WebMD | Medscape uses LucidLink to streamline global media workflows 

About WebMD 

WebMD is a leading provider of health information services to consumers, physicians, healthcare professionals, employers and health plans. Its multimedia team produces more than 200 videos each month across a worldwide network of studios and online properties.

Background

WebMD’s video team spans New York, North Carolina, Atlanta, Paris, The Hague, Munich and beyond. With 20 editors and 17 producers working in 4K, VR, VFX and 3D graphics, production generates more than 200 videos each month.

Before 2020, the workflow revolved around a central NAS in New York. Crews would upload footage using tools like Aspera, Media Shuttle, Dropbox and WeTransfer — or ship physical hard drives — just to get assets into the system. Once footage arrived, editors would access it by connecting to office workstations or using a VPN to reach the NAS.

It worked, until the pandemic shut down every studio.

Suddenly, no one could access the NAS. FTP and VPN connections buckled under the weight of multi-gigabyte files. Shipping hard drives was no longer possible and the entire production pipeline stalled overnight.

The team needed a way to ingest footage from any studio, access it instantly and collaborate on projects from anywhere, without rebuilding their entire workflow. We spoke to Executive Director Zachary Bennett about how LucidLink helped the team do it.

The challenge: keeping global productions running with no central studio

When offices closed, WebMD lost:

• Its only intake point for broadcast and field footage

• Shared access to the New York NAS

• A location to receive drive shipments from crews worldwide

• Reliable tools for terabyte-scale uploads

Remote editors were left with two unworkable options:

Remote into office machines, hoping the connection held
Connect to the NAS over VPN, which slowed to a crawl with large media

Neither approach supported real 4K editing, VFX pipelines or daily news production.

“With file sizes becoming larger, those transfer systems were not reliable enough, and footage needed to be physically shipped,” says Zachary.

The team needed:

• Shared storage accessible from anywhere

• Instant access to large files without downloading

• A system that editors already knew how to use

• Something fast enough to replace the physical NAS

And they needed it right away.

The solution: cloud-native shared storage that feels local

To adapt to the “new normal,” Zachary evaluated multiple remote workflow solutions.

None fit, until their long-time production partner GRS recommended LucidLink’s file streaming platform.

With LucidLink, the entire global team could:

• Ingest footage instantly: field crews upload directly to Filespaces, replacing Aspera, hard-drive shipping and manual transfers.

• Edit straight from the cloud: editors open files directly in Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop and 3D tools—no syncing or downloading.

• Access VFX and shot sequences remotely: large renders and multi-layered graphics are streamed on demand.

• Collaborate in real time from any studio: Paris, New York, Atlanta, Munich and Chicago all work from the same up-to-date files. 

• Keep the familiar workflow: nothing changed except where the storage lived. Editors continued using the tools and processes they knew.

“There was no way we would have been able to keep up with this work without LucidLink,” says Zachary.

The results: a video operation that works from anywhere

With LucidLink, WebMD moved from a single-site NAS to a unified, cloud-native workflow.

Immediate access from every studio

Footage uploaded in Paris is available seconds later in New York, The Hague, Munich and Atlanta.

A single shared file space for global production

Every editor and producer works from the same repository. No VPNs, no remote desktops.

“Teams don’t have to VPN into the office NAS to work,” says Zachary. “LucidLink puts us ahead of the game.”

Daily news production accelerated

LucidLink enabled WebMD to launch its daily show Coronavirus in Context at the height of the pandemic.

Massive reduction in operational complexity

Teams no longer juggle drive shipping, FTP tools, VPN troubleshooting or failing remote desktops.

“LucidLink solved problems that we didn’t necessarily know we were trying to solve,” Zachary adds.

Future-proofed storage without hardware

The old NAS dependency is gone. WebMD can now scale instantly without adding physical servers.

“LucidLink has allowed us to get back up to speed and continue to produce high-quality productions. It made us more efficient than ever,” summarizes Zachary.