EditShare expanded its installation at Last Cut Media to include MediaSilo collaboration and AI indexing from Mobius, doubling the system capacity with a second EFS 300 storage node.
Last Cut Media, based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, is a large-scale independent post house, built by content creators for content creators. Wanting to simplify its operations and allow its users to focus on their projects, at the beginning of 2023 Last Cut replaced its ad hoc storage systems with an EditShare storage network, including an EditShare EFS 300 shared online store, a nearline server and LTO tape archiving.
With the growth in business, Last Cut has returned to EditShare, working with Advanced Media Trading, EditShare’s distribution partner in the Middle East, to increase both its capacity and functionality. The extension doubles the system capacity with a second EFS 300 storage node.
The new installation also incorporates new AI developments from Mobius, integrated directly into the EditShare FLOW asset management system. This adds AI support to automatically create more detailed metadata, including facial and scene detection. The core Mobius knowledge base includes more than 5,000 objects, emotions and actions, and 10,000 well-known people, which builds up as every piece of content passes through FLOW.
Last Cut also decided to implement the EditShare MediaSilo collaboration system. This replaced an existing standalone distribution system and integrates smoothly with the rest of the storage network. They use MediaSilo to manage their creative assets within a purpose-built, secure video collaboration environment, at all stages of a project. Assets can be uploaded, organised to match the user’s preference for efficiency, and rapidly searched.
Saad Duaibes, General Manager, Last Cut Media
The result is that producers and other collaborators working remotely from the facility can receive high quality review copies, automatically generated and straightforward to view, ensuring everything can be checked and signed off in a timely fashion.
“In today’s world, producers want the best facilities, but they do not necessarily want to spend time travelling to them,” said Saad Duaibes, General Manager of Last Cut Media. “We have clients all across the region and in all the creative centres within Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Adding MediaSilo means we can keep those clients up to date with progress, without adding to our workload, ensuring they see the most up to date versions.
“Since we moved to EditShare storage, we have been able to speed up our workflows,” Saad said. “It has helped our business grow, prompting us to expand our storage network to accommodate new projects. We are very comfortable with the solution, and see our use of it growing, including working with new tools like artificial intelligence.”
Michele Dwayk, head of sales for EditShare in the Middle East, said “Last Cut Media serves projects from commercials to movies, through television drama and documentaries. Each genre and each project has its own distinct workflow, and its own group of collaborators.
“The open, flexible design of EditShare FLOW allows Last Cut to set up each project according to the creative and business demands. They have adopted these capabilities and, working with our colleagues at Advanced Media Trading, we have helped them see further advantages for the future, including simple collaboration with MediaSilo and AI indexing with Mobius.” The extensions to the storage network and the new software functionality were installed in June 2024 and are now fully online. editshare.com
