CHALLENGE: VIA Productions faced slowdowns using Dropbox, WeTransfer, and shipping hard drives while managing a dispersed post production team. Collaborating on large-scale video projects—everything from high-volume Black Friday advertising campaigns with tight turnarounds to feature-length original films with numerous remote collaborators, strained Via’s sync-based systems and wasted precious editing time.

WHY SUITE? VIA Productions chooses Suite to streamline media transfers and establish a single source of truth for all working assets, enabling file streaming directly from the cloud that connects creatives in real-time. Using Suite Connect, multi-terabyte transfers begin immediately following a shoot, reducing wait times. Seamless integration between Suite and Adobe creative tools also allow the team to edit full-resolution files. During high-pressure, high-volume campaigns, Suite’s ease-of-use and intuitive design empowers Via's team to meet tight deadlines.

KEY INSIGHTS:

• Headquarters in Memphis, key collaborators in Oregon, Vermont, Florida, Toronto
• Suite Connect file transfers enable faster project turnaround
• Accelerated timelines up to 50% during Black Friday commercial campaign
• Easy onboarding enables VIA to scale its team at a moment’s notice

“Suite made us ultra-efficient in a very short period of time.”

— Trice Patterson, Executive Producer, VIA Productions

VIA Productions, based in Memphis, Tennessee, hustles through video content with a creative focus that spans commercial video to original cinema. The full-service production & post production agency works with a range of partners on a variety of projects—everything from feature-length films to promo spots and national advertising campaigns. Today, Via’s portfolio includes a wide array of brands and media entities, including Ashley Furniture, FedEx, GoDaddy, Medtronic, AutoZone, and CBS Sports. More than ever, the company finds itself relying on its post production prowess, leaning into the expertise of its artists in the Edit Bay to drive creative projects forward.

Most of VIA's media professionals are based out of its Memphis, Tennessee, headquarters in the historic Crosstown Concourse building, but there are other key creatives stationed across the United States. To make it work, VIA Productions operates with a hybrid creative workflow, pairing on-premise infrastructure with cloud connectivity.

Remote Workflows & Testing Suite

“Beyond Memphis, where our main editors live, we have a few people in Oregon, our audio producer lives in Vermont, and we have a project manager/producer located in Toronto,” Patterson explains.

When the team takes on new work, it engages various members of its international network, sometimes at a moment’s notice. Previously, the team would rely upon Dropbox, WeTransfer, and shipping hard drives through the mail to share media—which collectively became the biggest time-suck in the company’s post workflow.

With a bulk of the team in one place, key collaborators scattered, and more post production projects coming through the door, VIA recognized the necessity of streamlining the workflow for everyone, not just team members in the office. “Over time, we’ve seen timelines rapidly shorten,” Patterson explains. “We had to get into the cloud." Exploring options, Patterson quickly put Suite to the test against other cloud storage platforms. “I was blown away," he says. "Suite worked flawlessly. I couldn’t break it. I remember thinking: Wow, we don’t even need on-prem storage...”

Migrating to Suite Studios

The agency was quick to make adjustments, noticing the performance benefits of file streaming on Suite, the flexibility it offers the dispersed team, and the ability to onboard new collaborators with a few clicks. Suite is now the central source of truth for all of VIA's working files, while the company’s on-prem infrastructure, located in the Memphis office, remains a cold storage archive for old projects and various assets.

“Suite is that ‘always hot’, ready-to-work location for our files,” Patterson says. “It integrates so well. You work off the media stored directly in the cloud—it was almost tough at first to get everyone’s head around it—but it just works for my editors. My phone isn’t ringing; Slack isn’t blowing up with people asking questions like, ‘Where’s this file?’ or ‘Why can’t iconik scan this volume?’ Suite made us ultra-efficient in a very short period of time.”

File Streaming, Suite Connect, and Everyday Wins

Working directly from a cloud-connected Suite drive, VIA Production’s creatives and project managers are finding new efficiencies at every step, from file ingest to final approvals. “I can’t rave about it enough,” says Patterson. “I was talking to our Creative Director, asking, ‘What has improved the most?’ He goes, "Honestly, everything…”

First, Suite Connect provides instant connectivity between remote production crew and the cloud-connected drive, so editors can start working the moment media uploads to Suite. “We’ve used so many different avenues over the years to feed that information into a common place,” Patterson says. “Suite Connect has really come into play getting new footage turned into edits. It has increased efficiency and streamlined the workflow significantly. We can target certain folders, so the footage falls exactly where the editors are going to be looking for it. Our team was raving about it. Even across continents, Suite Connect has been fantastic.”

Adding VIA's key employees and freelancers comes next. Patterson can easily onboard key players and provide access to working media with just a few clicks, and add permissions for external creatives that require restrictive access. “Suite has everything set up in such an intuitive way,” Patterson notes.

With the team connected and media transfers happening instantly from across the globe, Patterson and his team rely on Suite to provide an always up-to-date source of truth for working assets. If anything seems awry, speaking to real humans in real-time gets the team back on track. “Using the chat function within the Suite app, you get a response from the same team that helped with onboarding, and they’re providing answers. That speaks volumes to me about what Suite is building… you care about your clients. Even in the last few months—as if the product wasn’t good enough—it’s gotten even better. That shows me that Suite is constantly adapting.”

Real-world wins: Black Friday

VIA's 2024 Black Friday campaign for Ashley Furniture, a high-volume, tight-turnaround project, had all of the expected hoopla from the frenzied consumer event. Patterson and his team, however, were able to stay cool under the usual pressure. “Black Friday is always a big campaign,” he says. “We could all work from the same project structure on Suite. That was really eye-opening, things moved so quickly and smoothly. It’s always a high-anxiety time of year with lots of last-minute changes—we stayed on top of it and every spot made it out.”

Securely sharing the final cuts for approval was also streamlined by Suite Connect during the Black Friday push. “There can be security hurdles with IT departments in the corporate environment,” Patterson remarks. “Suite Connect checks every box, and immediately footage started flowing. It’s been about four years trying to get a solution integrated... after one conversation, Suite was approved and terabytes started coming in.”

Final Thoughts

On Suite, Patterson is seeing traceable wins & notable time back on his team’s calendar. When referencing his team's current 'per spot average', Patterson notes that using Suite is “cutting that time in half.”

Overall, Patterson is quick to recommend Suite’s cloud storage to other media teams and creative agencies with a hybrid or dispersed workforce. “I would absolutely recommend Suite. It has been a joy working with the team,” he says. “Suite just works.” In sum, with Suite Studios, VIA Productions gains efficiency, reliability, and a seamless creative process. By cutting project turnaround times in half and eliminating workflow frustrations with effortless file transfers and onboarding, Suite’s cloud storage remains a game-changer, a trusted platform that works every time.

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