XenData, the global provider of digital video archive solutions to the media and entertainment industry, today announced that Crew Cuts, a full-service post-production house, has installed a XenData SX-522 Archive Server managing a robotic LTO library to help upgrade and automate its complete workflow. The new server and library have permitted Crew Cuts to achieve greater efficiencies and create a very dynamic and collaborative environment.With extensive expertise in commercial and film editing, production visuals and sound mixing, Crew Cuts has worked with some of the biggest networks in entertainment. To keep pace with its customers' ever-increasing demands and level of production, Crew Cuts chose to upgrade and automate its workflow. In doing so, Crew Cuts required a more centralized storage and collaborative production management solution that would eliminate existing storage silos that, in some instances, spanned several external and personal drives, making collaboration difficult and disjointed.
My main objective was to look for a fully integrated and easy-to-use solution that would automate the workflow and enable us to seamlessly go from ingest, to edit, distribution and long-term low cost archival storage, said Chris Keenan, CTO of Crews Cuts.
As a result, Crew Cuts needed a more adaptable long-term storage solution that would seamlessly integrate with the new entirely automated workflow. In addition, the new archival storage had to be a data repository for all projects previously housed on Crew Cuts' external storage.
Striving to achieve its long-term goals, Crew Cuts selected an integrated solution with three main components: the XenData SX-522 Archive Server, a FilmPartners MXFserver collaborative post-production system and an axle Gear Media Asset Management system, all of these components supplied by T2 Computing.
With these three key components in place, Crew Cuts has gained:
A simplified and very effective project management process. Managing the workflow around human-centric projects stored in virtual containers that provide the collaborating post team access to all the needed materials. All materials are always protected against accidental or unauthorized deletion.
A universal, virtualized storage server infrastructure that can concurrently support any of the leading post-production applications and tools in the industry regardless of their manufacturer.
Crew Cuts can easily reuse materials from older projects because it can now effortlessly catalog content to make it easier to find digital assets and retrieve them when necessary.
A powerful archiving capability suitable for both current and old projects. Crew Cuts has the capability to archive complete projects on low cost storage and to easily restore full projects or selected individual files.
The key benefit of my new solution is its ability to support my production workflow in such a way that it becomes a natural progression of tasks that add tremendous value to the Crew Cuts brand. Gone are the many artificial steps that were forced by the limitations in our former environment.
It's a unique scenario when you need everything in one place, so why not go for the best of breed to ensure your company assets will be always available and safe? Keenan continued. I did my research, and the best archive solution was from XenData which manages a robotic LTO library behind the scenes. This helps to minimize our total costs and allows us to focus on producing great content for our customers.
Crew Cuts works with some of the best names in the business, and we're delighted that they chose our XenData SX-520 Series archive server as one of the key components in their state of the art end-to-end solution, said Phil Storey, XenData CEO.
About Crew Cuts
Crew Cuts is a full-service production and post-house located in midtown Manhattan. With years of expertise in commercial and film editing, production, visual effects, motion graphics, audio / sound design and mixing, Crew Cuts is committed to the highest standard in post-production services, while maintaining and continually developing a fresh, diverse, and talented pool of editors. For more information visit: www.crewcuts.com.
About XenData
XenData is a global provider of digital video archiving solutions tailored specifically to serve the media and entertainment industry - with typical customers being TV stations, video production companies, post-production organizations and the media departments of large corporations and government organizations. XenData's solutions range from cost-effective LTO workstation archives to multiple petabyte server systems. XenData archive servers have a network attached storage architecture and are compatible with a broad range of third party media applications. They can be accessed via a standard file-folder structure or by using an API, providing the high-performance and functionality required to meet today and tomorrow's demanding digital video applications. With over 600 digital video archive servers managing robotic LTO libraries installed in over 50 countries worldwide, XenData is trusted by some of the largest media companies. For more information visit: www.xendata.com.
About FilmPartners
FilmPartners is a global provider of collaborative post-production management solutions serving the Media & Entertainment industries. From its headquarters in Hilversum, The Netherlands, FilmPartners provides innovative technologies advancing the creative capabilities available to companies engaged in media production. For more information visit: www.mxfserver.com.
About axle Video
axle Video, LLC is a Boston-based company aiming to bring radical simplicity to media management for small and midsize teams. Its founders, Sam Bogoch, Steven Ryan and Patrice Gouttebel, all have extensive experience i
