It should go without saying that your internet connection is vital to having a good experience using any cloud service, and LucidLink is no exception. While LucidLink's unique architecture is designed to minimize the effects of distance and latency, there are some best practices regarding your internet connection that can help improve your performance.
Connection types
- Ethernet is the best type of connection if you have this option available. It is typically the most consistent and has the lowest latency. Learn more about bandwidth and latency.
- Wifi can also be used but keep in mind you'll likely experience more variability in the connection quality and the latency tends to be higher.
- Cellular hotspot tethering should be your last resort. The quality of these connections can be very good, but are also highly variable. Consider using the pinning feature if you are traveling and need to connect via cellular internet.
Bandwidth
You can use LucidLink with any amount of bandwidth, but faster connections will lead to a better experience. Let's examine a few use cases and how bandwidth may affect each user's experience.
- Reviewer
- This user may only need to review and approve finished assets such as final PDFs, mp4s, etc.
- The bandwidth demands for this user will be quite low and can likely have a great experience with connections under 100Mbps.
- Project Manager
- This user would be assigning permissions, creating folder structures, etc.
- The bandwidth demands for this user will be very low and can easily have a great experience with connections under 100Mbps.
- Creative Designer
- This user needs to be able to open creative applications such as Photoshop, InDesign, etc
- The bandwidth demands for this user will be moderate and would ideally have a connection of over 100Mbps.
- Video Editor / Motion Graphics Artist
- This user needs to be able to use creative applications such as Premiere, After Effects, Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, etc
- The bandwidth demands for this user will be higher and would ideally have a connection of 200Mbps or higher.
- Depending on the format of video being edited, it may be beneficial to have a connection of 1Gbps or more.
What if I don't have good bandwidth?
LucidLink uses sophisticated techniques to improve performance when accessing data remotely. The Lucid Cache will retain the portions of files you have recently used which helps alleviate the strain on your internet connection.
If you find yourself trying to work in a LucidLink Filespace and don't have a fast enough connection to work smoothly, we recommend using the pinning feature. You can do this in advance and it will allow you to pre-cache the larger files and higher bandwidth assets. In doing so, you can continue to work even using a lower quality connection such as hotel wifi, or a cellular hotspot connection.
Pinning is better than downloading because it does not change the file paths, and because any files you have pinned will stay synchronized with the rest of your team. So it is the best of both worlds, the performance of a local SSD, and the real-time collaboration of the cloud.
Some creative applications such as Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects have a panel plugin that helps users to manage their pinned media directly from the application. Learn more.