{"id":105908,"date":"2022-06-02T08:56:58","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T15:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=105908"},"modified":"2023-07-11T10:01:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T17:01:08","slug":"optimize-your-media-production-workflow-with-iconik-lucidlink-and-backblaze-b2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/optimize-your-media-production-workflow-with-iconik-lucidlink-and-backblaze-b2\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimize Your Media Production Workflow With iconik, LucidLink, and Backblaze B2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Backblaze<\/p>\n

In late April, thousands of professionals from all corners of the media, entertainment, and technology ecosystem assembled in Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters<\/a> trade show, better known as the NAB Show<\/a>. We were delighted to sponsor NAB after its two year hiatus due to COVID-19. Our staff came in blazing hot and ready to hit the tradeshow floor.<\/p>\n

\"Backblaze<\/p>\n

One of the stars of the 2022 event was Backblaze partner LucidLink<\/a>, named a Cloud Computing and Storage category winner in the NAB Show Product of the Year Awards<\/a>. In this blog post, I\u2019ll explain how to combine LucidLink\u2019s Filespaces product with Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage<\/a> and media asset management from iconik<\/a>, another Backblaze partner, to optimize your media production workflow. But first, some context\u2026<\/p>\n

How iconik, LucidLink, and Backblaze B2 Fit in a Media Storage Architecture<\/h2>\n

The media and entertainment industry has always been a natural fit for Backblaze. Some of our first Backblaze Computer Backup customers were creative professionals looking to protect their work, and the launch of Backblaze B2 opened up new options for archiving, backing up, and distributing media assets.<\/p>\n

As the media and entertainment industry moved to 4K Ultra HD for digital video recording over the past few years, file sizes ballooned. An hour of high quality 4K video shot at 60 frames per second can require up to one terabyte<\/em> of storage. Backblaze B2 matches well with today\u2019s media and entertainment storage demands, as customers such as Fortune Media<\/a>, Complex Networks<\/a>, and Alton Brown of \u201cGood Eats\u201d<\/a> fame have discovered.<\/p>\n

Alongside Backblaze B2, an ecosystem of tools has emerged to help professionals manage their media assets, including iconik and LucidLink. iconik\u2019s cloud-native media management and collaboration solution gathers and organizes media securely from a wide range of locations, including Backblaze B2. iconik can scan and index content from a Backblaze B2 bucket, creating an asset for each file. An iconik asset can combine a lower resolution proxy with a link to the original full-resolution file in Backblaze B2. For a large part of the process, the production team can work quickly and easily with these proxy files, previewing and selecting clips and editing them into a sequence.<\/p>\n

Complementing iconik and B2 Cloud Storage, LucidLink provides a high-performance, cloud-native, network-attached storage (NAS) solution that allows professionals to collaborate on files stored in the cloud almost as if the files were on their local machine. With LucidLink, a production team can work with multi-terabyte 4K resolution video files, making final edits and rendering the finished product at full resolution.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to understand that the video editing process is non-destructive<\/em>. The original video files are immutable\u2014they are never altered during the production process. As the production team \u201cedits\u201d a sequence, they are actually creating a series of transformations that are applied to the original videos as the final product is rendered.<\/p>\n

You can think of B2 Cloud Storage and LucidLink as tiers in a media storage architecture. Backblaze B2 excels at cost-effective, durable storage of full-resolution video assets through their entire lifetime from acquisition to archive, while LucidLink shines during the later stages of the production process, from when the team transitions to working with the original full-resolution files to the final rendering of the sequence for release.<\/p>\n

iconik brings B2 Cloud Storage and LucidLink together; not only can an iconik asset include a proxy and links to copies of the original video in both B2 Cloud Storage and LucidLink, iconik Storage Gateway can copy the original file from Backblaze B2 to LucidLink when full-resolution work commences, and later delete the LucidLink copy at the end of the production process, leaving the original archived in Backblaze B2. All that\u2019s missing is a little orchestration.<\/p>\n

The Backblaze B2 Storage Plugin for iconik<\/h2>\n

The Backblaze B2 Storage Plugin for iconik<\/a> allows creative professionals to copy files from B2 Cloud Storage to LucidLink, and later delete them from LucidLink, in a couple of mouse clicks. The plugin adds a pair of custom actions<\/a> to iconik: \u201cAdd to LucidLink\u201d and \u201cRemove from LucidLink,\u201d applicable to one or many assets or collections, accessible from the Search page and the Asset\/Collection page. You can see them on the lower right of this screenshot:<\/p>\n

\"iconik<\/p>\n

The user experience could hardly be simpler, but there is a lot going on under the covers.<\/p>\n

There are several components involved:<\/p>\n