MLB Network Relies on Front Porch Digital DIVArchive

Front Porch Digital announced that MLB Network has deployed its DIVArchive system to enable a seamless digital workflow.

Launched to over 50 million households on Jan. 1, 2009, MLB Network adds over 50 TB of irreplaceable content to its DIVArchive managed system every week during the baseball season, for a total of more than 30,000 hours amassed during the first eight months of the year.

"When the design of our digital asset management system was happening, Front Porch Digital was identified as the best ‘middle-ware’ solution by far," said Mark Haden, MLB Network vice president, engineering and IT. "Their proven prowess in the area of controlling, moving, and protecting important video files is impressive and made this one choice easy in comparison with the hundreds of others we were faced with here during design and integration."

"We record up to 15 complete baseball games a day during the season, along with our live programming and shows," explained Tab Butler, director of media management, MLB Network. "All this content along with interstitials are stored in our data tape library.  As our producers’ requirements for highlight clips dictate, we use DIVArchive’s partial-restore function to pull back just what is needed for real-time highlight creation. DIVArchive is key to the technology that enables us to capture, catalog, and protect more information – and more historic baseball moments – than ever before."

Besides games, the network’s signature programming ‘MLB Tonight’ and ‘Quick Pitch’ together account for about nine hours of baseball highlights every day. To satisfy that demand, MLB Network’s producers consistently need fast access to clips. In addition, DIVArchive gives MLB Network producers creating long-form programming ready access to clips stored in the tape library. To support business continuance, DIVArchive automates duplication of content for redundant storage in an off-site location.

Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive is a hardware and software solution that manages, moves, and secures digital media content throughout its lifecycle – from ingest to long-term preservation – whether it’s stored on disk or data tape. Because it enables servers, editing systems, and other workflow applications to work together, DIVArchive is crucial to preserving, managing, and retrieving file-based content.

MLB Network’s workflow is based on its proprietary Diamond System for asset management, Nesbit MLS tape management, a Thomson Grass Valley K2 production server system, 14 Final Cut Pro edit suites, 15 Aurora LD edit rooms, more than 50 Aurora LD proxy edit workstations, Snell Morpheus automation, and a Sun StorageTek SL8500 LTO-4 data tape library.

"The MLB Network implementation is a textbook example of what DIVArchive was designed to provide â?? fast and safe transfer, access, and preservation of a high volume of invaluable content," said Mark Gray, Front Porch Digital executive vice president and general manager. "In addition, MLB Network has taken advantage of DIVArchive’s flexibility in interfacing with various applications, and the operation continues to rely on the solution’s scalability as it meets the needs of a fast-expanding archive."