Silex Media Optimizes Storage Management at ORF

Workspace Management was the final step in a bigger project to centralize the editing storage of ORF’s broadcast production. Silex Media, a 100% backed company by SGI Japan whose investors include NEC, SGI, Sony and Canon Marketing of Japan implemented the workspace solution based on Hydrogen Lifecycle Management and a web based configuration and administration frontend.

With the installation of a workspace management solution Silex Media finalized a three-stage project at Austria’s public broadcaster ORF. The scope of the project was a centralized storage and production system with networked editing seats. The first two steps, consisting mainly of hardware installation and setup, were realized by SGI. For planning and implementation of a workspace management solution SGI and ORF chose the solution provider Silex Media. One of the main requirements of ORF’s production team was to allocate a flexible amount of editing space over a specific period to a project in order to collect and edit material for the production of broadcast contributions.

To efficiently manage the storage allocation and to simplify the booking of free storage areas a workspace management solution had to be integrated. This solution is based on two modules, a backend and a frontend. The backend provides the storage management for project and user data. Additionally it is responsible for preparing the assigned editing space right in time before the project starts and for maintaining it automatically during the project time. The frontend is used to create, manage and delete projects as well as for the creation of user groups and the administration of user rights. It allows editors to connect to their assigned projects and automatically loads the appropriate Liquid Blue configuration settings necessary for the particular project. Project files are also entered through the frontend.

The storage consists of two standard Linux NAS servers providing their capacity to Liquid Blue editing stations via SAMBA. The data management is based on the middleware Hydrogen Lifecycle Management (HLM) which stores all essences and metadata for a project. Triggered by the start time of a project HLM creates the respective directories in the editing storage. At a preset expiration time HLM deletes all project data to share the storage space again.

“Silex Media created a powerful workspace management solution which meets exactly our needs”, says Andreas Winter, project engineer at Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. “Users can handle it easily and never before our storage was used more efficiently. The workspace management is operated in the background without distracting the stuff from their daily work. And all that based on a cost-effective middleware.”