Peeling Back the Savannah Bananas’ Cloud-Based Collaboration Workflow
SAVANNAH, Ga.—What we love most about working for Fans First Entertainment and the Savannah Bananas is that every game feels like a live event, a broadcast and a social-media moment all at once. We are not just producing baseball—we are creating an experience that has to work in the stadium, on television, on YouTube and on every short-form platform where fans discover us. That is exactly why Sony’s Ci Media Cloud has become such an important part of our workflow.
Before this year, our media process was much more fragmented—we were relying on hard drives, laptops, and a very old-school sneakernet system to move footage around. It worked, but it was slow and it made it hard for everyone to stay connected. We were capturing a huge amount of content every weekend, but the process of getting that footage into the right hands took too long. That changed when we began using Ci Media Cloud.
Multiplatform Speedsters
Now, everything lives in one place. That may sound simple, but for us it has been a huge shift. We can upload footage on-site, organize it and share it instantly with the people who need it. Our editors can get to work faster and our marketing team can find what they need without waiting for drives to arrive. Even our cast members can log in, pull clips and create their own content. That kind of access has completely changed how quickly we can move.
We shoot about a terabyte of footage every weekend, so speed matters. With Ci Media Cloud, we can collect all of that material and start shaping it into clips almost immediately. That helps us get the best moments out while they are still fresh and still relevant. In our world, timing is everything: A great play, a wild fan reaction or a funny moment can become a viral clip fast, but only if we can move quickly enough to package it the right way.
Ci Media Cloud has also helped us control the quality of our storytelling. Our fans see us across a lot of different platforms, so we want the image and the feeling to stay consistent no matter where they find us. With everything in one system, we can make sure the footage looks and feels like the Savannah Bananas everywhere it appears. That consistency matters because we want the broadcast, video board and social clips to all reflect the same energy.
Shareable Stories
One of the best parts is how many people can use it. Our players and cast members can access footage and post their own clips, which has been huge for us, because so much of our growth comes from people sharing their own version of the Banana Ball experience. When our players can grab a clip and post it right away, they are helping tell our story in their own voice, making the content feel more immediate and more authentic.
Ci Media Cloud has also made it easier for us to support the moments that never make it into the main broadcast but are still a huge part of the fan experience. We can capture more from the plaza party, more from behind the scenes and more from the parts of the show that make Banana Ball unique. Those moments matter just as much as the game itself.
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For us, Ci Media Cloud is more than a storage platform. It is the tool that helps us turn a fast-moving, high-energy live show into content fans can connect with everywhere. It has streamlined our workflow, improved our speed and made it easier for everyone on our team to create. Most importantly, it helps us stay true to what we believe: fans first, entertain always.
More information is available on the CI Media Cloud website.
Mitch Rubenstein, head of production services for Fans First Entertainment, can be reached at rubenstein_m@bananaball.com.