What might at first seem trivial actually has a big impact: because the digitized distribution process not only saves UFA a lot of money, it also protects the environment. Previously, at the end of each day of shooting, courier services and production drivers transported the raw material on hard disks between locations all over Germany and the post-production facilities by road. "These are tens of thousands of kilometers that we want to eliminate in the future with our new full-cloud workflow. It also increases overall efficiency and production speed," says Ernst Feiler, Technology Director at UFA, "And that’s all without our employees having to change the way they work.”
That’s because, after every shoot, the crew plugs the storage media from the film cameras into a network-attached storage (NAS). Previously, the NAS was then picked up by a courier and taken to Potsdam. In the future, however, the NAS systems can simply stay put at locations with suitable connectivity – and transfer the data into the Open Telekom Cloud via the internet.
Deutsche Telekom will certainly also be our partner for future cloud projects. Because we can expect reliable, fast and highly available technology from them. And, what's more, they are competent partners at eye level who reliably meet any legal requirements of the GDPR.
The film industry is undergoing one of its biggest upheavals since the invention of color television. With more and more people consuming video content on the screens they carry around with them, the value chain is increasingly moving to where the audience is already: the cloud. It’s a development that UFA GmbH is well aware of: The German market leader in film and television production has already been digitizing its value chain for the past 10 years.
The Potsdam-based company’s next step is to distribute raw material via the cloud. Film material that is shot at different locations during production – such as at outside locations or film studios located far away – is currently still transported to the relevant post-production sites by courier. In the future, some of that data will be automatically transferred directly to the Open Telekom Cloud via the internet. All those involved in the process, such as the editors who turn the material into finished clips, will then have access to it.
Why doesn't UFA send the film material directly to the production headquarters via the internet? Quite simply because the company would then need their own storage capacities, which would not be freely scalable. That would involve having to purchase, store and maintain bulky IT hardware. In the Open Telekom Cloud, on the other hand, UFA will be using low-cost object-based storage (OBS) from now on. The data stored there can be classified at different levels: "cold" for occasional access over a year, "warm" for monthly data access and "standard" for more frequent access. The less frequent the access, the cheaper the storage.
The full-cloud workflow is currently being tested as part of a proof of concept (PoC). In the long term, Technology Director Feiler plans to move the film production’s entire value chain to the cloud. "Deutsche Telekom will certainly also be our partner for future cloud projects," says Feiler. "Because we can expect reliable, fast and highly available technology from them. And, what's more, they are competent partners at eye level who reliably meet any legal requirements of the GDPR."
UFA is one of the best-known entertainment brands in the world and market leader in film and television production in Germany. Founded more than 100 years ago, UFA has developed into a comprehensive content specialist providing digital and multimedia content – to all major German broadcasters and other partners.
