Post-production in the cloud, in plain terms.
A quick reference for the words you will see around CloudStudio and cloud post-production.
Cloud workstation
A real computer that lives in a data center and that you control remotely. With CloudStudio these are bare-metal Macs your team connects to over the internet, so the heavy lifting happens on the machine, not on your laptop.
Edit station and Color station
CloudStudio’s two workstation classes. An Edit station is a Mac Mini suited to editorial and conform; a Color station is a Mac Studio sized for grading and finishing.
Bare-metal
A physical machine dedicated to one user, rather than a virtual slice of a shared server. CloudStudio workstations are bare-metal Macs, so applications behave the way your team expects.
Media Asset Manager (MAM)
Software for browsing, previewing, and organizing your media. CloudStudio’s MAM lets your team find and play footage in the browser without downloading the originals.
Proxy
A smaller, browser-friendly copy of a video file. Proxies let editors and clients play footage instantly without moving the full-resolution original. CloudStudio generates them automatically when media lands.
Storage tier
A category of storage priced for how often you need the files. CloudStudio offers Hot storage for active work, an Archive tier for finished work, and a Deep tier for long-term cold storage.
Hot, Archive, and Deep
CloudStudio’s storage tiers. Hot is fast storage for projects you are working on now; Archive is cheaper, slower storage for finished work you want to keep; Deep is the lowest-cost tier for long-term cold storage.
File streaming
A way of opening cloud files as if they were on a local drive, fetching pieces on demand. It is the core of tools like LucidLink. CloudStudio storage mounts on its workstations so media opens at local speed.
Remote desktop
Software that lets you see and control a distant computer over the internet. CloudStudio uses Jump Desktop to connect your team to their cloud workstations with single sign-on.
Transfer agent
A small app that uploads and downloads large files much faster than a browser by using your full connection. CloudStudio’s native macOS agent gets camera media into your storage quickly.
Client review link
A secure link you send a client so they can watch a cut in their browser and leave notes by timecode, without creating an account. You control whether they can download anything.
Forensic watermark
A visible overlay on a video that identifies who is watching, so a leaked frame can be traced back. CloudStudio can apply one to sensitive review links.
Conform
Rebuilding an edit at full resolution from the original camera files, usually before color and finishing. CloudStudio’s Edit stations and storage are built to handle conform.
NLE
Non-linear editor, the software editors cut in. CloudStudio storage mounts as a normal drive, so it works with any NLE.
White-label
Running a product under your own brand instead of the vendor’s. CloudStudio can be white-labeled, so clients see your studio’s name from the portal to the emails.
SMB mount
A standard way of attaching network storage so it appears as a drive on your computer. CloudStudio storage mounts this way on your workstations.
See it on your own footage.
We will walk the whole workflow end to end.