Gearing up for production? Here’s how to keep your IT flexible – and affordable

Preparing for a new production can be demanding. Workforce numbers swell with freelancers, and you need the right infrastructure to keep pace with large amounts of data on site or on location – not to mention keeping it all secure and compliant.

Here are four things to put on your IT checklist:

1. Get agile

Video workflow during and post-production can place strain on traditional storage and servers. We recommend Jellyfish Mobile, which is revolutionising the way creative teams produce video. Designed by Hollywood filmmakers, editors and colorists, it’s a portable server, built to your exact specifications. It comes with the ShareClient app, allowing both your full-time staff and creative freelancers to access project data securely, quickly and efficiently, tuning your devices’ network settings to achieve maximum bandwidth for super fast performance. It’s designed specifically to meet the demands of collaborative video workflow – that means high bandwidth, low latency and no dropped frames.

2. Install the right infrastructure

Live broadcast is a different kettle of fish to other productions. We’re highly experienced in  supporting TV and film production companies to put the right infrastructure in place – technology that creative units can depend on. Our MD, Gary Marshall, has over 25 years’ experience setting up comms rooms and data services, holding senior IT positions at EMI Music, ABC’s London News Bureau, Lion Television and Metia. We’ll help you get it right.

3. Stay secure and compliant

We wrote last year about the security protocols imposed by Netflix on partnering production and editing companies. Alongside requirements imposed by other content providers, it’s causing problems for production companies and post-production houses who often don’t put data security front and centre, don’t have an in-house IT department, and rely on a transitory, mainly freelance workforce. Content is passed between multiple devices, often in the cloud. To ensure you fulfil your contract requirements and maintain the highest security ratings, we’d suggest using an industry IT expert. We’ve been working with London’s production and post-production businesses for over a decade, and we know compliance requirements inside-out. 

4. Scale up or down

Staff numbers swell and contract with the demands of production projects. Traditional IT managed services providers may take days – or even weeks – to set up new starters, change access permissions, or sunset leavers. We know how important it is to keep pace, when meeting tight deadlines and having the full capabilities of your team really count. That’s why we charge a monthly flat fee per user, and aim to process any staff changes as quickly as possible.

We’re the archiving and digital workflow specialists, offering enterprise-level data storage and security for a monthly flat fee per user – everything you’d expect from a full IT department, on and offsite. We’re agile, flexible and there when you need us. Get in touch to find out more about how we can support your production needs.