"What we wanted to do was to build a file system that would support any resolution at any number of streams"
Author:
ContributorPublish date:
Aug 16, 2018
The M&E industry is one of the fastest evolving sectors. The rapid progression of frame rates and video revolution has a considerable impact on production and post-production teams, and their storage and capacity requirements. Throughout the production process, a film increases from approximately 10 TB to roughly 350 TB and the number of workstreams with users working on the same dataset grows rapidly.
To solve this data storage challenge, Technicolor created a scalable and future-proof storage infrastructure using Excelero NVMesh to provide workstations with access to high bandwidth and low latency performance that accommodates streaming, editing and reel presentation at any time.
Future-proofing post-production storage
Like many data centre and infrastructure teams at production and post-production houses, Technicolors IT department along with engineering director Amir Bemanian, were struggling to keep up with the rapid evolution from one resolution to the other.
4K is becoming the default resolution and 8K is on the horizon, and frame rates are increasing from 24 and 30 frames per second to 48fps and even 60fps. The additional storage capacity and thus also bandwidth that is needed for higher frame rates increases linearly: doubling the frame rate from 30fps to 60fps also doubles the storage needs. And increasing the resolution from 2K to 4K quadruples the storage requirements. When a studio switches from 2K 30fps to 4K 60fps, the post-production house also needs to be prepared to store and stream eight times the volume of data, which is a substantial increase.
On top of this, there are also possible investments in extra cameras, additional visual effects, High Dynamic Range (HDR), colour depth, and more. Yet another challenge for post-production workflows is avoiding dropped frames, caused by insufficient performance and high latencies, which impacts the technical quality of an asset and results in on-screen motion.
A common problem is that many companies in the M&E industry such as Technicolor, retain infrastructures which are typically based on a Fibre Channel network with storage arrays serving tens of workstations. This means that the speed to ingest data to the workstations from the Fibre Channel storage arrays is simply too slow and does not scale. At Technicolor, workstreams had to be duplicated in order for multiple people to work on the dataset at the same time.
In order to be better prepared for current and future storage and streaming needs, Amir Bemanian and his team at Technicolor began exploring new "future-proof" storage and network architectures. "What we wanted to do was to build a file system that would support any resolution at any number of streams," explains Bemanian. "And that was essentially impossible until 2017 where we saw an alignment of technologies: the networking, the PCIE slot, the NVMe drives and also the software - from Excelero - that glued it all together. This combination of technologies enabled us to do storage in a very different way to traditional methods.
The IT infrastructure required to feed dozens of workstations of 4K files at 24 fps is mind-boggling and that doesn't even consider what storage demands we'll face with 8K or even 16K formats, Bemanian continues. It's imperative that we can scale to future film standards today. Now, with innovations like the shared NVMe storage that Excelero provides, Technicolor can enjoy a hardware-agnostic approach, enabling flexibility for tomorrow while not sacrificing performance.
Excelero's NVMesh for Any-K workflows
NVMesh software-defined block storage features Elastic NVMe, a distributed block layer that allows any application to utilise pooled NVMe storage devices across a network at local speeds and latencies. Distributed NVMe storage resources are pooled with the ability to create arbitrary, dynamic block volumes that can be utilised by any host running the NVMesh block client. These virtual volumes can be striped, mirrored or both while enjoying centralised management, monitoring and administration. In short, applications can enjoy the latency, throughput and IOPS of a local NVMe device while at the same time getting the benefits of centralised, redundant storage. NVMesh is deployed as a virtual, distributed non-volatile array and supports both converged and disaggregated architectures, giving customers full freedom in their architectural design.
By deploying Excelero NVMesh and six standard NVMe servers powered by Intel 3D NAND flash, Technicolor achieved 4K streaming at 60fps to over 50 workstations concurrently. Delivering 99.8 per cent of local NVMe storage server performance across the network, the solution offers twice the performance of competing solutions at 50 per cent of the cost and requires a much lower data centre footprint.
After an initial proof of concept, the storage solution was brought into production within four weeks for use with a major Hollywood feature film. So far, three projects have been run successfully on the software-defined system.
A major benefit is that the architecture has created an optimal environment where multiple members of the post-production team can simultaneously view and work on the same data set. Bemanian concludes: "It has generated a positive and productive end user experience.
Europe Stories
21/01/2022
The advert features virtual production by MGX Studios and is powered by the disguise Extended Reality (xR) workflow
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 21, ...
21/01/2022
EBU set for record-breaking sports year with special focus on women's sport...
21/01/2022
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Whelan as its new Washington Correspondent. Sean has held the role of London Correspondent for the last ...
21/01/2022
Firmware Update Enhances Hollyland's Solidcom M1 Full-Duplex Wireless Interc...
20/01/2022
The third season of the show you've been bingeing ends with a sudden cliff-h...
20/01/2022
Richard Mansfield, product management director at MediaKind explains what advantages Managed Cloud Applications offer broadcasters and TV operators
By Contribu...
20/01/2022
It is intended to be a dynamic, industry-propelled effort rather than a static document with users encouraged to suggest new and updated terminology
By Jenny P...
20/01/2022
Sony describes the XVS-G1 system as a perfect fit for the small to mid-size studio, outside broadcast vehicles, and fly-away production units
By Jenny Priestle...
20/01/2022
Space Entertainment Enterprise (S.E.E.), a UK-based media company, is developing SEE-1
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 20, 2022 Updated: January 21, 2...
20/01/2022
Reading Time: 2 minutes
As part of the agreement, Telenor and AWS will invest in joint go-to-market activities in select industries-such as manufacturing, sup...
20/01/2022
Wuppertal January 20, 2022
Riedel Intercom System Provides Liverpool Philharmo...
20/01/2022
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced significant updates to Dalet AmberFin, the standards-bearer in im...
20/01/2022
Netflix's Kingdom: Ashin of the North takes audiences back a few decades from the Kingdom series and tells the revenge origin story of Ashin and the ser...
20/01/2022
Netflix : . ALEXA Mini LF .
...
20/01/2022
European Parliament makes platforms recognize media freedom...
20/01/2022
RT News is pleased to announce the appointment of Joe Mag Raollaigh as its new Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Correspondent. Currently the Editor of RT '...
19/01/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 1: Introduction
Welcome to the first in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the next eight weeks, we will be releasing an IP ...
19/01/2022
How Madrid-based post production house Twin Pines worked on 1,000 digitally retouched shots for new drama, La Fortuna
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 19...
19/01/2022
From this month, all new commissions will be required to complete the albert Sustainable Production Certification
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 19, 20...
19/01/2022
In a first for Canon, the EOS R5 C has been fitted with a dedicated Timecode In/Out terminal for integrating into a professional multi-camera solution
By Jenny...
19/01/2022
Doubling of connected sites and connectivity services mainly driven by commercial maritime players
Luxembourg, 19 January 2022 - The number of sites and conne...
19/01/2022
FOX Reimagines the 2022-23 Road to the Upfront Portfolio Approach to Sales Events Showcasing Community, Accessibility and Creativity
New York, NY, January ...
19/01/2022
Published On: January 19th, 2022
--
--
--
--
width=1920 height=1080 cl...
19/01/2022
Nokia selected by GO Malta for nationwide 5G deployment in seven-year deal
Press Release
Nokia selected by GO Malta for nationwide 5G deployment in seven-ye...
19/01/2022
Posted on 19 Jan 2022
A focal point for its online community and a platform to showcase its inspirational surroundings was at the top of the brief sheet when S...
19/01/2022
BACKYELLOWJACKETS COMPLETES SMASHING FIRST SEASON ON SHOWTIME Critically Acclaimed Drama Is the No. 2 Most Watched Series in Streaming in Network History.
L...
19/01/2022
EMEROME Hey! My name is Emerome and I've been a streamer for about a year and a half now. I'm from Toronto, Canada, and before streaming I was studying ...
19/01/2022
All Press ReleasesShare
All Press Releases
Brightcove Named a Leader in The Aragon Research Globe
Brightcove identified as a leader for both Product Perfo...
19/01/2022
RT Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Live Event Line-up An...
19/01/2022
Today is a day of mixed emotions for us in RT Dee Forbes
Minister Martin announces the Government's agreement to the transfer of the National Symphony ...
19/01/2022
Coverage includes Ireland Men's, Women's and U-20s campaigns
Watch all ...
19/01/2022
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Lithgow NSW, 19 Jan 2022 - Thales Australia has received Development Approval and will commence construction in February on the ...
18/01/2022
18th January 2022 UKTVs premium entertainment channel W has commissioned a brand...
18/01/2022
Households worldwide have spent decades watching game shows with bated breath. N...
18/01/2022
Image credit: Moonbug Entertainment
You've definitely heard of CoComelon if...
18/01/2022
How French cooking star Jigm employs 4K cameras from Blackmagic Design to produce live and pre-recorded content for his streaming channels
By Contributor
Pub...
18/01/2022
BBC director general refuses to rule out linear channel closures
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 18, 2022 Updated: January 19, 2022
BBC director gen...
18/01/2022
Broadcaster will benefit from a lower interest rate if it delivers emissions red...
18/01/2022
Broadcaster commits to airing 300 hours of live coverage on its free-to-air channels during the Paralympics
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 18, 2022
B...
18/01/2022
Hemingway charged with driving SES's growth strategy
Luxembourg, 18 January 2022 - SES is adding a new Chief Strategy and Product Officer (CSPO) to its Sen...
18/01/2022
Shortly before the close of 2021, we reviewed how the gaming and streaming industry could take advantage of professional media management. We stated examples of...
18/01/2022
The Betfred Womens Super League fixtures for 2022 have been released, with Sky Sports set to show more live and exclusive action than ever before.
Sky will ai...
18/01/2022
Sky has today revealed a trailer for highly anticipated documentary Janet Jackso...
18/01/2022
BACKAFTER THE VERDICT BEGINS PRODUCTION MICHELLE LIM DAVIDSON, TESS HAUBRICH JOI...
18/01/2022
Broadpeak Unveils broadpeak.io Today January 18, 2022 New Service Streamlines Advanced Video Streaming
CESSON-S VIGN , France - Complex streaming just got simp...
18/01/2022
RT Player has today released two new episodes in its series The Talk, looking at the very topical subjects of body image, IVF and surrogacy. The series, an RT ...
18/01/2022
The Digital Services Act must safeguard freedom of expression online...
17/01/2022
17th January 2022 UKTV today announces Sneakerhead (3x30), a brand new scripted comedy for its award winning comedy entertainment channel Dave. The series will ...
17/01/2022
Company has also completed the Foundational Technical Review (FTR) of Blackbird Edge to accelerate AWS engagement
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 17, 20...
"What we wanted to do was to build a file system that would support any resolution at any number of streams"
