Workflow Situation More Lucid for Cape Town Production Company

Being in demand is a problem to have for any company. For LucidState, a full-service production company in Cape Town, greater demand meant identifying a solution to multiple video editors needing simultaneous access to large – and network crippling – media files.

With an eye on performance and cost, LucidState installed Small Tree Communications, LLC‘s GraniteSTOR Titanium8 Ethernet-based shared storage system to alleviate bandwidth and workflow concerns.

Providing services ranging from live action production, color correction and compositing to VFX and post-production, as well as full CG, 2D animation and motion graphics, LucidState’s studio facility includes two editing suites featuring Mac Pros and seven iMac UpSpec workstations. The team works primarily with Final Cut X, relying on Final Cut’s speedy and efficient handling of media and metadata to meet tight deadlines, but also utilizes popular video editing applications such as Adobe After Effects and Nuke (from The Foundry).

“While we provide local services to a number of established and popular global brands, including Adidas and the National Basketball Association, we’re a growing boutique agency that needs to be mindful of its expenses,” said George Stofberg, LucidState’s founder. “Fortunately, Small Tree’s Titanium8 was the ideal solution for meeting both our workflow and budget requirements.”

Titanium8 is a fast dedicated video editing shared storage appliance with file sharing capabilities. An all-in-one Ethernet-based solution, Titanium8 offers a mix of capacity and performance, enabling video editors to work efficiently. Titanium’s OS was designed to be easy to use, feature-rich, and reliable and perform at a high level. A web-based GUI makes it easy for non-IT users to setup and manage. Titanium8 supports Final Cut X and 7, as well as Adobe Creative Suite and other popular multimedia applications.

“One of the biggest benefits of the Titanium system is the speed it delivers via Ethernet,” Stofberg continued. “We’re about to upgrade to 10GbE, so having a storage solution in-house that works over Ethernet is crucial to our future growth. Additionally, the system’s ease of use is remarkable…requiring no administrator, which is advantageous to production companies of any size as it allows editors to focus solely on the task at hand.“