“The cloud sounds light, fluffy and magical, but it’s not, it’s complicated and takes expertise to use it well,” Steve Ahern told the SMPTE Conference, while chairing today’s opening session.

Three speakers shared their expertise on ‘the cloud’ during the session, with Adobe’s Jon Barrie telling conference delegates, “30% or more of what is stored in the cloud is useless, because nobody except the person who put it there knows why its there and what to do with it.” 

Barrie advised that indexing and an intelligent interface are also needed to get the most out of cloud storage.
 

“The economics and agility of the cloud means it makes sense to use it, but what parts of your workflow should you put in the cloud?” 

He concluded that large files with high editing or processing needs are not usually appropriate for the cloud, but that storing edited material and sharing it via the cloud are cost effective sensible uses of the technology.
 

At the Exhibition space, concurrent with the conference, RCS (pictured above) is displaying its scheduling and playout software in conjunction with its new infrastructure partner Wheatstone.

Also on display at the Exhibition are a range of new microphones, on air systems, radio apps and peripherals.