Flint in 2K!

It was an eye-opener for clients to see the 2K cinema quality when they were used to upscaled Pal TV resolution.

DFL Warehouse, where Kris Kolodziejski and I worked
Digital Film Lab (DFL) Warehouse

1997 Digital Film Lab. Work in progress

The company grew, and in 1997 Destiny 601 was renamed Digital Film Lab and now owned two Discrete Logic Infernos. The order for the first Spirit DataCine in Scandinavia, was underway and was to be delivered in November that same year. The Spirit would only output SD in the beginning because of the heavy price tag on upgrading the rest of the pipeline to HD equipment. Kris was also much more interested in the data output from the Spirit, but we had to wait another 6 months before we received the first beta version that could output raw data from the telecine. Still, the grading monitor was in SD, and we only had the Spirit primary color corrector to use for the data output.

We did many data scanning tests, trying to match the SD grading monitor’s look to the print. Not an easy task. To make a test, we would:

  • Scan about 10-15 seconds to a local drive on an origin server.
  • Unmount the disk and run over the VFX department; this was in another building.
  • Mount the disk and import the dpx files into Inferno and see how it looked. It was especially critical not to crush the black levels, which could easily happen on the SD monitor.
  • Export DPX from the Inferno, make a film recording on the very slow Celco film recorder.
  • Take the negative and send it in a taxi to the lab for development.
  • We got a print back and could then book a cinema, about 1-2 days after the scanning.

All of us very excited went to the cinema only to be disappointed that the print did not look like the grading monitor. It may seem funny but it was very early days.

DLF workflow
DLF workflow

1998 front end processing lab

We realized that the main reason that we could not control the entire chain from the grading monitor to the film screen was the development of the re-recorded negative. Processing film is a chemical process, it has to be controlled precisely, so you get the same LAD numbers every time. So, the decision was made to build our own front-end processing lab in February 1998. Much work needed to be done as none of us had any ideas about developing negatives or building a processing lab, but we actually managed it and it was up and running by September. 

1998 World first full DI feature film

At the beginning of 1998, we did a full digital intermediate on the Swedish film “Zingo”. Later we discovered that Zingo was the first feature film in the world to be made entirely with a digital intermediate.

Negatives were scanned in as “selected cut” with handles, so it was easier to make the grading. Still using a SD monitor. We could now scan directly to a 36GB array on the Origin server. 36GB did not hold many frames, but the Inferno could now import over “Hippi” network, so no more running with harddisks to the other building. The Inferno did the conforming from the EDL, and the Inferno was running Beta software. In fact, so did most of the hardware we used. During the summer, we also received an Arri film recorder with the serial number 11. Slowly things started coming together. We could now control all the steps from scanning, grading, re-recording, and processing negative, even though we still only had SD grading and Spirit primary color corrector..

1999 HD monitoring and grading

During the winter of 99, we installed the DaVinci 2K color corrector together with a Sony 24″ HD monitor, and now we finally had full HD grading and total control of every part of the process. The board of directors had big ambitions, so they decided to open a London department the year after in 2000, but that’s another story.

This was a story about the early DI workflows, and I have focused on the equipment and workflows. But we need humans to think it all through, and it was Kris that did this, and Kris was the captain and an inspiration to us all, not only at Digital Film Lab but to the whole international Digital Intermedia community.

A special thanks and love to Kris Kolodziejski, it is unfortunate that you are not among us anymore.

Categories
Workflow

Ultra Secure Content Sharing Service Adds Desktop App and Smart Link Sharing

Ultra Secure Content Sharing Service

Our ultra-secure file-sharing services for media professionals has expanded its content sharing service to include new “Smart Link” automation and metadata management capabilities.

We’ve made a short video tutorial here: https://bit.ly/3lFggpe

Enhancements let users define multiple sharing rules in a single ioGates “Smart Link”. New metadata extraction capabilities index freshly shot content, making it easy for DITs, production staff and editors to locate frequently searched material like “slates,” “scenes” and “takes”. 

Combine Multiple Instructions in One ioGates “Smart Link”

The new ioGates desktop app manages secure uploads and downloads to and from mobile devices, workstations and servers. The ultra-secure gateway facilitates sharing of ioGates “Smart Links” with external collaborators – no account required. ioGates desktop app users can create multiple sharing rules within each individual ioGates “Smart Link”, automating  file movements and processing tasks. 

“It is not only our customers who want to upload and download files to and from their account – it’s their clients and partners too. So ioGates works bidirectionally for sharing and receiving,” states Tobias Steinmann, co-founder and CTO, ioGates. “With these new capabilities, ioGates users can automate tasks within the ioGates “Smart Link” such as automatically transcode the original camera negative (OCN) content for download into a non linear editing (NLE) application. The user can also set ioGates to monitor for NLE export activity for that particular content folder and set it to share to an individual or an entire team. It’s deep control over what you share with and who you share it with, yet simple enough to set up in minutes.” 

The ioGates “Smart Link” creates a link between the ioGates library hosted in the cloud and a local folder, giving users the flexibility to open only specific folders for downloading or uploading. Tobias adds, “Other vendors typically use a transfer app that requires account credentials for the login, which in our view is more complicated and assumes all the recipients to be users of the system, which is often not the case and therefore inconvenient.”

Use Dailies Metadata to Find Shots Fasters

The new ioGates metadata extraction capability indexes file names, letting users search metadata to quickly zero in on clips. “It’s common to hear “can you find this take?” on set or in the editing room. Sifting through thousands of clips with obscure file names can be painstaking and time-consuming. But ioGates is able to search through metadata structures without the need for using XML, which is a massive simplification for non-technical users,” explains Tobias. “With ioGates metadata extraction, you can find and use the exact details to quickly locate shots. This is especially important today where many productions are restricted to smaller crews on set and may not have a script reporter to track notes. ioGates is a massive time-saver, doing the heavy lifting of identifying and searching through the metadata associated with the raw production content. This allows directors to review shots and take decisions faster.”

A request of ioGates customers, the new feature, which adds metadata to the dailies “Smart Links,” lets production crews quickly sort the clips on details such as camera 1, 2, 3, audio recorder, actor/actress, scene, slate, take and more. Standard DIT applications like Silverstack from Pomfort.com can export any combination of metadata in the filename that ioGates then can import, making it easy for ioGates users to search on the right metadata.

As seen in the media

You might have seen this update in the media as well. It was published in these news outlets:

Categories
Workflow

Workflow for the Eurovision Song Contest

Individual countries can view their own files directly on any device. They can download proxy-previews, transcoded versions, or original source files. As well they can write comments on the timeline, locked to a timecode so that the hosting broadcaster can easily view their notes.

Why did Eurovision Song Contest choose ioGates

In 2013 Denmark won the Eurovision Song Contest, so the following year Denmark had to host the event organised and hosted by Danmarks Radio (DR), the national broadcasting corporation.


Eurovision has been using ioGates since 2014


DR was looking for a central HUB to manage all the file-based deliveries of rehearsal videos from each of the 41 participating countries. DR contacted ioGates and asked if this was a task that we could fulfill.

ioGates has been designed with borderless collaboration in mind and managed the task to a tee.

Every year since 2014, the hosting country with the national broadcaster had to choose a service for this task and it is a testament to the viability of the platform that ioGates was chosen every time as the preferred tool, except in year 2019.

In 2020, even though the original event was canceled due to the covid19 pandemic, it was decided to use ioGates as the service for the alternative event.

Flexible Workflows

Every host broadcaster have asked for specific set-ups and services in ioGates, but in general they all need three accounts:

  • Eurovision 2020 Production
  • Eurovision 2020 Press
  • Eurovision 2020 Delegates

Each account with its own library has its individual users, but selected users/admin people can access all three accounts as well.

The ioGates library is using a traditional folder structure so that each country has shared folders used by the national team, these folders can as well as easily be shared in any crossborder workflow. A shared folder can have as many subfolders as needed, e.g. upload, video, audio, text, etc.

Individual countries can now view their own files directly on any device, they can download proxy-previews, transcoded versions, or original source files. They can as well write comments on the timeline, locked to a timecode so that the hosting broadcaster can easily view their notes.

As the ioGates share links also act as an upload link, each country can upload their content back to the host broadcaster by just dragging files into the share link window.

There are two other main ways that Eurovision contestants can upload files to ioGates.

No. 1 – FTP upload directly from EVS disk recorder

The many rehearsals need to be uploaded and shared with all participating countries as easily as possible. Given that most of the host broadcasters use EVS disk recorders to record the rehearsals, it is simple to use the FTP upload feature directly from the EVS disk recorder. Before upload, the EVS operator writes the country code as a prefix at the start of the file name, e.g. “DE_filename.mov”.

ioGates will then check this prefix upon upload and move the incoming file to the right country folder in the library (in this instance Germany) and send out a notification email that a new rehearsal is ready for viewing.

No. 2 – batch ingest multiple files into ioGates

ioGates Desktop App is also a workflow that is used to batch ingest multiple files into ioGates. The Desktop App is an application (Win, Mac OS, iOS, Linux) which in a simple way creates an upload and download link between the ioGates cloud library and a local folder on the user’s computer. The editor can then export clips directly into the Desktop App watch folder. The clips will be uploaded, a proxy-preview will be made, and an email will be sent out to notify the recipients. All fully automated.

The Desktop App is also used to monitor all incoming files from each country and automatically download the source files and ingest them into the host broadcasters’ MAM server.

Security

Security is a crucial part of the Eurovision workflow. All share links can be protected with three levels depending on what the user believes to be necessary.

  • Two-factor authentication – The recipient receives a code on a mobile phone that must be used to view the link.
  • Personalized Watermark – The recipient’s email address is burned into the proxy video preview.
  • Digital Rights Management – DRM Encryption all the way to the monitor, and no screen dumps are possible.

The backend users can also be enabled for Two-factor authentication, so all access to ioGates cloud is wrapped in Two-factor authentication protections.

The kind of workflow you need?

If this is the kind of workflow you need for your media sharing, you can try ioGates for free