Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

How Technicolor achieves Any-K' video storage with Excelero

16/08/2018

"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.
LINK: https://www.tvbeurope.com/features/how-technicolor-achieves-any-k-vide...
See more stories from tvb

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

03/06/2026

Lightware Expands Gemini GVN With Full-Featured USB-C

Lightware announces the GVN-HC-TX220AP, a new transmitter in the Gemini GVN 1G AV-over-IP family that introduces full-featured USB-C for professional 1Gb AV-ove...

03/06/2026

Minno Teams with Evergent to Enhance Faith-Based Streamin...

Evergent, the customer management and monetization leader for streaming and digital subscription businesses, and Minno, the global leader in faith-based content...

03/06/2026

Alfalite brings its LED technology to RTVE iconic Teatro...

Alfalite, Europe's only LED display manufacturer, has completed a new broadcast installation with the deployment of two UHD Finepix 1.5 MATIX AlfaCOB LED di...

03/06/2026

Broadcast Solutions delivers new Ultra HD outside broadca...

Broadcast Solutions, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is completing a contract to build eight...

03/06/2026

NAB Launches Merkhet Solutions to Advance Deployment of BPS

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/06/2026

FCC Kicks Off First Spectrum Auction in Four Years

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/06/2026

Utopai Studios Launches Pai 2.0, Cinematic Storytelling AI System

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/06/2026

Roku Introduces NHL Zone

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/06/2026

Study: Record Revenue Expected for FIFA World Cup 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/06/2026

Frequency Launches In-Scene Advertising

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/06/2026

Creamsource Introduces Vortex2 and Vortex2 Soft

Creamsource, known for its tried-and-true Vortex Series of cinematic lighting, has announced the Vortex2 (V2) and Vortex2 Soft (V2S), two compact additions to t...

03/06/2026

Do not read this media release! Andy Lee's smash-hit show returns to ABC this July

Do not read this media release! Andy Lee's smash-hit show returns to ABC thi...

03/06/2026

Faster, More Flexible AI Matting Fuels Boris FX Silhouette

Faster, More Flexible AI Matting Fuels Boris FX Silhouette Jessie Electa Petrov June 2, 2026 0 Comments The 2026 release helps artists tackle complex ...

03/06/2026

La Tl's National League Hockey Expansion Powered by Blackmagic Design

La T l 's National League Hockey Expansion Powered by Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton June 2, 2026 0 Comments Blackmagic Videohub 120 120 12G provi...

03/06/2026

ZY Optics to Offer Exclusive First Look at Zone T1 Cine Kit at Cine Gear Expo 2026

ZY Optics to Offer Exclusive First Look at Zone T1 Cine Kit at Cine Gear Expo 20...

03/06/2026

Berklee Alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume to Perform Together on St. Vincents 2026 Live with Orchestra Tour

Berklee Alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume to Perform Together on St. Vincents 20...

03/06/2026

RT unveils Heineken 0.0 as broadcast sponsor of FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage

RT has today announced Heineken 0.0 as the broadcast sponsor of their FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage. The sponsorship, brokered by Dentsu, will see Heineken 0....

02/06/2026

Case Study: Tennis Channel Transitions From Satellite to IP Distribution With LTN

Tennis Channel has completed a transition from satellite-based distribution to a...

02/06/2026

Daktronics Announces 2026 High School Video Summit for June 23-24

Daktronics has announced the 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day educational event for high school educators and student production teams, taking place Jun...

02/06/2026

Fandango to Screen Telemundos FIFA World Cup 2026 Coverage at 160 Theaters Nationwide

Fandango will bring Telemundo's live Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA W...

02/06/2026

AWSN Announces Broadcast Schedule for Inaugural Professional Softball League Season

All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) has announced the live television schedule...

02/06/2026

Spalk Announces Partnerships with Ligue 1, Euroleague, and LNB

Spalk, a cloud-based multilingual commentary and production platform, has announced three new partnerships: Ligue 1 (English and Portuguese highlights), Eurolea...

02/06/2026

NHL Network Announces Stanley Cup Final Programming Schedule

NHL Network's 2026 Stanley Cup Final coverage began June 1 with NHL Tonight: Stanley Cup Final Media Day from the Carolina Hurricanes' Lenovo Center at ...

02/06/2026

Matrox Video Launches Maevex MGX Series IPMX-Ready AV-over-IP Encoders and Decoders

Matrox Video has announced the Maevex MGX Series, a lineup of IPMX-ready video e...

02/06/2026

Marshall Electronics to Exhibit IP Camera Lineup at InfoComm 2026

Marshall Electronics will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7521), showcasing a lineup of 4K and HD compact POV cameras for corporate, education, hospitality, wo...

02/06/2026

PAMA and Shure Extend Deadline for Mark Brunner Professional Audio Scholarship to June 15

The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated have...

02/06/2026

MultiDyne To Debut FiberSaver-10G and New VersaBrix Frame Options at InfoComm 2026

MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C50...

02/06/2026

Advanced Systems Group Promotes Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO

Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced the promotion of Joe Marchitto to Western Regional CTO. In his new role, Marchitto will oversee system design across ...

02/06/2026

Brothers Osborne To Perform Free Concert Outside Lenovo Center Before Stanley Cup Final Game 1

The NHL has announced that Brothers Osborne will headline a free outdoor concert...

02/06/2026

CP Communications Names First Female Executives in Company History

CP Communications has announced the appointment of its first two female executives in the company's 40-year history. Tabitha Coleman has been named Vice Pre...

02/06/2026

Lighting Design Group Designs Broadcast Studio for Yahoo at 770 Broadway

The Lighting Design Group (LDG) has announced the completion of Studio C at Yahoo's headquarters at 770 Broadway in Manhattan. The studio launched April 24 ...

02/06/2026

Zee Entertainment Acquires FIFA Media Rights for India Through 2034

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (Z) has announced a partnership with FIFA to broadcast FIFA World Cup 2026, FIFA World Cup 2030, FIFA Women's World Cup 2...

02/06/2026

Behind The Mic: Prime Sports UK Shares On Air Roster for NBA Finals; and More

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...

02/06/2026

Auburn Universitys Parker Leppien on the Nonstop Growth of War Eagle Productions

The department is broadcasting NCAA Baseball Super Regionals at Plainsman Park this weekend Broadcast and production crews at Division I institutions are busy ...

02/06/2026

With Stanley Cup Final Set To Begin, NHL and Honeywell Lay Foundation for Energy-Efficient Venues

The initiative is extends beyond the league's arenas to team training rinks,...

02/06/2026

Release Rundown: What to Watch in June, From Leviticus to The Invite

Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Pen lope Cruz, and Edward Norton appear in The Invite by Olivia Wilde, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Co...

02/06/2026

Scaler Music launch Carbon Electra 2

Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...

02/06/2026

Klevgrand introduce Altitude

Powerful new vocal-production tool announced Described as a vocal performance station , Klevgrand's latest plug-in combines pitch-correction with harmo...

02/06/2026

McDSP introduce DC-2 Dual Compressor for APB

Launched alongside Go Green sale extension McDSP have just released the latest addition to their APB line-up, DC-2 Dual Compressor, and have also announced ...

02/06/2026

Ableton announce Extensions SDK

Create custom tools for Ableton Live 12 Suite Ableton have just introduced a new open JavaScript toolkit that allows anyone to create their own custom tools...

02/06/2026

Eventide unveil the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2

Now features full H90 algorithm library Eventide have announced the upcoming launch of the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2, a new and improved version of their hugely p...

02/06/2026

Universal Audio release UAD Topline Vocal Tune

Plus UAD Half Yearly Sale now live The latest arrival to the Universal Audio range delivers a new native pitch-correction plug-in that's capable of deli...

02/06/2026

BTL Laboratory becomes Taiwan's first test house with a CTIA Certification compliant OTA test system by Rohde & Schwarz

BTL Laboratory becomes Taiwan's first test house with a CTIA Certification c...

02/06/2026

Cobalt Digital to Showcase End-to-End IPMX Ecosystem at InfoComm 2026, Making ST 2110 Easy for Pro AV

blueCORE standalone processors headline solutions designed to simplify the trans...

02/06/2026

Monetizing the Archive: How Cantemo's JIT Playback Eliminates the Proxy Bottleneck

If you've kept up with this article series, you know by now where to start w...

02/06/2026

Calrec Scales ImPulseV for Greater Choice in Virtualised Workflows

With new DSP configurations and flexible licensing options, Calrec is removing the barriers to virtualised audio, giving broadcasters the freedom to scale produ...