Revolutionizing video editing on the web with Next.js and Vercel

Ozone set out to revolutionize video editing by embracing the web.

Inspired by the success of web-based applications like Figma, Ozone's creators recognized the potential for accessibility, ease of updates, and democratization of tools inherent in the web environment. By tapping into the power and flexibility of modern web architecture, Ozone enables users to perform heavy-duty video editing tasks directly in their browsers, eliminating the need for cumbersome desktop applications.

Initially hosted on Heroku, Ozone faced challenges with slow deployment times and frequent outages. Recognizing the need for a more reliable and efficient hosting platform, Ozone made the switch to Vercel—and the results were transformative.

Deployment speeds skyrocketed: tasks that once took 15 minutes now completed in a fraction of the time. This not only accelerated the development process by 5x, but also empowered team members to iterate on features rapidly and independently.

Additionally, given Ozone is a heavy product built on React and WebAssembly, with many custom submodules, load times were massively improved by switching to Vercel—even with the heavy-duty rendering functionalities and large amounts of data that they need to surface to users.

Democratizing collaboration and development

Vercel's developer experience workflow unlocked new possibilities for collaboration. The ability to leave comments on feature branches and deploy each feature independently allowed teams to work at their own pace and ship features more efficiently.

With hundreds of features to develop and just a small team to do it, Ozone relied on Vercel to streamline the journey from idea to experimentation to final deployment—a feat previously unimaginable with other platforms.

“Knowing that an engineer can finish working on something that I can test in staging or production within a matter of what seconds is incredible. In the past, I was waiting 15 to 20 minutes to be able to get my hands on anything. Knowing that an engineer can finish working on something that I can test in staging or production within a matter of what seconds is incredible. In the past, I was waiting 15 to 20 minutes to be able to get my hands on anything. ”

Max von Wolff, Founder & CEO

One team member may be working on AI, another working on the timeline, and someone may be working on exporting and collaboration. By deploying each and every one of those features to their own unique branch, Vercel removes cross-team dependencies, and everyone can move at their own pace to ship features in the most efficient way.

AI integration and future innovations

Building on its success, Ozone has begun incorporating AI functionality into its platform, enabling users to generate videos, images, music, and speech on the fly by integrating with models from companies like Stability AI, Meta, and ElevenLabs. This integration not only enhances the editing experience, but also positions Ozone at the forefront of technological innovation in the industry.

Next.js and Vercel helped the team to integrate AI APIs into their codebase, test them, and get to production. With AI Integrations available right from the Vercel dashboard, and the AI SDK to help developers build conversational streaming user interfaces, the barrier to entry has never been lower.

“It would be foolish not to embrace this incredible AI trend that is happening. And with Vercel, its easy to allow creators to to really let their creativity run wild and create it all in one platform by incorporating AI easily into our platform.It would be foolish not to embrace this incredible AI trend that is happening. And with Vercel, its easy to allow creators to to really let their creativity run wild and create it all in one platform by incorporating AI easily into our platform.”

Alexander Kollmann, Product Manager

Competitive advantage and future outlook

For Ozone, the ability to iterate quickly and incorporate user feedback is a competitive advantage. By leveraging Vercel's capabilities, Ozone has accelerated its development cycle, enhanced performance, and democratized the development process.

With a focus on innovation and collaboration, Ozone is poised to continue disrupting the video editing landscape and shaping the future of content creation.