After I was at NAB this yr, I used to be there on the lookout for a few very particular issues. Cloud shared storage was one among them. However making an attempt to trace down something like this earlier than you go is close to unattainable. Fortunately, I had a gathering arrange with a contact I’ve right here in Toronto who I used to be bouncing concepts off of, and after I talked about cloud shared storage, he talked about Suite Studios instantly. Now, let’s be trustworthy, cloud modifying usually requires a really particular setup that may price you 1000’s of {dollars} a month, and there’s a ton of thought that wants to enter workflows for getting media into the cloud, and that’s not what I’m on the lookout for. I want a value efficient (on the cheaper aspect), secure option to edit that I can share media throughout my group, that doesn’t require rocket science to put in or keep. My contact mentioned Suite Studios was precisely what I used to be on the lookout for, so we headed over to their sales space to examine them out.
CLOUD STORAGE vs CLOUD EDITORIAL
Now, let’s be 100% clear earlier than we transfer ahead. I wasn’t on the lookout for a spot to retailer information, or share information with different group members. I used to be on the lookout for a shared, collaborative setting the place editors can work on the identical information on the similar time with as little to no lag as doable. When COVID hit, budgets for prime finish infrastructure have been gone, and a hybrid work-from-anywhere answer was required. Suite Studios promised that, however did they ship? The demo at NAB was very cool. Drive is mounted on the desktop, 4K information are on it, editorial works very easily, all appears good. Now, as everyone knows, demos are designed to be simply that. The best possible and smoothest course of you may have, to entice you to purchase. I’ll be trustworthy, I used to be tremendous impressed based mostly on what I noticed, and signed up for the free trial the Thursday after NAB 2025 was finished. I’ve 4 group members that wanted this type of entry, so I wished to place it to an actual world check to see if it could perform as promised. Nicely, it not solely labored precisely the way it was demoed, nevertheless it fully exceeded my expectations within the course of. I’m going to stroll you thru the method, and present you precisely how Suite Studios works, and why it’s excellent for my group.
So, the very first thing to bear in mind, very similar to with any cloud workflow, is that you just’re going to want a reasonably quick web connection. To provide you an thought, right here’s my setup when working with Suite Studios.
I’d name this customary fare web add/obtain speeds for anybody working in submit, or who’s an enormous gamer (not me anymore, however typically). So, how does Suite Studios work? Nicely, when you’ve signed up for the free trial and downloaded the software program, you’ll set up Suite Studios and if you launch it, you’re delivered to an interface that appears like this:
Now, that nobody is worrying about something on the display screen aside from the button that claims “Open Drive”, and when you click on it a drive opens.
Nicely, I assume that’s just about it. Plain and easy. When you’re a group member working in Suite Studios, that’s actually virtually every part it’s good to know. That drive is now related to no matter group members have entry to the Suite Studios account, they usually can all share the media that’s positioned on that drive. It’s fairly cool, and fairly easy, however let’s dive a little bit deeper and see what’s happening underneath the hood of your Suite Studios drive.
WHAT’S ACTUALLY GOING ON?
STATUS WINDOW
While you launch Suite Studios and are delivered to the primary STATUS window, you’ll see two essential issues that you just’ll at all times must preserve behind your head. 1) the drive icon with the inexperienced gentle and the “CONNECTED” wordmark within the higher proper nook, and a couple of) the “ACTIVE” with drive measurement icon within the decrease left of the interface. Inexperienced means good to go. Your Suite Studios drive is in good working order, and there’s nothing that wants your consideration.
If the icon was to show yellow, it could imply that Suite Studios is doing one thing like importing information to the share. Consider, you may nonetheless work with the file regionally, and as soon as the add is finished, the interface would flip inexperienced once more, which means that your complete group has entry to it now.
If, for some cause, your file add was to fail, or there was some type of subject (lack of web, and so forth), your Suite Studios drive would flip crimson, and also you’d be capable to get extra details about why the failure occurred.
I’ve been working with Suite Studios since NAB 2025, and haven’t had one subject the place the drive turned crimson on me, in order that’s an important factor! Usually, I put the Suite Studios window on one other monitor, simply in order that I can see the great inexperienced glow out of the nook of my eyes. Additionally, since you’re billed per TB that you just use ($75USD/TB), it’s at all times a good suggestion to regulate your utilization within the decrease left of the interface, as you don’t wish to be utilizing Suite Studios as your private dumping floor, otherwise you’ll find yourself getting a large invoice on the finish of the month. I’m going to skip over the following two choices, Time Machine and Cache Settings, as I wish to discuss Group Settings first.
TEAM SETTINGS
The entire level of Suite Studios is collaboration within the cloud. You’ll must determine what you need your customers to have entry to. You may need a small group of 5 customers, or an enormous group of fifty customers, and assigning permissions to single customers is ok on small groups, however constructing teams and mass assigning permissions is extra superb. That’s the place your Group Settings come into play. When clicked on, your Group Settings are damaged up into two classes. Customers and Teams. With every Suite Studios account, 5 customers can entry the cloud storage, with every further person costing $10 USD. So as to add customers is fairly easy. Simply click on “+Add Group Member”, enter their particulars, they usually’ll obtain an invite to hitch. You can too determine (at this level), whether or not you need them to be an administrator or not. Directors have the flexibility so as to add customers, entry billing, and assign permissions to customers. When you’ve on-boarded a person, you may assign them the flexibility to supply up/obtain hyperlinks, in addition to determine precisely what they can entry. Do you will have a producer that you just wish to give entry to, however solely allow them to have entry to a folder in Suite Studios known as “Approvals”, or perhaps you wish to give an editor entry to a “Tasks” and “Media” folder. That is the place you do this. The distinction between “USERS” and “GROUPS” is that you could assign a bunch of customers to a bunch, after which mass assign permissions to them, to make your life a lot simpler!
TIME MACHINE
Ah sure, the age previous query….”I ACCIDENTILY DELETED SOMETHING FROM MY SUITE STUDIOS CLOUD STORAGE….IS IT GONE FOREVER????“. The reply right here is just, NO! Suite Studios has a characteristic known as “TIME MACHINE” that allows you to mount a picture of your Suite Studio drive from as much as seven days previously, and entry all of the content material you had at the moment, so if you happen to’ve deleted one thing by chance, you may at all times get it again with Suite!
CACHE SETTINGS
Alright, earlier than we discuss how exterior customers are going to get media to and from you. We have to discuss Caching, because it’s an essential characteristic inside Suite Studios, to maintain your media enjoying again in actual time. Everyone knows what caching is, however let’s discuss the way it works inside Suite Studios. The issue with the web is that there will probably be occasions the place the web can’t sustain together with your media or, an ideal instance is that if you happen to’re like me, there will probably be occasions the place you wish to play again 10 streams of low high quality 720p 23.976 media in a DaVinci Resolve multi-cam timeline (wow, that was fairly particular). The cloud is superior, however that’s numerous bandwidth required to playback that timeline. That’s one instance. Perhaps you’re at Everest Base Camp, and the web is sketchy at greatest. That’s one other instance (properly, perhaps not Everest Base Camp, however perhaps on an island engaged on “Common Actuality Present”). That’s the place Suite Studios’ caching comes into play.
Suites’ “On-Demand” cache is constructed with efficiency in thoughts. As an alternative of saving complete information like some cloud-based programs do, it focuses on storing simply an important, just lately accessed bits of knowledge. Meaning it solely retains the items you really need within the second, serving to every part run smoother and extra effectively. Very good! This method actually pays off if you’re working with giant or advanced information and timelines (just like the multicam instance I used above). By having Suite Studios solely cache the important knowledge and never the entire thing, Suite helps cut back the possibilities of lag which for me has been very unnoticable (and I’ve been working with UHD content material in Resolve). Even higher, the On-Demand cache takes care of itself. It’s a “set it and overlook” it sort of factor. It mechanically clears out previous or unused cached knowledge to make room for what’s wanted now—no guide cleanup required. You may merely set it and overlook it, figuring out Suite is quietly managing every part within the background so you may keep targeted in your work.
With the above mentioned, there are occasions the place I want Suite Studios to cache one thing particular, whether or not it’s a particular file, or a whole folder of information, and you’ll simply do this by pre-caching gadgets, out there as a easy addition on the backside of the caching window. Suite Studios additionally offers you a visible take a look at what’s being cached at any given time. Very good!
HOW DOES THE OUTSIDE WORLD ACCESS YOUR SUITE STUDIOS DRIVE?
So, the truth that Suite Studios features precisely like a tough drive and is shareable throughout your group could be very spectacular however, there’s a bigger subject right here. What occurs when somebody that’s outdoors your circle both must add a file to you, or obtain a file from you? Nicely, that’s the place the Exterior Switch perform comes into play.
EXTERNAL TRANSFER
On the backside of the Suite interface, you’ll discover that you’ve the choice for “Exterior Switch” (you’ll additionally discover that it’s nonetheless in beta, however I’ll be trustworthy, I haven’t had any points with it to date, so I’m not overly involved writing about it). It’s the one approach that an “outsider” (somebody outdoors the circle of belief), can have any type of entry to your closed setting. First, it’s a must to determine if it’s good to have information uploaded to you, or have a shopper obtain information out of your Suite Studios drive.
Within the first instance, we’ll arrange an add folder for the shopper, merely known as “Add”. As soon as I’ve created it in my Suite Studios drive, I’ll click on on the “+New Add Hyperlink” button, and am now greeted by many extra choices. Let’s break them down.
First, you’ll must enter a hyperlink identify and password to your shopper to make use of. Then, you’ll wish to choose an expiration date to your uploader, and the vacation spot location they are going to be importing to. What’s essential to bear in mind is that they gained’t really know the folder hierarchy in your Suite Studios drive. When you’re ready for them to add some digicam playing cards, you may create a folder in your venture folder known as “Digital camera Playing cards” or one thing like that, they usually can add into subfolders of subfolders, so the information find yourself within the actual spot you anticipate them to. When you’re prepared, you may merely press “Create Hyperlink”. You’ll now see all of the folders that you’ve given add entry to, you may handle them (reset the passwords if crucial), and get hyperlinks to obtain from right here as properly.
Now, this does beg the query, how does the shopper really use this data to add information? Nicely, Suite Studios did present a hyperlink to the folder, and when used, they are going to be greeted by an internet site that can seem like this:
The shopper/uploader might want to obtain Suite Join to really Add or Obtain content material out of your Suite Studios drive. As soon as downloaded, and put in (both for Mac or Home windows), you’ll be greeted by this window, prompting you to enter your offered URL hyperlink and password (which is what we made two steps in the past).
As soon as entered appropriately, you’re delivered to the uploader that reveals which energetic hyperlinks you will have (on the left), however the potential to add not solely particular person information, however folders as properly. You may arrange an add queue if you wish to add as a lot content material as crucial. Consider, although, that when you choose the information/folders, they’ll begin importing instantly.
Alright, in order that’s importing to Suite Studios for purchasers and uploaders. What about downloading? Nicely, as soon as you choose the “Obtain” button, assuming you’re simply getting rolling with Suite Studios, the window will probably be empty, so merely hit the “+New Obtain Hyperlink”, and also you’ll be delivered to a window, virtually precisely just like the uploader, the place you’ll must enter the hyperlink’s identify and password, the expiration date, and whether or not you wish to make information or folders accessible for obtain.
Course of is now precisely the identical for obtain because it was for add. Merely copy the hyperlink and ship it and the PW to your shopper/downloader. They’ll obtain Suite Join on their system, log in with the hyperlink and PW, they usually’ll now see the file(s) that have been made out there for them to obtain. They will now merely hit “Obtain” they usually’re all set to go.
Fairly fast, fairly easy and I’m actually digging the Suite join app, which is simple to make use of. The one factor that it wants is the flexibility to cease or delete an add if I understand that I’ve uploaded the inaccurate information. That will be tremendous useful, nevertheless it’s nonetheless in beta, so let’s see the place the Suite Studios group goes with it!
With all of that mentioned, Suite is just not with out its “points”. It really works precisely the identical on Mac and Home windows, nonetheless remember that Suite Studios on Home windows opens through a drive letter (Z:) and as a community drive on Mac, which means that any footage location on Home windows gained’t translate to Mac. It’s not a giant deal if you happen to’re working in numerous purposes, however you probably have Home windows and Mac customers working in a shared DaVinci Resolve database setting, if you open a venture edited in both a Mac or Home windows setting, you’ll must relink your media, because the system will probably be on the lookout for it in both the Home windows or Mac hierarchy.
I used to be impressed with Suite Studios after I noticed them at NAB and, although a little bit skeptical, was fully blown away after I really put it to the check in a manufacturing setting. Each facet of it has exceed my expectations from the efficiency to the value to the exterior file add and downloads. It’s price, at $75/TB & efficiency makes it simply the most effective new merchandise I’ve utilized in a LONG time. For extra data, or to offer Studio Studios a spin, examine them out at right here!
