Who Is Optimus?

Optimus is a full-service post-production house for advertising and other content that has worked with several high-profile clients. The firm specializes in editorial and also offers color grading, audio mixing, VFX, animation, and finishing services. Additionally, Optimus Design is a creative studio capable of high-end motion graphics and visual effects, while ONE at Optimus offers production services with a diversified roster of award-winning directors for commercial and branded content.

Director of Technology Ken Winke has been with Optimus ever since interning for the company nearly 25 years ago. He’s seen the business grow from traditional analog video to digital content workflows involving several terabytes’ worth of data.

🏆 Optimus Highlights:

• Founded in the 1970s – “At the end of the Mad Men era, where you’re basically cutting film and doing everything,” explains Winke.
• Now works with high-profile clients such as Adidas, Bank of America, Campbell’s, Disney, Jeep, McDonald’s, Miller Brewing Company, Nike, and Whirlpool.
• Works as part of a team of around 50 including video editors, colorists, audio engineers, VFX and finishing artists, and designers.
• Primarily works on advertising projects for TV and other screens.

MASV for Advertising & Creative Agencies

Seamless large file sharing for project managers and their creative teams; easily exchange files between clients and contractors.

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The Challenge: Finding a File Transfer Solution That Ticks All the Boxes

Optimus discovered MASV at the 2017 NAB Show, back when we were just a few months old. How time flies!

After evaluating most other file transfer solutions available at the time Winke says he hadn’t found anything that suited his company’s needs—until he visited the MASV booth.

“MASV checked a whole lot of boxes that I don’t think even existed back then,” he explains.

The need for flexible pricing

What drew Winke to MASV was our unique pay-as-you-go model—which was virtually unheard of at the time.

Optimus’ project-based clientele sometimes resulted in periods without transfers followed by a rush to move terabytes of media within a few days.

Recurring fees, per seat charges, or expensive annual licenses offered by other managed file transfer (MFT) providers were not economically viable options for Winke and his team.

The need for easier collaboration globally

Another strength of MASV which appealed to Winke is the platform’s ease of use.

Prior to MASV, his only technology option was to install complex MFT software on every company device and whitelist it—a cumbersome process when onboarding new team members and collaborating with clients.

The alternative, shipping hard drives, proved to be a productivity killer when sharing footage internationally.

MASV’s ability to share files with a simple link, without any installations, forced logins, or staff training, was the ideal solution for Optimus.

The need for reliable performance

Lastly, the final checkbox for Winke was a file transfer solution that made good on its claims.

“’Does it actually do that?’ I’ve seen that question fall apart over and over again with any vendor that tells you anything,” explained Winke.

Given the nature of Optimus’ services and their high-profile customers, having a file transfer platform that could execute time-sensitive transfers without errors was crucial.

Accelerating Files for Client Delivery

Why Driving Plates—the top VFX plate provider for driving footage—trusts MASV to share time-critical footage with their clients.

Read Driving Plates’ Story >

The Solution: A Powerful, Plug-and-Play Tool

Even though it has been years since Optimus attended the 2017 NAB Show, the company still uses MASV regularly. That’s because of how well MASV works, Winke says—along with the fact that MASV is constantly adding new security, workflow, and performance features.

“Once you find something that really works, you stay with it,” he says. “That’s why we’ve kept using MASV – because I honestly haven’t found anything better that checks all these boxes.”

Easy implementation & onboarding

Winke says getting staff and collaborators up to speed on MASV was fast, straightforward, and simple. “Everything just worked,” he adds. “We can throw it at regular users and have them use it—even producers or assistants that might not have used file transfer software for five years, they’re comfortable with it.”

And installing the MASV Desktop App on local machines is a zero-hassle process he can complete with just a few clicks using his app manager. He doesn’t need to reconfigure firewalls, install plugins, or implement port forwarding.

“There’s no hesitation or reason why I wouldn’t put the MASV Desktop app on any of our computers,” he says.

MASV Desktop App dashboard

Providing clients with a simple way to share files

Because every MASV user can open unlimited Portals for free, the company sets up a new MASV file request Portal for each project. Setting up and configuring each Portal is easy.

“There’s no figuring out how to set it up or where stuff gets saved,” he says. “There really is very minimal prep work to catch files from someone, and we know on the other end they’re going to be able to send them to us.”

Embedding MASV into internal processes

What really sets Optimus’ workflow apart is the company’s integration of MASV Portals with its own internal project management system via the MASV API.

Thanks to this workflow, whenever staff at Optimus create a new job in their project management system, a MASV Portal is automatically generated and tagged with that specific job number. Additionally, any files uploaded to that Portal are automatically downloaded to internal storage, along with an attached metadata file.

“They don’t need to type in names or numbers or emails or anything again,” explains Winke. “It’s pulling from what’s already been created.”

Reliable, fast performance for mission-critical deliveries

MASV’s industry-leading speed is a boon for the Optimus team. The Web App is more than capable of sharing large files fast, but when they need to send rush projects, Optimus prefers the MASV Desktop App for its increased network throughput and one-of-a-kind channel bonding feature—which combines multiple ISPs for enhanced speed and reliability.

Such performance and reliability also allow the company to perform long-distance, international file transfers without worrying about whether the file will actually arrive on time (or arrive at all).

“You don’t have to worry about location as much anymore,” he says.

Tracking and cost breakdowns in a single view

The beauty of MASV for project-based organizations is our detailed Transfer History tab which houses all the administration information operations managers need.

Optimus leverages this hub often to analyze file transfer costs by tagged project to inform their decision-making when quoting customers.

The Result: File Transfer Optimus Can Depend On

Winke says MASV is now Optimus’ go-to service when clients or partners need heavy files transferred quickly and reliably.

MASV provides Optimus with the speed, flexibility, and simplicity they need to get projects over the finish line. It’s also saved them money on long-term expenses.

Around 25 employees use the product within the company—something he says would be completely unaffordable if they had to pay per seat, as is the case with many enterprise-grade file transfer options, rather than per use.

And he says their pay-as-you-go plan is much more affordable than many other file transfer methods, even when used heavily.

“Sometimes you get pushback that per gig, this could add up if it’s a lot of gigs,” he says. “But when you factor in the time it takes to copy stuff to a new drive, or pay for that drive, or then ship that drive—there’s a pretty large amount you can send with MASV before you’re even close. It’s very rare that MASV costs more for this job than a more traditional way.”

Take the Guesswork out of File Transfer

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