Minute Media masters remote video production with LucidLink

Meet Minute Media

Minute Media is a global technology and content company specializing in sports. Its proprietary tech platform enables the creation, distribution and monetization of digital content experiences. 

They own and operate leading sports content brands, including Sports Illustrated, The Players' Tribune, FanSided and 90min, while also providing sports highlight rights in the US through STN Video — another acquisition they made last year.

Minute Media has offices in New York, London, Tel-Aviv & São Paulo.

Introduction

Minute Media powers the world’s most passionate storytellers through digital content experiences. 

With a flourishing portfolio and a billion-dollar valuation, the sports media innovator is scaling fast — and so are the demands on its video teams.

Back when the world went remote, Minute Media’s video workflows didn’t follow. Teams found themselves relying on RAID drives, shipping footage in Ubers and juggling cloud tools that weren’t built for video.

“We were growing quickly, but the way we worked wasn’t keeping up,” says Hagai Lazar, VP of Global Video Production. “Managing huge files across locations became a real challenge.”

Then they found LucidLink. Since switching to LucidLink’s storage collaboration platform, Minute Media has been able to:

• Increase productivity and complete more projects in less time

• Collaborate on video edits in real time, from anywhere

• Replace Google Drive with a solution made for video workflows

We spoke with Hagai to hear how LucidLink helps the team produce standout video content, no matter where they’re working.

The challenge: adapting to rapid growth and remote work

As Minute Media grew, so did the hurdles in its video production process.

Hagai recalls, “When we were small, it was easy. We were just putting the footage on our computers and working from it.”

As the team expanded, they worked from various RAID setups which grew in size alongside the team. But when the pandemic forced a sudden transition to remote work, the need for a scalable remote solution became more pressing. 

"Going remote changed everything," says Hagai. “Managing large amounts of data and delivering it efficiently to our editors while working remotely was a big challenge.” After the team resorted to shipping hard drives via Ubers, they knew it was time to find a new way of working.

Discovering LucidLink

Minute Media explored a number of options in their hunt for the right remote editing platform.

"We got recommendations from others in the industry and started meeting vendors. None worked for us. They either required different editing software or didn’t meet our IT requirements. One of them sounded amazing, but you had to buy a device just to try it," Hagai recalls.

Finally, they heard about LucidLink. The platform immediately appealed because it slotted right into their existing workflow. "We did a two-week free trial, saw its potential, and after some quick back-and-forth improvements, we expanded the trial globally," says Hagai.

The solution: cloud-based video editing that just works

LucidLink quickly solved Minute Media's remote editing challenges. 

“With LucidLink, we upload files to the cloud and work directly from there. There’s no downloading and syncing, making it much easier to manage large files, and we don’t need to ship physical hard drives," explains Hagai. 

Minute Media also moved its video storage from Google Drive to LucidLink, even shifting their archives to the platform. "If LucidLink works so well for video access and editing,” Hagai says, “why not use it for all of our videos, including storage?"

Results: double-quick creative production

Today, Minute Media’s team can work on video projects at the same time, wherever they’re based.

Real-time access to projects lets the entire team work on the same files at the same time, meaning work gets finished faster.

"Now with LucidLink, we’re planning our work in a more efficient way: if a different editor is free, they can jump in to help with certain parts of the edit. That way we're finishing projects faster — and we can take on more work," says Hagai.

Borderless real-time video collaboration in action

Using LucidLink lets Minute Media use its global team to full effect. 

"During a project with Kia for the Women's World Cup, we shot in LA and Reading in the UK, and edited across different time zones using LucidLink," Hagai says.

“We even filmed extra footage in Australia and despite the time difference, managed to add it to the edits in both the UK & US and still sent the final videos to Korea at the end of the day!”

“LucidLink is great … so I'm spreading the word”

Today, LucidLink powers Minute Media’s entire video production workflow, giving them speed, flexibility and more creative freedom.

We’ll leave the final word to Hagai. “In our industry, when you find something good, you should spread the word. And LucidLink is great — both its product and people — so I'm spreading the word.”

Ready to streamline your video production workflow?
Try LucidLink free and see how fast, remote collaboration should feel.