Better Data Privacy and Better Media Search for Mac Users from Axle AI

Disclaimer: Axle AI is the parent company of LarryJordan.com. I’ve owned Axle software since 2015.

Today, Axle AI made two important announcements for its multi-user, media asset manager: The first improves data privacy in general and the second improves finding the media you need for Mac-based video editors.

IMPROVED DATA PRIVACY

Axle will announce that “the company’s cloud-native version media management and collaboration software, Axle AI Cloud, is now available for private deployments in sites hosted by OVHcloud in any region worldwide. This allows media content owners to keep their cloud media workflows local and private, with no connection to cloud hyper-scalers.” (Axle press release)

NOTE: OVHcloud is a multi-national, private cloud hosting service.
Website: https://us.ovhcloud.com/about/

There is increasing fear – especially internationally – that some US-based cloud-storage providers may not be able to protect the data sovereignty of international customers. If these fears become true, media stored in the cloud could become far more vulnerable. The easiest way to secure your media is to move it out of the large vendors’ clouds and store it locally. The problem is that many editorial teams work remotely and need access to media for multiple users in multiple locations.

The solution is a “private cloud.” This is a combination of hardware and software that is located locally on the client’s site and under the client’s total control. Yet, while located locally, it is still accessible world-wide using secure protocols for as many users as needed.

“Like all of Axle AI’s systems, these two configurations provide complete privacy for the owners of the software. Their high resolution video and proxy media, metadata (both AI and user-generated) and user accounts remain private at all times, unlike most cloud-based systems where media is stored on public accounts and may be subject to AI-based scraping and LLM training by large internet vendors.” (Axle press release)

Sam Bogoch, CEO of Axle AI, said “We are seeing massive demand from media companies and teams, who are concerned about the potential for unauthorized use of their content by external cloud AI vendors. Axle AI’s solutions, both on premise and cloud, are fully self contained and do not require sending media or metadata to external providers.”

BETTER MEDIA SEARCHES FOR MAC-BASE EDITORS

The second big announcement is that Axle is adding Mac-native AI video search to its systems running on the latest Mac hardware. While accessing an Axle server only requires a web browser, in the past, running the Scene Understanding and Semantic Search AI features of Axle required Linux systems running with NVidia GPUs. That limitation is now removed.

This announcement means that you can use a Mac mini or Mac Studio as your Axle server which simplifies adding Axle to all-Mac shops. Plus the AI power of the Mac Neural Engine provides strong performance at a very low price.

These AI features include:

• Scene Understanding. This automatically detects and categorizes key moments in video content, describing the content of each scene.
• Semantic Search. This is the flip-side of scene understanding. Once Axle has categorized your media, you can then type in a description of the shot you are looking for – i.e. “car driving past farm land with sheep” – and Axle can find it.
• Axle AI Speech. This converts spoken content into searchable, timecode-based text with high accuracy. The timeline is displayed and editable inside Axle AI MAM.

Even better, all these AI features are private, under your control and not used to train someone else’s AI.

SUMMARY

Far too often, storing media to the cloud was risky. And training AI meant that all your hard work was often secretly shared with others. These new options improve speed, improve privacy, and improve control. All at an affordable price.

For more information, visit Axle’s website: https://www.axle.ai