ProMAX MediaHub: A New Solution for Remote Video Editing
A lot of people think of remote work as something only writers, Youtubers, food reviewers, web developers or coders can do. These are at least the jobs that come to my mind when someone says “remote work” because generally in these professions you work by yourself (for the most part). But with advancements in technology, such as video conferencing and cloud storage, its enabled many digital, pr/ad firms, video, and software companies to hire new team members from anywhere in the world. And, even more pressing, recently with the state of the world, working remotely has become a requirement for almost all employees, whether they were already remote or not.
That said though, the main issue that faces video teams and digital teams during this shift to remote work is: how can we safely and quickly access video files from home at the same speed as the office? VPNS are slow and cloud storage, like Google Drive or Dropbox, can eat up internal storage with their desktop apps.
ProMax’s new MediaHub is an excellent response to these worldwide issues faced by video and digital teams. This small server can sit in your home office and is equipped to store up to 8TB on it’s internal SSD. Your Promax MediaHub is also linked and synced amongst all your team members MediaHubs around the world. You can copy video clips into your ProMax sync and within seconds others connected to their Mediahub will see the files start to show up instantly, in the exact same file path. For Premiere Pro users, “video offline” will become a problem of the past!
What is the MediaHub?
The MediaHub is a local SSD remote editing server that is 2in by 4in (it fits in the palm of your hand). It’s a perfect size for any desk. The MediaHub enables you to share project files with your team and edit in real time. For example, one person on the team can edit a Premiere Pro Project and another person can upload media to the same file path as the project in real time - no interruption. If one person uploads a file, another person on the team will see that file in seconds. While you can use the MediaHub for any type of file collaboration, its optimized for Premiere Pro, Avid, Resolve, and many other creative video editing and VFX applications.
The MediaHub has a wide range of accessible ports for your connection and offloading needs.
Rear: HDMI port, Ethernet Port, Two additional USB3.1 Gen2 usb ports, and a thunderbolt 3 port.
Front: Output for sound headphones or for speakers, USB-C , USB3.1 Gen2.
SD Card Slot for importing footage
How does the MediaHub work?
By itself, it can act as your own backup media device, but in order for the server to work for sharing files with others, each team member needs to have their own MediaHub in their home office. The ProMax team will help onboard you and get the server running on all of the team’s systems.
The MediaHub acts like a peer to peer network, where each team members’ MediaHub is an exact mirror copy of the other.
After the MediaHub network is setup, each team member can mount one of the storage syncs to their local computer by going to the ProMax Platform’s Web Browser login.
Promax MediaHub vs Cloud Storage
The ProMax MediaHub is not for everyone, it’s designed for video teams (2+) who need to be able to access the same media files, share files fast and edit in real time regularly. If you just need a backup or only share files on occasion, then cloud storage might be a better option for you.
To explain the difference between the MediaHub and Cloud Storage, here is an example workflow comparison:
Well, let’s give an example, let’s say you have 50GB of footage for a project you want to share with another member on your team. If I was using cloud storage, like Google Drive or DropBox, you’d have to upload it, it can take an hour or so, and then you’d ping your collaborator to let them know it was ready. Then, once they see the message, they’d have to download it (will take another an hour or so depending on their connection). Then, once downloaded, they’d have to reconnect all the media and then start editing. With MediaHub, you still have to upload the footage, but your collaborator does not have to download the footage or reconnect the files, once it’s uploaded to the MediaHub, it’s already there. And your collaborator can start editing immediately.
Here are a few more differences:
The MediaHub stores files on your local SSD while Cloud Storage saves it on the “Cloud” which is really a larger server system located somewhere.
You can also connect additional SSDs or RAIDS to your MediaHub for backup.
ProMax Pricing
While each MediaHub configuration can vary depending on your needs, it’s roughly between $1500 - $2,000 per device (not annual, one time). You can use the ProMAX MediaHub pricing calculator to see what it would cost to get your team on-boarded with MediaHubs.