M+E Daily

Production in the Cloud; Remote-Work Security; Vendors Bring Their Best to HITS Live

Beginning at 12:30 p.m. PT May 27, attendees of the Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) Live event will have four technology session tracks to choose from, detailing the latest vendor offerings and insights for the media and entertainment community.

Here’s a look at what to expect from the “Production, Collaboration and Cloud” and “Cloud, Work-From-Home and Security” tracks:

Production, Collaboration and Cloud

• In “Delivery … Optimized (the Chattanooga Film Festival)” Jennifer Cooper, global head of media and communications industry strategy and solutions for Microsoft will share how content creators and distributors are relying more than ever today on cloud technologies to continue providing content experiences. Microsoft and MediaKind will discuss here how they’ve partnered together to help the Chattanooga Film Festival provide a virtual event for film creatives and consumers, not allowing a pandemic to prevent a top-notch content experience.

• Michelle Munson, CEO and co-founder of Eluvio, will detail how, instead of the current global situation resulting in a crisis for parts of the media and entertainment industry, new technology is presenting a “Black Swan” moment for extreme innovation, in her presentation “Windowless Video Distribution: Embracing this ‘Black Swan’ Moment. Content owners have the ability to seize direct control over distribution and monetization, and expand beyond the financial grip of leading aggregators, using the new Eluvio Content Fabric, a cost-effective means to deliver ultra-low latency video globally, without CDNs, cloud transcoding, or databases.

• The presentation “Distributed Teamwork. It’s Not ‘When,’ it’s ‘Now’” has Ruven Gotz, workplace experience lead for Avanade, sharing how the industry as a whole can continue to be productive, in the absence of face-to-face interactions and the “high-touch” working style we’re all accustomed to. Teams across industries are relying on modern workplace technology platforms, to continue providing amazing, creative and interactive experiences for customers.

Cloud, Work-From-Home and Security

• The speed of technological advances and consumer viewing demands has seen media organizations creating workarounds to address legacy IT infrastructure and systems. In the presentation “Breaking Through Legacy Technical Challenges: An Innovative Approach for your Most Critical Assets,” Kyle Evans, director of sales for Tape Ark, shares how his company has addressed legacy challenges by moving highly valuable content from traditional backup tape and data formats to the cloud, in a process that is secure, safe, efficient and positioned for greater value. Content creators are constantly operating in a state of change; but that doesn’t mean it has to be a difficult adjustment.

• In “Tales from the Trenches: Working Remotely Before, During and After COVID-19,” Chris Fournelle, director of M&E product marketing for Signiant, will share thoughts on how companies have responded to this global crisis, what changes might stick and what steps they are taking to get back to some level of normalcy.

“I’m going to give an update on what our survey and interview research shows after six weeks of social isolation and remote work,” he said. “We can describe how ready companies felt were for the transition, what the emotional toll has been, and what trends are emerging. We can also share some advice for their peers and actions people wished they had known before the virus that would have been helpful now.”

Signiant software plays an important role in enabling remote work and remote collaboration across the media and entertainment industry, and the company has been actively engaging with the market through interviews, surveys and conversations to hear how companies across the media supply chain are working to keep content flowing.

• Steve Cronan, CEO of 5th Kind, will explore how studios produce and deliver from home by using DAM workflows to finish production elements and keep pipelines moving forward, in the presentation “Streamlining & Securing Collaboration in a Work-From-Home World.” He’ll dive into secure review tool sets, accelerated large-file uploads, and distribution — from home — and 5th Kind’s upcoming new features such as a watermarked Real-Time Synced Review Player for collaborative team sessions.

• “CDSA’s App & Cloud Framework” will have Ben Schofield, project manager for CDSA the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) sharing the next phase of security assessments, which include software applications and cloud environments. His session will look at a common control framework that is scalable to the size, appropriate to the community and constituency of the TPN, but also mapped directly to other control frameworks and standards already being utilized within our industry.

The May 27 HITS Live event is the industry’s annual gathering of CIOs and top technology minds, and will tackle the quickly shifting IT needs of studios, networks and media service providers, along with how M&E vendors are stepping up to meet those needs. The all-live, virtual, global conference will allow for real-time Q&A, one-on-one chats with other attendees, and more.

HITS Live is presented by Microsoft Azure, with sponsorship by RSG Media, Signiant, Tape Ark, Whip Media Group, Zendesk, Eluvio, Sony, Avanade, 5th Kind, Tamr, EIDR and the Trusted Partner Network (TPN). The event is produced by the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA) and the Hollywood IT Society (HITS), in association with the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) and the Smart Content Council.

For more information, click here. To Register, click here. To become a sponsor and participate in the event, contact Evie Silvers at [email protected].