Let’s Get Crafty

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I’ve dabbled in my fair share of do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, but I’m far from a self-proclaimed “crafty” person. I may not be crafty, but Comcast’s NBCUniversal was when it acquired Craftsy, a Denver-based how-to website for crafters. Not surprising since the crafts retail market is somewhere around the $30 to $40 billion mark. In the six years since the start of Craftsy, it has raised more than $103 million in venture capital and has become a premier meeting place for thousands of creative pros and millions of “makers.” Craftsy has produced more than 1,200 video classes on topics ranging from sewing and baking to photography and jewelry making.

As one could imagine, the production of over 1,200 videos requires a substantial video production operation that can scale with the growing demand. Craftsy uses five video studios and employs more than 10 video editors plus several producers to continuously generate compelling content. To support its growing video production operation, Craftsy turned to Quantum to provide a robust storage environment for capturing, storing, and editing video content. Some of its storage challenges included:

• Outgrowing its existing environment
• Requiring greater performance for multi-camera editing
• Facing storage reliability issues with its current infrastructure

Craftsy adopted Quantum StorNext® to help scale its environment, streamline management, and provide fast access to its growing collection of video files.

Being invested in by Comcast meant Craftsy was joining other brands including BuzzFeed, Vox, and Snap (Snapchat). As NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told the Los Angeles Times, Comcast NBCUniversal realized video consumption worldwide was happening more often on platforms like Snapchat, and the media giant needs to “program for that, and take our existing programs and format them for these platforms.”

Clearly, the growing demand for content creation and distribution is affecting emerging companies like Craftsy and enterprise powerhouse brands like NBCUniversal—and it is a huge indicator of the role video plays in engaging audiences. Companies of all sizes need to have an intelligent storage infrastructure in place to provide the performance, accessibility, collaboration, and scalability needed for the growth in video production.

Take a lesson from the craft leaders and discover how Quantum StorNext—the #1 workflow storage platform in the media and entertainment industry for content production, distribution, and archive—can solve your video workflow challenges and allow you to focus on “crafting” amazing content.

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