Wave Finds Success With Fujifilm/Adobe Camera-to-Cloud Workflow

*Editor's Note: The following piece was written by Sports Video Group Editorial Director Ken Kerschbaumer, detailing the Green Wave's efforts to stay on the cutting edge of the ever-changing technology of content creation.*

Last year, Fujifilm and Adobe created the world's first native camera-to-cloud (C2C) integration, allowing still photographers and video content creators to seamlessly transmit photos and video from Fujifilm cameras directly into the Frame IO gallery. That allows content creators to immediately get to work on getting those images out to fans, marketing partners, and even athletes. Fujifilm also created a program designed to get the C2C workflow in the hands of college sports content creators.

For Victor Ha, Fujifilm's Vice President of Electronic Imaging/Optical Devices division, and the rest of the Fujifilm team, it's been a year of learning about how to make the C2C environment even better.

"Schools like Tulane, for example, prove that technology like camera cloud has a place in situations where the timing of the deliverables is critical," he said. "It's fun to see how they're using the technology, and they took it like a fish to water."

The C2C workflow is available for the Fujifilm X-H2 and X-H2S, and GFX100II. The GFX100II has the C2C transmission technology built into it while the X-H2 and X-H2S both require an FT-XH File Transmitter grip. A paid Frame.io account with C2C is also required.

"You turn the camera on, connect to a Wi-Fi network, authenticate to a frame I/O project, share the project with the people who need access, and then you're off to the races," said Ha. "When the clip is recorded to the memory card, the camera can begin uploading it."

Caleb Thornton joined Tulane as Director of Creative Video Services last March. When he heard that Fujifilm was looking for schools to test out the C2C workflow, he jumped at the chance to move beyond having to take a storage card out of a camera, drop it into and adapter, and then wait to transfer the file.

"That [card-to-adapter] transfer workflow was the only process we had available to us so, when I saw C2C, I realized it could help us immensely," says Thornton. "C2C has touched every sport that we have on the video side, with the exception of football, where we use it for stills. It's been everything I've wanted it to be."

Tulane had two Fujifilm X-H2S cameras, as well as lenses (Thornton's favorite is the 200x f/2 lens with a teleconverter), and he said the learning curve was very easy, especially for those familiar with the Frame IO system and workflow.

"We rely heavily on mobile hotspots that can fit in your pocket and, once you get it connected, it was seamless because the camera remembers the hotspot," said Thornton. "After that, you just shoot like normal. We then have a hot-key mapped so that, after you capture an image, you can hit that button and send it. On the other side, we set up galleries and teams and the user hits the three little dots to download the full-res file or choose what size they wanted. People who weren't at the event could pull [media] down and put in graphics and score updates."

Thornton said the system allows the content creation team to fulfill what he sees as a key mission: to get fans content as fast as possible.

"Some places might put an over-emphasis on speed rather than quality. However, when we were working with Fujifilm, we didn't have that issue," he said. "We knew that the quality and speed were both going to be there. And, while you always have FTP as an option, this method is definitely easier."

Thornton said the quick turnaround even came in handy with recruiting. When prospects showed up for photos, Thornton could share images from the shoot with them immediately.

"We had about eight people in our athletic department use the cameras and I was proud of the buy-in," he added. "Everyone likes the 'shiny new toy', but it has to work and be reliable, which it certainly was here."

Ha said the Fujifilm team's commitment to the project, with Adobe, has been wonderful technology partnership.

"It's very clear to us that C2C is as a collaborative opportunity with Adobe and that is at the top of our priority list when we look at new products and new opportunities," Ha says. "Driving workflows to the cloud is exciting for us as Adobe gives us access to some of the best minds and technology, when it comes to Cloud services. I don't think we could have picked a better partner."

Tulane University Athletics

Wave Finds Success With Fujifilm/Adobe Camera-to-Cloud Workflow

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