Nexsan Unity Backbone for Endemol Shine North America’s File-Based Workflow

Nexsan, Inc., part of the StorCentric Group, announced that Endemol Shine North America has extended its investment in Nexsan technology, and enhanced its current Nexsan E-Series high density storage arrays with a Nexsan Unity unified storage solution.

The Unity serves as the backbone for Endemol Shine North America’s file-based workflow, underpinning its entire editorial process.

Endemol Shine North America delivers content and compelling storytelling to multiple platforms in the US, and across the globe. It is part of the Endemol Shine Group, the content creator, producer and distributor of many television shows, including Big Brother (CBS), The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo), MasterChef & MasterChef Junior (FOX), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (HGTV), and The Biggest Loser (USA). 

In its endeavor to advance and streamline its editing process, Endemol Shine North America developed a business model around a file-based workflow that would provide the ability to have all camera masters concurrently available and accessible online.

In order to move forward, it required a storage solution that would serve as the backbone of the new processes, and ensure enterprise performance and flexibility. In addition, it required that the storage be stable, offer support, and be affordable. After a review guided by one of the solutions providers in the media and entertainment space, Nexsan emerged as the solution that was able to meet all of its criteria. 

“Just a few years ago, it was standard to shoot a conventional television show on videotape and work in proxy resolution because editing at high resolution was prohibitive. This offline and then online editing process to conform each episode was labor intensive and required multiple assistant editors over two shifts along with expensive broadcast decks. And that was just for one episode,” said Alex Palatnick, VP, post production, Endemol Shine North America. “We wanted to overcome these challenges, and instead design a workflow that would allow every edit client to be able to access the media to transcode it for editorial. At times, this would mean as many as 150 simultaneous editors. We designed a new file-based workflow that would require top-notch stable equipment to support it. That’s where Nexsan came in.” 

He continued: “Today, Nexsan houses our camera masters. When we go into production, and we are doing acquisition – shooting a television show, all of that content lives full-time, until the show wraps, on Nexsan. Our storage must always be in perfect operating condition, and it must be flexible. It must be able to expand and support continuous, planned and unplanned content creation. And, it must enable us to protect, find and retrieve any content, at any time – and that is exactly what Nexsan has provided.” 

“Digitization has become the paradigm in the M&E industry. As new techniques and technologies continue to enter the space, driven by leading edge innovators such as Endemol Shine North America, storage requirements will continue to skyrocket,” said Mihir Shah, CEO, StorCentric. “Nexsan’s storage portfolio is able to uniquely support the rigorous requirements of the M&E industry, at a price point that ensures unparalleled ROI.“

And, That’s a Wrap
Endemol Shine North America counts itself among the first to deploy a file-based workload of this magnitude. Others in the industry were hesitant. Less reliable storage options resulted in unrecoverable data loss due to technical malfunctions and user errors. Due to the processes developed by Endemol Shine North America and its technology foundation – headlined by Nexsan – it fortified its data protection and increased efficiency. In addition, the company saved thousands of dollars in rental equipment and reduced the number of man hours needed by 92% per episode.

Endemol Shine North America case study