POST-PRODUCTION
Storage for Collaborative Video Production and Editing
Post-Production is hard work. Whether it’s video or film, editing, audio, effects or motion graphics, the need for high throughput and reliable content storage is an absolute must. Active Storage was created to provide easy to use, media-friendly data storage you can rely on.
Post-Production efficiency is most often derived from making the process more collaborative. From capture to final output, adding more hands to a project ensures you’ve got the experts you need handling each step, but often adds layers of workflow complexity. Apple Xserve and Xserve RAID set the standard for collaborative workflows. Active Storage is bringing Xsan to the next level.
“Like everyone else, I had been waiting for years for Apple to upgrade the Xserve RAID. When they didn’t, I went looking for the best alternative and found it in the ActiveRAID.
Being a director/editor, I don’t have engineers running around the building to help if there’s a problem. I needed a true plug and play with support if needed. So off I went to NAB to look at everything that was out there including the Promise drive. Hands down the only logical choice was the ActiveRAID.
I’ve had a 16TB fibre box in my system... and haven’t had anything but a great result with it. I also have the piece of mind that if I have a problem, some vendor isn’t going to tell me that the problem is on the Mac side and to go call Apple.
These are the guys that built the XserveRAID (at Apple) and now built its successor. We’re very lucky that they did.”
Nearly Famous, Inc.
Today, most workflows are completely digital which puts even more pressure on your storage solution; content must be handled correctly. As the saying goes “content is king.” The files must be easy to find, access and use. And nowhere across the workflow can a slow down or dropped frames be tolerated.
Another challenge to the multi-user workflow is the simple fact that if the overall system goes down—EVERYBODY is affected. If you have multiple users working on multiple projects with intense deadlines, you know there’s no time for interruption of service. But as with anything mechanical, failures can occur and when they do, it’s usually at the most inopportune times.
Active Storage understands this, so our systems are designed to perform in degraded and rebuild drive states to keep your operation running. Fast failover of our redundant Active/Active RAID controllers, and full support for Xsan multi-path load balancing ensure consistent operation.
Many solutions exist today for building a collaborative workflow (or SAN), and the majority are open systems. The two most popular and highly interoperable solutions are built around shared file systems from Apple and Quantum, the Xsan and StorNext® filesystems respectively. Both work well with Active Storage products.
Xsan and StorNext® filesystems deliver reliable consistent high-bandwidth operation when paired with the right storage solution—a storage provider like Active Storage, designed from the ground up to work in media-centric environment.
“When (Active Storage) came in to try and solve what was an existing problem in my facility, not only did they send in a few people to try and analyze our problem... they also looked at my entire workflow and not just the parts of it that mattered to them, because they felt a holistic understanding of what it is I was trying to do was going to be the key to success.”
NASCAR Media Group
Active Storage integrate seamlessly with the following technology partners:
| AJA | ATTO | QLogic |
| APC | CrashPlan PRO | Quantum |
| Apple | DriveSavers | Small Tree |
| ArchiWare | Fujitsu | Verizon |
| Atempo | IBM | Vicom |
“We believe that the Active Storage ActiveRAID is an important platform for Apple users - where data management applications like Solutioneering’s Data:enRoute are tightly integrated with fast, highly reliable and carefully tuned storage to deliver a seamless user experience.”
Solutioneering, LLC
The choice of a storage provider is critical. Some systems say they are compatible, and others seem to work, but the most critical test of any storage solution is the proven ability to deliver high-throughput and the lowest possible latency under demanding, 365/24/7 circumstances. Many systems can deliver passable results under ideal circumstances when the systems are new and the users are learning the boundaries of their SANs capabilities. However, Active Storage has continually provided flawless operation for a wide array of post-production companies and facilities in both ideal and adverse conditions alike.
Some of the many Post-Production companies currently using Active Storage products include:
“We are excited about this storage system—it makes life much easier. The three main characteristics: speed, storage capacity, and service. According to my experience, this is the best you can get today.”
Televisa, Mexico—World’s largest Spanish language broadcaster
Active Storage has taken into consideration the needs of the Post-Production environment in the design of our systems. We are not a general-purpose storage company. Quite frankly, Active Storage isn’t about simple enterprise email storage; we do high availability, high-demand video and collaboration workflows. Our focus is on developing low latency, high throughput solutions that are optimized for the data patterns and use cases of today’s media professionals.
- Active Storage takes extra care in designing easy-to-deploy and easy-to-service systems.
- Our Native Mac OS X management suite was developed for users who need an at-a-glance view, and a quick way to identify and fix any issue.
- Transient vibration is detrimental to delivering consistent latency and throughput, so we have taken steps to eliminate this in our system design.
- Active Storage carefully selects the best hard drives for collaborative video applications and have developed proprietary qualification and testing software to ensure performance and longevity in collaborative video environment.
- Our RAID controller and kernel design is fine grain tunable and gives us considerable control over tuning for individual environments. The design provides adaptive learning, actually learning and adapting to the particular user environment.
- Active Storage offers scalable solutions to meet the needs of collaborative workflows from the smallest to largest in both size and budget.
Active Storage solutions are sold through our network of Qualified Value Added Resellers. Please contact us for a broadcast specialist in your area, or to learn more about our products click here.
All trademarks, trade names and copyrights are property of their respective holders. StorNext® is a registered trademark of Quantum Corporation. Apple Macintosh, Xserve, Mac OS X Server and Xsan are property of Apple, Inc.