Driving innovation: How we're engineering digital asset management for Spacesuit Media

Partnering with Spacesuit Media to evolve the Spacesuit Collections platform

Spacesuit Media is a specialist photography and film-making company focused on capturing the energy and emotion of high-performance motorsport, including Formula E and powerboat racing. They work directly for sporting series such as Formula E and E1, and are the official photographers for the British Rally Championship and Greenpower Education Trust.

Their imagery tells compelling stories for race series, teams, manufacturers, sponsors, and media outlets. At the heart of their operations is Spacesuit Collections, a sophisticated web-based platform that enables photographers to manage, organise, and distribute thousands of high-resolution images.

Enhancing the platform, one feature at a time

Platform engineering

Spacesuit Media engaged us to deliver new functionality for the Spacesuit Collections application, as part of a wider ambition to grow the platform's commercial potential. With an expanding catalogue and increasing demand from photographers, brands, and image buyers, the business needed to evolve the application to support new user experiences and streamline operational workflows. Our brief was to help shape and implement these enhancements, without compromising the stability of the existing platform.

Before we began expanding the functionality of Spacesuit Collections, we first invested time in understanding the application's existing Yii2 PHP codebase. The platform had evolved over several years, so our first priority was to thoroughly understand its structure and design. This included reviewing architectural decisions, identifying recurring development patterns, and mapping out opportunities for improvement.

Drawing on our extensive experience with Yii2, we carried out a structured onboarding and analysis process. This included setting up reliable local development environments, auditing the codebase, and aligning our approach with the platform's existing conventions - ensuring we could contribute effectively and safely from the outset.

With a strong grasp of the system, we began introducing new features with modern Yii2 best practices to improve both performance and maintainability. One example was implementing powerful filtering and sorting tools for the platform's extensive image library, through the integration of Yii2's DataProvider functionality. This improvement enhanced usability while preserving backend efficiency.

We also worked on strengthening platform security by introducing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for login, alongside improved user management features. Additionally, we developed new flagging capabilities, allowing admins to track and manage specific assets more effectively.

Our work throughout 2024 has been iterative, consistently adding improvements while maintaining the platform's stability. Each new feature was built to align with best practices, ensuring that Spacesuit Collections remains scalable and efficient as Spacesuit Media continues to grow.

Working with the Spacesuit Media team

Collaboration was a key factor in the success of these projects. We worked closely with Spacesuit Media's hosting provider and developer Jamie, the original architect of the application, to ensure a seamless development and deployment process, adapting to their existing infrastructure and processes.

We also worked directly with Spacesuit Media's in-house designer, photographer and Operations Director Adam, and MD Ross, aligning our development work with their vision for the platform. We engaged in detailed discussions with all the stakeholders on UX, feature workflows, and system architecture to ensure each new addition integrated seamlessly with the platform. By exploring existing systems and providing feedback on potential enhancements, we helped refine feature concepts and improve user experience, striking the right balance between functionality and usability.

From features to strategy: deepening the partnership

As our relationship with Spacesuit Media evolved, so did our role. We moved beyond feature delivery into strategic consultancy, helping shape the long-term direction of the platform. To support the continued success of Spacesuit Collections, the application needed a foundation that could scale with its growth - reliable, cloud-native infrastructure that would unlock new possibilities.

Laying the groundwork for cloud scalability

A key part of this shift was planning a migration to AWS. One early recommendation was to leverage Amazon S3 for scalable, secure image storage. Decoupling media assets from the core application would improve performance and resilience, while also allowing limitless storage capacity, reducing costs and enabling global access.

In line with a service-oriented approach, we began exploring how AWS could help modernise the platform architecture. By breaking down monolithic elements and adopting services such as Load Balancing, ECS or Elastic Beanstalk - alongside RDS and OpenSearch for flexible data storage - we aimed to equip the platform for long-term scalability and performance.

This approach lays the foundation for dynamic scaling, high availability, and continuous innovation. It positions Spacesuit Collections to respond to increasing demand and evolve confidently over time.

We also proposed a shift towards continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD). These automated pipelines would accelerate the delivery of new features while maintaining reliability, helping the platform remain both stable and responsive as it grows.

Results

• Enhanced user experience: The new filtering and sorting capabilities significantly improved users' ability to navigate the platform's large image library, resulting in faster and more efficient asset discovery, which directly contributed to a more satisfying user journey.
• Increased security: The introduction of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) strengthened the platform's security, offering users greater confidence in the safety of their accounts and reducing the risk of unauthorised access.
• Streamlined approval process: The flag feature allowed users to easily mark images for others to see, eliminating the need for manual emails or lists, and speeding up the process of identifying and approving assets for publishing.
• Scalable future-proofing: Provided a clear roadmap for AWS migration, ensuring the platform is prepared for future scaling with cloud-native services.

Collaboration built on trust

Our close working relationship with Spacesuit Media has been built on shared goals, open communication, and a mutual commitment to quality. Together, we've transformed Spacesuit Collections into a more powerful tool for photographers and clients alike.

With plans for full cloud migration and ongoing platform enhancements, Spacesuit Media is poised to deliver even greater value to their clients. As their trusted partner, we're excited to continue supporting their growth with a modernised, scalable digital platform.