Workflow management platform Frame.io is getting an overhaul this summer, with a new version release engineered primarily for speed. Product demos will be hosted at NAB 2018 in the Western Digital booth #SL6316.

Loading time for large projects will be accelerated as much as 100 times in the new version, and media uploads can take place at “gigabit speeds and beyond” (the company benchmarks its own speeds at five times those of Dropbox, and claims they match those of accelerated file transfer tools) while keeping folder structures intact, the company said.

Screenshot of PDF viewer

Frame.io’s new PDF viewer interface
Frame.io

More media types are supported in the new media browser — including more than 100 raw image formats plus animated GIFs and multipage PDFs — in the new media browser, which will offer enhanced search capabilities. For example, Frame.io says it will be possible to search filenames, approval status, and name of uploader across hundreds of projects at once. And a new audio page features waveforms, audio meters, and album artwork.

Frame.io’s new audio page features a number of ways to visualize sound.
Frame.io

The core video engine has been rebuilt for smoother playback at up to 4K resolution, and comments can now be made on a timeline-defined range of footage for increased clarity. Comments will also support attachments and @mentions.

A new version-control system lets users add, remove and rearrange versions, and a Presence feature lets you see who’s online watching footage — and who’s already watched. You can even get a notification when a specific person or group starts looking at clips, or view historical stats.

Frame.io isn’t ignoring 360-degree annotations, either. The recently redesigned player that debuted in February supports spatial annotation to highlight specific areas of spherical VR content.

In other news, Frame.io co-founder and CEO Emery Wells recently posted an announcement related to the system’s security features, promising compliance with MPAA and SOC2 Type 1 and Type 2 security requirements by the end of 2018. The company is also building an intrusion-detection system designed to head off malicious attacks, Wells wrote, emphasizing that Frame.io does not allow its own employees access to customer content under any circumstances. The summer update is said to add a visual watermarking security feature, but Wells’ posting indicated more advanced content protection — session-based watermarking and DRM — will be available later in the year.

Frame.io: frame.io