|
Solving Rigorous Digital Workflow Challenges
|
 |
Headquartered in New Zealand, The Rebel Fleet offers digital workflow services to top film and television production companies. Clients address broad creative needs and retain total image control across multiple shooting units with fast turnarounds. Recent projects include The Meg, Adrift, Ash vs Evil Dead, and The Shannara Chronicles.
The company was on the hunt for a scalable, high-performance storage solution that would meet the rigorous demands of a large-scale live-action film project for a major Hollywood studio.
|
| Tags: iss140
| rebel fleet
| alexa 65
| nas
| quantum
| stornext
| qxs
| storage
| mam
| Michael Urban
|
|
|
|
|
Preserving the British Film Institute Archive
|
 |
Today, the media and entertainment industry faces numerous challenges. To remain successful and competitive, these organisations must be ever innovative, agile and cost efficient in the way they produce, store, manage and distribute their digital assets. Content creators have traditionally relied upon outdated storage models, comprised of legacy interfaces, file structures and historical proprietary storage management software that tend to be complex, cumbersome and expensive. This makes it difficult to forecast and budget for ever-growing content in the effort to reach viewers. |
| Tags: iss136
| bfi
| archive
| blackpearl
| spectra
| storage
| film
| tape
| David Feller
|
|
|
|
|
Looking for the Silver Lining
|
 |
According to the World Meteorological Organisation, there are 10 different types of cloud, each of which can be divided further into sub-types. They range from the cirrus, the thin floaty clouds which generally serve only to make the sky look beautiful to the towering, all-embracing cumulonimbus which can deliver fearful quantities of rain – the biggest cumulonimbus clouds can contain 50 million tonnes of water. |
| Tags: iss136
| cloud
| lto
| archive
| storage
| Harry Grinling
|
|
|
|
|
Future proofing post production storage
|
 |
Advancements in NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express), the storage protocol designed for flash, are revolutionising data storage. According to G2M Research, the NVMe market will grow to $60 billion by 2021, with 70 percent of all-flash arrays being based on the protocol by 2020. NVMe, acting like steroids for flash-based storage infrastructures, dynamically and dramatically accelerates data delivery. |
| Tags: iss135
| nvme
| sas
| sata
| it
| storage
| post production
| Josh Goldenhar
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
360 degree video storage requirements
|
 |
Swim with bears, run with the bulls, get a pads-eye view of a rocket launch: 360 degree video production, also known as cinematic VR, makes these and many other bucket list-worthy events more accessible than ever. The format has evolved into a powerful storytelling tool, and one that changes not only the way in which visual experiences are shaped, but also the way in which media consumers perceive and interact with video content. |
| Tags: iss126
| 360 degree
| vr
| storage
| vfx
| ssd
| san
| nas
| quantum
| Dave Frederick
|
|
|
|
|
Building Out Storage for UHD
|
 |
As the next big thing in video, from capture and production through to display in the home, 4K and ultra-high-definition (UHD) video offers many benefits. Most notable of these is an eightfold increase in resolution as compared with 1080i, the established standard for HD broadcast. A number of other significant enhancements to image quality are also helping to drive interest in the adoption of this format. |
| Tags: iss114
| uhd
| storage
| harmonic
| Andy Warman
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The importance of storage
|
 |
"What's the best computer to edit video?" It's a great question - it's just the wrong question. Yes, CPU speed is important and the Internet is buzzing with the latest specs on GPUs. But, today, virtually any currently shipping computer is more than adequate to edit video; even 4K. |
| Tags: iss102
| storage
| cpu
| 4k
| gpu
| codec
| exabytes
| Larry Jordan#
|
|
|
|
|
Advantages of SSD Hybrid Solutions in Post Production Environments
|
 |
There's a plan for everything in life. Think on it, scope it out, ask around and come up with a consensus, you'll be prepared when it happens. Like post production for example - you're bidding on a job that's acquiring in 6K for a UHD DPX deliverable, and you want the whole deal, edit through delivery, so you make a plan. Transcode to Pro Res HD for edit, up-convert to 6K for finishing and grading, render out to UHD DPX for delivery. Well done, it's a good plan. But wait - the colorist wants to work in DPX, and offline/online sounds like old-tech to the young producer, and he wants to run 6K raw throughout. The best laid plans are thwarted thusly. The new plan may be to rebuild the facility from scratch with fatter interconnects, new workstations and bigger, faster storage. |
| Tags: iss102
| ssd
| post production
| solutions
| hybrid
| delivery
| storage
| James McKenna
|
|
|
|
|
Why fast production storage is just not enough
|
 |
UHD, 4k, 6k, 8k...the proliferation of high-resolution formats and files along with the growing number of skillsets that can collaborate on projects push storage bandwidth and capacities beyond their limits. If we just take a look at the potential storage requirements for a single 8K raw digital cinema format then we can kiss goodbye to 86,000 GB per hour! Then add to this the predicted increase in general video content IP video traffic is expected to be 79% of all consumer internet traffic in 2018 - this continual increase in media will test the storage strategies of all facilities, big and small. |
| Tags: iss102
| production
| storage
| ip video
| traggic
| media
| Martin Bennett
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Combining on-site and cloud storage
|
 |
Technology and profitability have an intimate and often complicated relationship. A new invention may open up the possibility of new forms of business, or greater efficiency in existing businesses. Sometimes the invention may be a response to a clear need necessity being the mother of invention. But on other occasions a technological advance may have good theoretical applications but be economically impractical to implement. |
| Tags: iss102
| on site
| cloud
| storage
| archive
| alto
| Alan Hoggarth
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Importance of Storage
|
 |
For content creators, our profession is our livelihood. Any production relies on a host of technologies, all of which must provide quality outputs and perform at an optimum level, and the same demands should be made of storage devices. |
| Tags: iss090
| G-Technology
| storage
| Nino Leitner
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Protecting the archive
|
 |
Over the last 20 years or so we have all become accustomed to the expression asset management and, as ever, familiarity has bred contempt. In this case, the expression has become a loose descriptor for almost anything with a bit of a database in it. We need to stop and think about what we are trying to achieve. |
| Tags: iss070
| tmd
| archive
| storage
| asset management
| security
| N/A
|
|
|
|
|
Ask the Experts: Content Storage, Security, Archive and Management
|
|
The media and entertainment industry is currently experiencing an unprecedented level of financial pressure. This comes from not only the turbulent economic era in which we are living, but also from increased competition and the need to repurpose content for consumption on different platforms and devices.
In order to succeed, businesses need to do more with less, making use of archived material, monetisation and also ensure the most valuable asset – produced content and footage – is kept safe and not misused. However, many companies will struggle to do this by themselves due to restrictive cost or lack of expertise. A good option is to outsource these functions to a specialist firm.
|
| Tags: iss069
| technicolor
| storage
| archive
| content storage
| digitizing
| digitising
| outsourcing
| N/A
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addressing SAN Allocation and Permission Challenges
|
|
Facilities today face a number of management complexities when allocating storage resources, especially as frame-based and 3D workflows increase in popularity and the amount of multi-format media that professionals are managing continues to grow. Camera acquisition formats are various, many workflows employ proxy generation to save space and bandwidth, and modern non-linear editing systems allow all these formats to co-exist in a single project. This mass of data required for project workflow and delivery insists that the overworked facility engineers become data managers as well.
|
| Tags: iss069
| Facilis
| terrablock
| san
| storage
| archive
| N/A
|
|
|
|
|
Cloud Storage and the end of silos
|
 |
It should not come as any surprise that people who specialise in one thing are not necessarily experts at other things. For example, and getting straight to the point, a great video editor cannot be expected to have the technical skills to securely store the edited master of his finished programme. The master is a valuable asset that is expected to be kept safe and sound. In days gone by, placing it on the shelf in an adjacent storeroom might have been OK but now that is hardly considered secure enough. Running off a copy and storing that somewhere else is good idea... but wait! Surely the editor is getting away from his prime skill editing. The truth is that there now are many choices for storage and it is easy to access top-notch storage services via the internet in the Cloud. |
| Tags: iss069
| cloud
| storage
| Bob Pank#
|
|
|
|
|
No more softly softly on the cloud
|
|
I can remember seeing graphic cloud symbols on computer system diagrams many years ago. So the idea of the cloud is nothing new. Indeed, just to prove it, the 10th (yes, weve already missed nine) annual Cloud Computing Expo (cloudcomputingexpo.com) is coming up in New York in June and the organisers claim that cloud computing is now a $120Bn market. So why are the television and media industries only recently becoming interested? |
| Tags: cloud
| internet
| archive
| storage
| upload
| download
| aspera
| cisco
| iss064
| Bob Pank#
|
|
|
|
|
Every Cloud has a Purple Lining.
|
|
Cloud computing has been around a long time. I seem to remember right back in the 1980s the phrase distributed processing describing one, if not the first, evolutionary step towards the concept of the Cloud. I am not sure when it acquired the nomenclature Cloud but most people in IT have been aware of it probably for a decade or more. It seems that only recently has the idea caught on in a big way in media and broadcast. |
| Tags: iss064
| suitcase tv
| storage
| aquaduct
| avid
| cloud
| N/A
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for the memory
|
|
If I need to impress on someone just how old I really am, I explain that my first computer had 32kB of Ram. Then we go through the you mean 32 meg no, I mean 32 k routine. It does seem implausible that, while I managed to write letters on my BBC Model B, today I need half a million times the memory to bash out columns for TV Bay. |
| Tags: first computer
| iss054
| bbc model b
| domesday project
| iabm
| data storage
| N/A
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
YouTube
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In
