Studio Network Solutions: The Invisible Infrastructure Revolution
Learn why creative teams choose creative.space over SNS for a simpler, more intuitive approach to media storage that eliminates complexity and enhances creativity.
By Nick Anderson, Product Manager for creative.space at DigitalGlue
Every creative professional has felt it—the sudden jolt of panic when your project crashes, when the “media offline” notification flashes ominously across your screen, or when collaboration grinds to a halt due to slow syncing. Daniel Bender, Film and Broadcast Director at The Belonging Co., once found himself awake for 96 consecutive hours, buried under the weight of 300TB of footage and storage bottlenecks. Daniel isn’t alone; countless creative teams fight this invisible battle daily. But not all of them win.
Complexity vs. Simplicity
Studio Network Solutions (SNS) has been solving storage issues since 1998, providing tools like EVO servers and ShareBrowser media management software. Their approach is effective, but there’s a hidden cost. SNS, like many traditional storage providers, believes complexity can be managed through additional layers of software and integration. But every new tool or interface adds cognitive load to your team—another thing to manage, another thing to master.
creative.space, in contrast, embraces simplicity as its guiding principle. Our core question isn’t, “How can creatives manage storage better?” It’s “Why should creatives have to think about storage at all?”
The Hidden Tax on Creativity
In creative workflows, rapid decision-making is crucial: decisions about color grading, pacing, and storytelling happen in milliseconds, often subconsciously. Any technical distraction—such as managing metadata, playback lags from on-server proxy generation, or troubleshooting sync issues—disrupts this delicate creative intuition.
Studio Network Solutions provides tools that attempt to ease these interruptions. But creative.space eliminates them entirely by providing true centralization and seamless access from anywhere—no proxy downloads, no copies, no syncing.
True Centralization: One Version of the Truth
SNS’s EVO systems enable robust shared storage solutions and include tools like Nomad for remote workflows. Yet, they still rely on traditional concepts—remote editing requires creating proxies, downloading files, or syncing data.
creative.space transcends these constraints with a revolutionary approach: true centralization. With creative.space, there’s only one copy of your media, instantly accessible from anywhere through simple, launchable links. Editors can collaborate in real-time, no matter their location, without wasting valuable hours managing data transfers or relinking media.
Infrastructure as Invisible as Electricity
In the 1800s, businesses had to maintain their own electricity generators. Today, electricity is invisible—we plug in and work without thought. Traditional solutions like SNS are still stuck in this “generator era,” requiring active management of storage infrastructure.
creative.space represents the next evolution: storage that disappears. It becomes as invisible and reliable as flipping a light switch. You no longer have to manage storage; you simply create.
Beyond Management: Complete Creative Freedom
Studio Network Solutions’ impressive 25-year legacy in media storage is built on managing complexity effectively. However, managing complexity still means complexity remains.
creative.space offers something fundamentally different: the complete elimination of complexity. Our solution proactively handles thousands of system metrics, preventing issues before they occur. Our fully-managed service ensures that storage never becomes a creative bottleneck, freeing your team to stay in their creative flow.
Democratizing High-End Workflows
SNS has undeniably brought high-end solutions to various media teams, yet the barrier of complexity still exists. Smaller teams without dedicated IT staff struggle to fully leverage SNS’s advanced tools.
creative.space changes this by democratizing advanced workflows. Teams of all sizes—like Brat TV, Real by Fake, and The Belonging Co.—have eliminated daily storage hassles entirely, achieving creative output previously reserved for large studios.
The Clear Choice for Creatives
Choosing creative.space over SNS is choosing freedom over management, simplicity over complexity, and creativity over administration. Your team deserves infrastructure that disappears, allowing them to perform at their highest level without distraction.
The question isn’t whether SNS solutions are capable—they clearly are. The real question is whether your creative energy should be spent managing your tools or creating your next masterpiece.
With creative.space, the choice is clear: stop managing storage, and start creating.
