Simplifying role-based access management for sensitive image and video assets

Streaming dailies, deliver source files to the VFX department or presenting a full feature film to the press are just a few steps in your video production workflow. In all these steps a lot of different people are involved. And we know, human errors are the cause of most data breaches.

To limit the risk of a breach by a human mistake we developed a role-based access control system. Furthermore you have full control of these roles and can change each role or create custom roles. In addition your project can be sectioned into rooms. Each room has its own roles. So the same user in one room could have totally different permissions than in other rooms. Thus you can give a person precisely the rights he or she needs to cooperate.

This customizable role system is nothing new for Webgate.io. But what is really new is the improved interface to manage these roles and permissions. We make it more accessible to role managers. So from now on you find the role and permission interface in the context menu of each project and room. The right handed role-sidebar when browsing your online workspace shows you your role in the selected room. As a role manager you have also access to the selected room or project roles. Learn more about our Access control interface and system.

Besides the access control features through roles and rights, Webgate.io provides further means to secure your content: The room settings enable you to allow only certain types of data. For example, in a «Dailies» room for video feedback you could restrict the upload to playlists only. You can grant access to low resolution derivatives only or protect your videos with individual watermarks. Requiring two factor authentication from your employees is a great way to to ensure secure accounts. And even sharing videos with externals can be done securely.

Published at: December 22, 2022 08:52 AM

Simplifying role-based acce...

Introducing our new accelerated upload interface

Webgate.io is the tool for video feedback and distribution of video data. Webgate has always been able to score with uploads of large amounts of data such as DCPs. However, the previous browser uploader had its limitations especially when uploading a lot of small files. We have now fixed this trade off and reworked the interface of the browser uploader and accelerated it significantly.

Instant start of your upload, increased speed, new design and improved performance when handling uploads with deep folder structures and many files.

Optimized for uploading large files, we used to upload a file parallel in multiple «chunks». Our update now allows you to upload chunks and files to all Webgate.io servers at the same time. This optimally utilizes your available bandwidth and significantly speeds up the upload.

Especially in the sound department often a lot of files with deeply nested folder structures are distributed. These folder structures were already considered in the old uploader and folder levels were taken over one to one. This step has now been further optimized and the addition of entire folders with many files and layers has been greatly accelerated. The entire interface also benefits from this improvement. Uploads are no longer processed sequentially, but sent to our servers in parallel. Pausing, resuming and canceling uploads is also much more responsive.

The new design uses a color scheme and icons to show you at a glance which file types are involved. You will see the file size of each file as well as the speed at which a file is uploaded. Of course we also show you the total progress and the summed up speed of your uploads.

The topic of upload and download in Webgate.io is not finished yet and we will release more improvements for the data exchange in the next months. As always we are looking forward to your feedback.

Published at: September 14, 2022 03:00 AM

Introducing our new acceler...

Enforce two-factor authentication for all users

Webgate.io, built for the professional film industry, is a safe place for your high value video assets. To protect your film productions in the best possible way, we have a new feature for you that forces your team members to protect their account better.

Organization and Project owners can enforce members to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for their personal accounts.

2FA is an access management security method that requires an additional identification after login with user name and password. Learn more in our recent blog post about two-factor authentication.

Users in Webgate.io can already activate 2FA optionally. To enforce 2FA in your project, click the context menu (three dots) of your project and choose «Project settings». Then check «Require two-factor authentication» and save. You find your projects in the Dashboard as well as in the Webgate.io Browser tree. Please make sure you have already activated 2FA in your account settings.

To enforce 2FA for all your projects organization wide, click the context menu of your organization and choose «Client settings». You find your organization for example in the Webgate.io Browser in the upper left corner.

Once you require 2FA users can still see your projects but can't access them. If they try to access a project they will be asked to set up a second factor. After setting up 2FA users can access your data and start collaboration and give feedback. We recommend notifying organization and project members before requiring 2FA and ask them to set up 2FA for their accounts.

Published at: September 11, 2022 10:00 PM

Enforce two-factor authenti...

Webgate.io Downloader on Windows

A few weeks ago we released the Webgate.io Downloader for Mac. It allows you to securely download large amounts of data at high speeds.

Today we released the port of Webgate.io Downloader for Windows desktop devices.

Even though most filmmakers work with Apple devices, we know that especially users who work in the digital cinema sector use Windows devices. On-time delivery of a DCP to a cinema for pre-screening, approval or press screening is essential here. A DCP or Digital Cinema Package is the standard playback format for films in digital cinema. Picture and sound of a DCP meet the highest quality standards. As a result, DCPs can quickly exceed 100 GB in size, and secure and fast data exchange is of great importance. This is where the new Webgate.io Downloader for Windows comes into play. With just a few clicks the downloader can be installed even without admin rights and offers the possibility of a fast and reliable download.

Read more in our blog article «Ultra fast downloads and file transfer».

Published at: August 30, 2022 10:00 PM

Webgate.io Downloader on Wi...

Make Webgate.io even more secure with two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a login procedure where users must authenticate themselves using a combination of two different methods or factors.

In most cases, an additional factor is requested after entering a password. Many people know this procedure from their bank account, where the second factor is usually checked by a TAN. This procedure increases the security of your account considerably! So a possible intruder needs more than just your password.

Webgate.io can provide you with a second factor via SMS or Authenticator App. Both options provide you with a one-time password which must be entered after entering your email address and password. We recommend the use of an Authenticator app where a QR code is scanned with a smartphone to receive the one-time password. Well known Authenticator Apps are Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator and Authy.

2FA is thus an ideal complement to our security features such as video watermarking. Collaborating and collecting video feedback becomes even more secure! Start setting up you 2FA by visiting your user profile.

What's next...

We plan to allow administrators to enforce two-factor authentication for their projects. This means that only people who are invited to a project and have a two-factor protected account will be able to access the projects.

Published at: August 23, 2022 12:00 AM

Make Webgate.io even more s...

Ultra fast downloads and file deliveries

Videographers and all others who handle large amounts of data know it: A bad bandwidth or even an internet connection that breaks down several times a day can make it impossible to download really large files. Together with our customers and beta testers we already had an application in use that should solve this problem. Today we are happy to present you a new revised app that makes downloading easier for everyone.

Introducing Webgate.io Downloader – a lightweight and ultra fast download app for your big data and media hosted at Webgate.io.

Make Webgate.io your easy-to-use file distribution platform. Use the Webgate.io Downloader for a secure asset exchange at maximum speed. Deliver your media via parallel download from all our servers on time. Webgate.io Downloader not only improves your download performance, it also recovers automatically in case of network problems.

Webgate.io's advanced user management and ultra fast downloader is more than a FTP alternative. With the help of Directlinks you can use the Downloader also for external file sharing. This makes a secure large file transfer easy as a breeze. You find further information at the Webgate.io Downloader installation guide.

Published at: August 18, 2022 04:00 AM

Ultra fast downloads and fi...

Pick any frame as Webgate.io video thumbnail

A thumbnail is a small image that represents your video when browsing your assets. It can improve collaboration by making your clips more recognizable or when showing important information like the film slate. When sharing videos with press or clients, the thumbnail of your clips should be eye-catching and provide a hint about what the video is about.

By default Webgate.io auto-generates thumbnails of your uploaded assets. It can happen that the automatism does not always find the right image, the actors could be shot in an unflattering way or simply an unsuitable image was chosen.

This is where our new thumb generator comes into play. It allows you to easily save the current frame as a thumbnail directly in the player while watching your video footage.

We would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the video feedback functions for individual clips. In the Webgate.io player you will find several buttons in the upper right corner above the video. These always refer to the currently playing clip and will disappear after a few seconds. With a click into the picture you can fade them in again. The functions explained from left to right are writing comments, drawing feedback into the image, voting functions from «Like» to «Dislike» and new the possibility to use the current image as thumbnail. Of course you can use our player controls to navigate to the desired image frame by frame.

Published at: July 15, 2022 06:00 AM

Pick any frame as Webgate.i...

Closed captions for your video streams

With captions you can translate your videos into different languages, make video content accessible for people who are deaf or hearing impaired, or enable reading along when the environment is too noisy. And of course, you can give feedback on captions in the video review itself.

Add subtitles or transcriptions to your clips. All you need to do is upload a suitable .vtt or .srt file and choose its type and language.

You can upload different subtitles per clip and thus offer a variety of different captions. If you have the necessary rights, the menu item «Captions» appears in the context menu (three dots) of your playlists and clips. In the playlist you will find the «CC» (Closed Captions) icon in the sidebar. Here you can add new captions via the plus symbol, activate and mark them as default. All people who have access to the video can select the captions via the «CC» icon. This also applies if you want to share video content via Directlink. This way Webgate.io allows you to view and give feedback on movies and their captions even with people without a Webgate.io account.

Published at: June 22, 2022 02:28 PM

Closed captions for your vi...

Project-wide user details

One of the first things you do when starting a new Video Production online or creating a media library is inviting your team members and collaborators. With the help of self-created or predefined roles you can control the access rights of your users and organize them into groups.

Our new feature «Project Details» allows you to save individual information about your users. These can be viewed by people in your project. The most important field is the position.

Especially in dailies projects, many users get access to the project. So that you don't have to check the staff list every time to see who has which position, you can now assign the position Line Producer, Director, Editor, DoP, DIT, etc. within your project. . The same person can have a completely different position in another project. This way, responsible persons can be determined and marked. You can also share any information like contact details project-wide.

You find this feature in the user sidebar. In the context menu of the users the details can be customized by the project admin. Persons with details are marked in the sidebar or get a label with their position in the project. You can also search for the position of the person.

Published at: March 15, 2022 09:00 AM

Project-wide user details

Custom watermark text configuration

Your video content is your most important asset! As soon as you collaborate in teams, especially in large or global teams, the protection of your assets becomes more important. Not to speak of sharing content with third parties before a major release. Watermarks and especially personalized watermarks are of great importance here. The more content has to be personalized for users, the greater the administrative effort and possible sources of error.

Webgate.io provides a remedy here: while setting up your Directlink automatic personalizations that are really burned into the videos can be activated simply via checkbox for all invited persons.

To avoid problems with subtitles or requirements from film, TV companies and distributors, you can now customize the appearance of personalized watermarks.

You can adjust both the position and opacity to your needs. Webgate.io will take care of the details so you can focus on the creative aspects. This makes Webgate.io your secure video distribution platform for video reviews, your post production, press releases and all other video projects with high security standards.

Published at: March 07, 2022 11:00 PM

Custom watermark text confi...