The Rise of the Near-Live Commercial  Content

 There’s a different kind of deadline now.

It used to be “air next week.” Then it slid toward “post by morning.” Today it’s “have it up before the crowd sits down.” We’re not talking about a recap or a glossy case study; we’re talking about near-live commercial content—clips, cutdowns, sponsor spots, and micro-ads that publish during the event, while the moments still live.

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Sports led the way. The Golden State Warriors turned “courtside to cloud” into a muscle memory: camera to proxy to edit to publish in about three minutes. That’s not a rumor; it’s the organization bragging on record about branded edits hitting social in the time it takes to refresh a feed. The tactic has scaled across leagues and broadcasters: Sky Sports uses collaborative pipelines to crank bespoke promos across hundreds of matches each season—an industrial rhythm that treats post as a live desk, not a back room. Vendors and integrators keep running show-and-tell workshops that all sound the same underneath: wire the path from sensor to social so the cut starts before the play ends.

 Concerts are the other engine. The live show is now a content studio with a soundtrack. Sponsors don’t just want signage; they want verticals, carousels, and micro-ads while the encore still rings. “Promote before, during, and after” is standard advice in social guides for events now. The method is simple: capture > cut > publish > repeat until the load-out. 

This isn’t “fast turnaround.” It’s a new species.

Old math: shoot, dump, log, sleep, cut next week. New math: ingest on site, cut on site, publish on site. It changes who you hire and what you scout. You need an editor who can charm clients while rendering, a DIT who thinks like a systems tech, and a producer who treats connectivity and communication as the life blood.

 Camera-to-Cloud (C2C) turned the idea from pep talk to practice. Proxies leave the camera the moment we end recording; editors assemble in slightly less dark rooms with technology out of a heist movie. The specifics vary—Teradek, Cubes, 5G modems—but the effect is the same: the first line of the edit becomes the shot you just made. When it works, the clip lands while the fans are still in their seats when it stutters, you're only going up after the moment is gone.

But why the rush? Because attention is slimming down, again. A great moment has a half-life of hours, not days. The win isn’t just “be the first to post.” It’s be present while the moment is still there, and let the brand feel like it's part of the collective memory, not posting one.

So that's the why. But how is it actually done?

How it actually feels from the tent

Depending on your setup and internet speed, your emotions may vary. Having done everything from a final four game to a surprise event, there are two major concerns in both production and post— are we connected to the cloud, and how fast is our internet connection?

First, the cloud. There are a couple of different cloud options out there from different manufacturers. Perhaps the most well known is the collaboration between frame.io and RED, with the ability to go directly to the cloud from RED DSMC3 cameras. But lesser well known (or perhaps better hidden) is Sony's CI Media Cloud, which we've personally used with our FX3 & FX6 cameras. Both have been stable on jobs, and have simplified our editing workflow's by allowing our editors to continually pull down footage as events are going on instead of waiting for a card drop. Both have quirks, such as no CI upload when you change to S&Q mode for Sony's. Whatever you use, you do need extensive testing.

(For those outside the Sony & RED world, Teradek makes the Cube, which does similar things, but is more meant for live-streaming and requires a bit of extra steps. We've tested it with good results, but it wasn't the workflow we needed.)

The second thing: internet speed is king. It doesn't matter if you're uploading proxies if they get stuck uploading in the first place.

We've tried a lot of different solutions on set; local wifi, a dedicated hotspot, to dedicated equipment specifically for C2C workflows. What we've found is this: if you are in a single spot on a network no one is using, wifi can be fine. If you are in a crowd or an open field, you will need something more.

For us, we settled on the Teradek Mobile Backpack for the production, as our productions were in a heavily saturated area (and once in an open field). This worked super well getting the files to the cloud, and after some IT nerding, we were able to set it up inside of Teradek's Core system and get everything handled.

After that, it was easy on production's side.

1. We simply tested everything the day of, in our location.
2. We timed the amount of time a 10 second clip would take to upload.
3. We let the producer's worry and panic about what that time was.

How to worry and panic as a producer

 Time & money. That's all this is. That's all everything ever is.

In this type of environment, time and money are the two biggest concerns you have and need to communicate forward. Let's tackle time first.

There are five times you need to worry about on this shoot.

1. The average time it takes to upload a clip.
2. The estimate total amount of time you need to shoot for the edit.
3. The average time it takes to download a clip.
4. The time it takes to edit a cut.
5. The time it takes for the client to approve.

Broken down, it's a matter of math for 1-4 that gets you the time until first cut is ready, and a matter of communication for number 5.

Here's the math. If it takes 20 seconds to upload a 10 second clip (yes, we should be using file size but time is an easy way to estimate), that means that we are roughly at a 2 to 1 upload time for our shoot. If we need 30 minutes of shooting, that means that it would be roughly 60 minutes before the last clip is able to be downloaded by the editor.

The editor then has to download those files to be able to edit, which takes 20 seconds on 10 second clip. That means 60 minutes to download everything, so we are at 120 minutes now total.

To edit everything takes 1o minutes, because you editor is a wizard. But that brings the total to 130 minutes before you have a first cut.

Now in reality, it happens way faster than that. You are constantly uploading, downloading, and editing simultaneously, such that you are really only using about half that time. But, out of caution, it's always good to know and communicate your worst case scenario in the upfront. Camera to cloud doesn't mean its straight to editing; there are other steps involved.

Then it's just a matter of getting your client in front of it to approve the content and upload it on their own. Which can take anywhere from 30 seconds to.....

Money also plays a factor; to upload all of this content takes specific equipment and also storage. The costs of the cloud can vary from product to product, but are mainly driven by the amount of storage you'll need on the cloud. You may also run into a costs to upload, depending on your upload method and data usage.

TL;DR: as a producer, just make sure you have everyone test the workflow before they get to set, and then again before the event, and then during the event. (when there is a crowd, your wifi can slow dramatically.)

What this means for editors

1. Make a template beforehand with predetermined assets
2. Get yourself a way to get the fastest internet speed possible.

For editors on a tight deadline, having everything that is pre-determined ready to go will significantly take your time down in post. Graphics, transitions, music; whatever can be made and chosen ahead of time, throw it in your timeline. The less decisions you have to make in the moment, the better.

The second factor is getting yourself the fastest internet speed you can. For us, we've tried a couple of methods; we've used a wired connection straight from the venue, and then we also bring a mobile hotspot as a backup. The faster you can upload and download, the easier of a time you'll have in the edit.  

It's faster than you think

Depending on your edit, you may be able to do things super fast; if it's a quick one-shot social media post, you can do the 3 minute drill like the Warriors. If it is a longer, story driven piece, then the speed is driven by the time it takes to upload, download, and make decisions.