Strada Network – Turn Any Drive Into a Cloud for Video Collaboration Without Storage Costs

by Johnnie Behiri5 days ago

At Cine Gear, we caught up with Michael Cioni, who, together with his brother Peter and their dedicated team, decided to revolutionize peer-to-peer systems by eliminating traditional cloud storage limitations for video professionals by introducing Strada Network. Let’s dive into it and find more.

Video professionals have long struggled with the limitations of traditional cloud storage services. While platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, and WeTransfer are great for documents and small files, they struggle to handle the massive file sizes often encountered in video production. As Strada co-founder Michael explains, “The cloud was never designed for video,” and the numbers support this claim. Modern cameras can easily generate half a terabyte or more of footage per shoot, making uploading to traditional cloud services prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.

Strada’s revolutionary approach

Strada has developed what they call the “Strada Network” – a peer-to-peer system that transforms any storage device into a shareable cloud. Whether it’s a USB stick, camera SSD, or large NAS drive, users can instantly turn their local storage into an accessible, collaborative workspace without uploading anything to traditional cloud servers.

The concept is elegantly simple: instead of treating clouds as “someone else’s hard drive,” Strada allows your own hard drive to function as the cloud. Users can share their drives with collaborators worldwide, who can then browse, stream, and download files directly from the original storage device.

Technical innovation: real-time streaming from local drives

Perhaps most impressive is Strada’s ability to stream high-resolution video files over modest internet connections. During the demonstration, Michael showed 4K ProRes files being streamed from a 36GB file over just an 11 Mbps connection. The system uses Mac Silicon’s processing power to compress files in real-time, delivering the stream in approximately 200 milliseconds while maintaining 4K quality.

This technology works even with camera cards that are still mounted in cameras. In a live demonstration, Michael showed footage being streamed directly from a Blackmagic Ursa 12K camera, with collaborators able to access and download files while they remained on the camera’s storage media.

No-cost collaboration model

Unlike traditional cloud services that charge for storage, bandwidth, and per-user access, Strada’s basic functionality is completely free. There are no storage fees, no limits on the number of collaborators, and no restrictions on file sizes. The company plans to monetize through optional premium features like commenting, messaging, window burns, and LUTs, but the core sharing and streaming functionality remains free.

As Michael puts it: “We don’t want to charge for storage because we are not re-renting storage. We don’t care how many users you have because it doesn’t cost us anything – it’s your internet service, it’s your hard drive.”

Beyond camera-to-cloud

While camera-to-cloud services cater to the immediate production workflow, Strada addresses the broader collaboration challenge. The system can share any type of file, including rough cuts, graphics, titles, and archives from years past, without the need for expensive cloud storage. This makes Strada particularly valuable for post-production workflows where diverse file types need to be shared among editors, colorists, sound designers, and clients.

Simple implementation

Getting started with Strada is incredibly simple. Users simply install the Strada application, plug in any storage device, and check a box to enable sharing. They can then immediately invite collaborators via email. Recipients can access files through a standard web browser, making the system platform-agnostic and accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

Strada Network – market impact

Strada’s approach could fundamentally change how video professionals handle file sharing and collaboration. By eliminating the storage and bandwidth costs that make traditional cloud services expensive for video work, it opens up new possibilities for smaller productions and independent creators who previously couldn’t afford enterprise-level collaboration tools.

The system also addresses the growing trend of recording directly to SSDs via USB-C, allowing these drives to become instantly shareable production assets without any additional infrastructure investment.

Availability

Strada is currently in beta, with the company actively seeking community feedback to determine which premium features users want and are willing to pay for. The basic sharing and streaming functionality is available now at no cost, with users able to sign up and begin using the service immediately without providing credit card information.

For video professionals tired of the limitations and costs of traditional cloud storage, Strada offers a compelling alternative that leverages existing hardware investments while providing enterprise-level collaboration capabilities. For more information and registration, please head to Strada here.

What do you think about the Strada Network solution? Is this something that you would like to experiment with and try for yourself? Please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.