Four Post Houses Embracing Cache-A Archive Appliances

Faced with the daunting task of protecting the massive amounts of data generated daily by digital film as well as broadcast and video professionals, many leading post-production houses across the country are increasingly choosing Cache-A Corp.’s archive appliances. Cache-A’s complete product line – including the new Pro-Cache5 and the established Pro-Cache4 and Prime-Cache – are specifically designed to meet the need for safe, reliable and cost-effective content archiving, access and interchange.

Cache-A’s products were on display at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB 2010).

Some of the facilities that have chosen Cache-A for their content archiving needs include Stitch Motion Graphics and Offhollywood Studios in New York, Color Mill in Salt Lake City, UT, and Authentic Entertainment, Inc. in Burbank, CA.

“We are delighted that so many leading post-production facilities are embracing Cache-A’s line of archive appliances to enhance their file-based workflows,” said Phil Ritti, President and CEO of Cache-A Corporation. “They are using both our Pro-Cache and Prime-Cache systems to create source masters in acquisition workflows when using the new memory card or disk-based cameras. At the same time, they get the benefit of long-term archival storage that gives them fast and easy access to their content assets at every stage of production.”

Color Mill
Color Mill, for example, specializes in digital cinema and television production, digital color grading and mastering. The Salt Lake City, UT, facility is currently working on 127 Hours, the next feature film from Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire, which won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. 127 Hours is based on mountain climber Aron Ralston’s bestseller, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, his true life story about being trapped by a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, UT, who must resort to desperate measures in order to survive.

Color Mill was especially interested in how a Cache-A appliance can be directly attached or networked, allowing everyone in the facility to archive content Cache-A’s products write data on low-cost, secure, portable, and IT industry-standard LTO-5 (Pro-Cache5) or LTO-4 (Pro-Cache4) tape cartridges using the standard ‘tar’ format for interchangeability and future proofing. The archive life of LTO cartridges is more than 30 years.

“Digital cinema archiving to LTO is a must, and the Pro-Cache is the perfect solution for us,” said Russell Lasson, Colorist, Digital Cinema Specialist, at Color Mill. “It’s a very important part of our RED workflow and dovetails nicely with what bonding companies and studios want – the security of knowing that acquisition source masters and postproduction work are archived on the same tape-based platform that banks use. With LTO, they feel safer and more at ease with digital.”

“We also like the Pro-Cache because we can implement a back-up with little cost, time, effort or affect on our workflow – there are just less moving parts in the machine so everything works better,” said David Cummins, Director of Operations at Color Mill. “Yet, because the Pro-Cache includes a built-in, searchable database with full archiving, not just backup, it makes it very easy to find material quickly. We believe that Cache-A is one of the leaders in data management.”

Stitch Motion Graphics
Another recent user is Stitch Motion Graphics, a New York City-based graphic design and visual effects studio that needed an all-in-one solution to safely back-up its data using a method that anyone could access from within the facility.

“We finally found a great way to back-up all of our data, safely and easily, and we believe Pro-Cache could easily set and become the industry standard back-up solution,” said Fred Ruckel, Creative Director of Stitch. “Overall, we feel this product is definitely the best in breed when it comes to LTO-4 back-up devices. It’s a top performer because of its multi-user network accessibility and ease of use.”

“To date, nothing has had the feature set and ease of use of Pro-Cache,” said Scott Dominick, Head of Technical Operations at Stitch. “A few features that really helped round out this product are spanned tape archives, automated timed archiving and finally a built-in searchable database that is always accessible.”

Authentic Entertainment
One of the leading producers of original content for cable networks, Authentic Entertainment in Burbank, CA, has produced a growing list of innovative and popular reality shows as well as documentary and special programming for networks like the Travel Channel, Bravo, TLC, Court TV, Food Network and Oxygen.

According to Will Pisnieski, Post Producer at Authentic, the company edits and finishes all of its shows in-house using Final Cut Pro as both its main source for writing and editing. Their many edit suites and scores of iMac stations are all connected to a 108 GB Facilis TerraBlock media storage network.

“The file-based format is going to be absolutely necessary for some of our upcoming programs in the years to come, and LTO tape will be the ideal long-term storage for us as well,” he said. “Looking at all of those factors, the Prime-Cache was exactly what we needed. It’s the perfect fit.”

Offhollywood Productions
A digital cinema company based in New York and Louisiana, Offhollywood Studios is an early adopter and innovator, having been providing RED One 4K cameras, technical support, workflow and postproduction services since the first RED cameras were released. It is also currently providing state-of-the-art 3D imaging and post solutions. Since 2003, Offhollywood has provided production, editorial, color grading and finishing services to scores of feature, television and commercial projects.

“Having an archive appliance that can provide source masters for digital acquisition and project archives for postproduction, while becoming part of the workflow at any point in the process, removes many of the barriers we face to accessibility, productivity and reliability while offering long-term preservation of assets,” said Mark L. Pederson, one of the founders of Offhollywood.