Postlab is the only service designed for multi-editor, remote collaboration with Final Cut Pro X. It works whether you have a team collaborating on-premises within a facility or spread out at various locations around the globe. Since the initial launch, Hedge has also extended Postlab’s collaboration to Premiere Pro.
When using Postlab, projects containing Final Cut Pro X libraries or Premiere Pro project files are hosted on Hedge’s servers. But, the media lives on local drives or shared storage and not “in the cloud.” When editors work remotely, media needs to be transferred to them by way of “sneakernet,” High Tail, WeTransfer, or other methods.
Hedge has now solved that media issue with the introduction of Drive, a virtual storage volume for media, documents, and other files. Postlab users can utilize the original workflow and continue with local media – or they can expand remote capabilities with the addition of Drive storage. Since it functions much like DropBox, Drive can also be used by team members who aren’t actively engaged in editing. As a media volume, files on Drive are also accessible to Avid Media Composer and DaVinci Resolve editors.
Drive promises significantly better performance than a general business cloud service, because it has been fine-tuned for media. The ability to use Drive is included with each Postlab plan; but, storage costs are based on a flat rate per month for the amount of storage you need. Unlike other cloud services, there are no hidden egress charges for downloads. If you only want to use Drive as a single user, then Hedge’s Postlab Solo or Pro plan would be the place to start.
How Drive works
Once Drive storage has been added to an account, each team member simply needs to connect to Drive from the Postlab interface. This mounts a Drive volume on the desktop just like any local hard drive. In addition, a cache file is stored at a designated location. Hedge recommends using a fast SSD or RAID for this cache file. NAS or SAN network volumes cannot be used.
After the initial set up, the operation is similar to DropBox’s SmartSync function. When an editor adds media to the local Drive volume, that media is uploaded to Hedge’s cloud storage. It will then sync to all other editors’ Drive volumes. Initially those copies of the media are only virtual. The first time a file is played by a remote team member, it is streamed from the cloud server. As it streams, it is also being added the local Drive cache. Every file that has been fully played is now stored locally within the cache for faster access in the future.
Hedge feels that latency is as or more important than outright connection speed for a fluid editing experience. They recommend wired, rather than wi-fi, internet connections. However, I tested the system using wi-fi with office speeds of around 575Mbps down / 38Mbps up. This is a business connection and was fast enough to stream 720p MP4 and 1080p ProRes Proxy files with minimal hiccups on the initial streamed playback. Naturally, after it was locally cached, access was instantaneous.
From the editor’s point of view, virtual files still appear in the FCPX event browser as if local and the timeline is populated with clips. Files can also be imported or dragged in from Drive as if they are local. As you play the individual clips or the timeline from within FCPX or Premiere, the files become locally cached. All in all, the editing experience is very fluid.
In actual practice
The process works best with lightweight, low-res files and not large camera originals. That is possible, too, of course, but not very efficient. Drive and the Hedge servers support most common media files, but not a format like REDCODE raw. As before, each editor will need to have the same effects, LUTs, Motion templates, and fonts installed for proper collaboration.
I did run into a few issues, which may be related to the recent 10.4.9 Final Cut update. For example, the built-in proxy workflow is not very stable. I did get it to work. Original files were on a NAS volume (not Drive) and the generated proxies (H.264 or ProRes Proxy) were stored on the Drive volume of the main system. The remote editing system would only get the proxies, synced through Drive. In theory that should work, but it was hit or miss. When it worked, some LUTs, like the standard ARRI Log-C LUTs, were not applied on the remote system in proxy mode. Also the “used” range indicator lines for the event browser clips were present on the original system, but not the remote system. Other than these few quirks, everything was largely seamless.
My suggested workflow would be to generate editing proxies outside of the NLE and copy those to Drive. H.264 or ProRes Proxy with matching audio configurations to the original camera files work well. Treat these low-res files as original media and import them into Final Cut Pro X or Premiere Pro for editing. Once the edit is locked, go to the main system and transfer the final sequence to a local FCPX Library or Premiere Pro project for finishing. Relink that sequence to the original camera files for grading and delivery. Alternatively, you could export an FCPXML or XML file for a Resolve roundtrip.
One very important point to know is that the entire Postlab workflow is designed around team members staying logged into the account. This maintains the local caches. It’s OK to quit the Postlab application, plus eject and reconnect the Drive volume. However, if you log out, those local caches for editing files and Drive media will be flushed. The next time you log back in, connection to Drive will need to be re-established, Drive information must be synced again, and clips within FCPX or Premiere Pro will have to be relinked. So stay logged in for the best experience.
Additional features
Thanks to the Postlab interface, Drive offers features not available for regular hard drives. For example, any folder within Drive can be bookmarked in Postlab. Simply click on a Bookmark to directly open that folder. The Drop Off feature lets you generate a URL with an expiration date for any Bookmarked folder. Send that link to any non-team member, such as an outside contributor or client, and they will be able to upload additional media or other files to Drive. Once uploaded to Hedge’s servers, those files show up in Drive within the folder and will be synced to all team members.
Hedge offers even more features, including Mail Drop, designed for projects with too much media to efficiently upload. Ship Hedge a drive to copy dailies straight into their servers. Pick Up is another feature still in development. When updated, you will be able to select files on Drive, generate a Pick Up link, and send that to your client for download.
Editing with Drive and Postlab makes remote collaboration nearly like working on-site. The Hedge team is dedicated to expanding these capabilities with more services and broader NLE support. Given the state of post this year, these products are at the right time and place.
Check out this Soho Editors masterclass in collaboration using Postlab and Drive.
Originally written for FCP.co.
©2020 Oliver Peters
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