The “f” is for speed

The thumbnail and preview generation process is now completely separate from the upload process. We have multiple Image Geishas working in parallel to handle your data.

This means previews are generated much faster, almost immediately for static files and in a matter of minutes for large video sequences.

Once again, fluxiom has been updated, and it shows! Over the past few weeks, we have silently deployed one of the largest updates in fluxiom’s history, fully unleashing the power of our brand new distributed back-end.

fluxiom may look the same at first glance, but what’s inside is entirely new. You will notice it is faster, smarter in its choices and clearer to interact with. This is also a retroactive update, meaning previously stored assets and existing accounts have been transparently re-visited to benefit from the improvements we are now announcing.

Faster previews

The thumbnail and preview generation process is now completely separate from the upload process. We have multiple ImageGeishas working in parallel to handle your data. This means previews are generated much faster, almost immediately for static files and in a matter of minutes for large video sequences. (As always, you need not wait until the preview generation completes to keep on working with your account.) Speaking of videos, any item whose source file allows for it will now sport a crisper, higher-quality preview. See the new preview generation process in action:

Preview everything

We now recognise 97% of all assets stored on our system, meaning you can preview the contents of nearly all popular video and file formats on the market today, without downloading the files. And yes, we’re working hard on cracking the remaining 3%!

Improved Video quality and video skimming

We’ve dramatically improved the assets view, to allow video skimming right from the thumbnails, and to intelligently show information about the assets being displayed, based on the available screen real-estate. New background magic ensures your previews look their best at every zooming level, and appear on-screen faster.

Stages

We now allow you to open a stage directly from your account, with no additional login, as soon as it has been created. This renders the stage previewing functionality obsolete, and it has been removed accordingly.

Observe and Remember

We’ve taken a memory pill! fluxiom now remembers your previous zooming settings, as well as the last viewing mode you selected. We’ll work on remembering an increasing number of details over time so that you always find things as you last left them. Watch this space…

Refined Versions

Cosmetic improvements include a refined, clickable Versions badge, more reliable keyboard shortcuts and lighter generic icons for those (rare) files we can’t yet preview.

Improved metadata search

If searching for metadata information has given you trouble in the past, we invite you to try again. A pesky bug affecting a small minority of files and even fewer users has been ruthlessly squashed.