Gray Media's remote team produces 160 episodes for TV series in 75% less time with Dropbox Replay

Background

InvestigativeTV+ launched in autumn 2023 in all of Gray Media's 113 US local markets. It features a stellar cast of journalists and producers led by Managing Editor Greg Phillips and Production Manager Lance Washington. Since then, the half-hour news programme hosted by Lee Zurik and Tisha Powell has brought to light a myriad of sizzling, community-focused stories that have touched the hearts and minds of thousands of viewers. Season 2 premiered on 9 September 2024.

With the motto “in-depth stories that inform and inspire”, the show has covered riveting topics like how to prevent accidental shootings among children and the violence healthcare employees face at work. “Our mission is to be relevant, memorable and informative. We want to deliver shows that make viewers feel like they have learned something and that they've found solutions to the problems they have”, says Phillips.

InvestigativeTV+ not only faced the fast-paced environment of television and the high demands of viewers, it also had to struggle with a significant twist from day one: being produced by an entirely remote team.

Challenge: Syncing teamwork across different locations

“We have 16 staff members spread across the country, from Portland to Washington DC, Miami, New Orleans and Kansas City”, says Phillips. The team includes reporters, producers, photographers and camera operators who produce several formats – MOV, H264, MXF, AVI, JPEGs and PNGs – to put together the creatives and meet the ambitious goal of producing 160 episodes in the show's first season.

Working remotely had its challenges. To create every episode, the InvestigativeTV+ team had to store and share large files among each other in different locations, review and adjust their creatives in real time and maintain versions of every cut. Also, and most importantly, they needed to keep their collaboration in sync to produce a great end product smoothly and quickly.

So, even before production began, Phillips and his Production Manager, Lance Washington, sought a solid storage solution that offered the flexibility of real-time collaboration. “That”s when we found Dropbox Replay”, Phillips says.

Solution: Making teamwork fast and easy 

Designed to simplify the review and approval process of videos, audio and image projects, Dropbox Replay gave the InvestigativeTV+ team the collaboration power that they needed. “The production team could quickly upload, store and share media files with other team members and even provide feedback directly on individual video frames or images. Multiple users could then review the files simultaneously and comment at specific points in the timeline.”

“I can't imagine doing InvestigativeTV+ without Replay. I can get input from the producer, the executive producer or the reporter, while editors can simultaneously make edits and leave comments without having to download and upload multiple times”, Phillips says.

Dropbox also held training sessions for Phillips' team, which led to a smooth uptake of the solution. Soon after, the team got up to speed with Replay's features to effectively streamline workflows, showing the tool's quick time-to-value.

Results: Less time, more attention to detail 

With effective collaboration, Phillips and his team took the production of the first season to a whole new level. With Dropbox Replay, they have been able to reduce the review and editing process time by 75%, making it faster to create each 22-minute episode and meet tight deadlines easily. “When we're sending materials back and forth to work on, we don't have to worry about download or upload speeds. All of us can respond quickly and move the process along – that efficiency is significant”, says Phillips.