Facilis TerraBlock Shared Storage Gains Worldwide Momentum

Creative shops around the world are turning to Facilis TerraBlock shared storage to enhance project collaboration and boost productivity as evolving file formats and bit rates introduce new challenges to post production and content creation workflows. A growing number of facilities from Norway, to the U.K., Egypt, Canada and beyond are integrating TerraBlock into media pipelines to realize greater flexibility, speed and scalability.

In July 2014, Norwegian film production company Woldcam installed a 48TB TerraBlock 24EX in its Stavanger facility, which primarily serves five editing suites running Avid Media Composer . Four of the workstations are connected to TerraBlock via 16Gb Fibre Channel, and the other via 1Gb Ethernet for logging purposes. The company also plans to link the system to graphics workstations that run Adobe After Effects , Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere . To enhance productivity and help reduce time spent transcoding and importing media during time-crucial assignments, Woldcam is also considering using their TerraBlock to store the last six months of camera footage.

We run a tight, ten-person operation, so we had to find a perfect fit for all of us, and nothing else compared to TerraBlock; it stood out from the crowd with qualities that we highly value: high-bandwidth, 4K support, no per-seat licensing fees and the ability to connect up to 6 Fibre Channel clients directly, said Woldcam AS IT/Systems Manager Espen R nnevik. A lot of our assignments require large quantities of media be available to multiple editors simultaneously for an extended time, and our TerraBlock gives us the storage capacity and bandwidth to do that.

UK-based post production shop OutPost Facilities recently found itself in need of a high-bandwidth shared storage system to quickly transcode and edit high-res footage for multiple TV projects at a time. On average the studio manages up to 400 hours of high-res footage including: ARRI ALEXA, XDCAM, ProRes 444, uncompressed DPX and TIF files. All project media is now stored on Outpost Facilities newly purchased 72TB TerraBlock, where it is accessible to the creative team. The system is connected via Fibre Channel to a suite of 18 Windows workstations that run Avid Media Composer , Avid Symphony and Avid DS as well as two Mac suites.

TerraBlock was an ideal match for us; it fit into our existing Fibre infrastructure, exceeded our performance criteria and offered an affordable solution with more raw bandwidth than anything else on the market, said Nigel Gourley, managing director, OutPost Facilities. Our line of work requires constant collaboration, so having a TerraBlock as our central shared storage solution is essential, and we've been very pleased with its performance. It does what we need it to do and if we have questions, someone from Facilis support is readily available to provide an answer.

Egyptian Media Production City (EMPC), an information and media complex located in Cairo, recently purchased and installed a 96TB Facilis TerraBlock for its editing facility and have found it to be an intuitive shared storage solution with advanced capabilities and bandwidth to support its network of NLEs. Currently EMPC is leveraging the TerraBlock to store RED 4K materials that its team cuts with Apple Final Cut Pro and color corrects using Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve.

A TerraBlock customer since 2005, Canadian arts and creativity incubator Banff Centre upgraded its storage network earlier this year with four new TerraBlock systems and a TX-16 expansion chassis, garnering 300TB of capacity. The install was commissioned by the Centre's Film and Media Department, with an infrastructure that includes 16 Avid edit suites and six Avid Pro Tools workstations connected to the TerraBlocks via Fibre Channel.

About TerraBlock

TerraBlock is Facilis multiplatform, high-capacity shared storage solution supporting 8Gb and 16Gb Fibre Channel, and 1Gb and 10Gb Ethernet through the Facilis Shared File System. It is available for purchase through a worldwide network of resellers. For more information and a complete list of TerraBlock features, visit http://www.facilis.com

About Facilis Technology

Founded in 2003, Massachusetts-based Facilis Technology, Inc. designs and builds affordable, high-capacity, turnkey shared storage and archiving solutions for post production and content creation professionals working in the film, television, education and audiovisual markets. Its production-proven solutions are fast and intuitive - making it easier for creative professionals to collaborate and work more efficiently. Flexible, scalable and compatible with industry-standard creative solutions, Facilis' products blend seamlessly into any studio environment - boutique, mid-size or large - and have been installed in more than 2000 facilities worldwide. http://facilis.com/

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