Dot Hill, Autodesk, ALT Systems Showcased Post-Production Solutions

Dot Hill Systems Corp. announced its AssuredSAN 3003 Series storage was featured in three different solutions at NAB Show 2012.

Through these end-to-end video post-production workflow demonstrations, attendees saw why experts rely on the AssuredSAN storage platform for their media and entertainment applications.

Offering a combination of fast, reliable storage which integrates into existing post-production environments to support improved collaboration, the AssuredSAN 3003 Series increases productivity across multiple workstations.

The speed of storage combined with support for Windows, OS X and Linux environments, makes Dot Hill AssuredSAN a solution to support workflows using Apple Final Cut Pro, Autodesk Flame and Autodesk Flame Premium software, or any application demanding video streaming performance and reliability.

"With a twenty year track record of innovative development, Autodesk’s production-proven creative tools help artists build better 3D visual effects," said Benoit Pinsonnault, Autodesk, Inc.’s Media and Entertainment, director of operations. "The ability to be configured as either direct-attach storage or as a storage area network, the Dot Hill AssuredSAN platform provides the versatility we need for our turnkey Autodesk Flame and Autodesk Flame Premium post-production solutions."

NAB Show attendees saw a 72TB AssuredSAN storage system powering a StorNext SAN. Running simultaneous demos on three different platforms, this single storage system illustrated a true end-to-end dailies / editorial / finishing pipeline:

• Colorfront On-Set Dailies – this demo sponsored by ALT Systems, Inc., a Dot Hill reseller specializing in media and entertainment, was demonstrating Colorfront On-Set Dailies software in a Windows environment, using AssuredSAN storage. RAID security, battery-free cache backup, and MIL SPEC vibration compliance make it a storage for the rigors of on-set data backup and digital dailies creation. This system has been used for fast and secure acquisition of on-set dailies for the upcoming biographical film, Of Men and Mavericks.
• Final Cut Pro – Dot Hill was showcasing its proprietary 8Gb FC AssuredSAN storage with a Mac Pro workstation platform running Final Cut Pro post-production editing software. Located near the Post-production Pit, Dot Hill demonstrated the performance advantages, with metrics, of AssuredSAN storage with Final Cut Pro.
• Autodesk Flame Premium – Autodesk recently selected AssuredSAN storage as part of the Autodesk Flame software. Autodesk and Dot Hill were demonstrating Autodesk Flame Premium with AssuredSAN storage on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 workstation.

Designed to accelerate streaming, the Dot Hill AssuredSAN 3003 Series is optimized for HD, 2k and 4k workflows. The solution allows post-production editors to leverage and access the same video assets from multiple editing suites at the same time. Using 8Gb FC, AssuredSAN 3723 and 3733 linear performance models speed up production and rendering, while virtually eliminating dropped frames.

"Through our partnerships with Autodesk and ALT Systems, Dot Hill can offer compelling solutions in the media and entertainment marketplace which is why we are gaining momentum in this space," said Jim Jonez, senior director of marketing, Dot Hill. "With accelerated read-write performance and tremendous versatility, the AssuredSAN 3003 Series supports virtually any post-production environment including Mac OS X, Linux and Windows."

"The post-production schedule does not allow for failures," said Bruno Munger, VP and CTO at ALT Systems. "We need fast, flexible, bullet-proof hardware and software solutions that allow our customers to focus on what they do best – creating. Our longstanding relationship with Autodesk and our partnership with Dot Hill allow us to provide turnkey post-production solutions, based on high-performance storage that delivers up to 99.999 percent reliability."

The AssuredSAN storage portfolio offers up to 288TB of capacity in a single system and up to 99.999 percent reliability. The AssuredSAN 3000 and 3003 Series feature storage networking technologies such as 8Gb FC and 10Gb iSCSI which opens the door to FC levels of SAN performance for SMBs based on standard Ethernet networking technology. The arrays are available with AssuredRemote data management software for remote replication, AssuredCopy, Dot Hill’s volume copy technology, and AssuredSnap snapshot capability for improved data availability and BC.

Additionally, AssuredSAN storage systems feature the company’s patented EcoStor ‘green’ battery-free alternative for cache memory, which leverages a combination of super capacitors and flash memory that outlasts traditional batteries nearly fivefold. Business benefits include lower maintenance and disposal costs and reduced server and application down-time due to scheduled battery replacement and maintenance.