“Knowing that if our SAN went down we could instantly plug the Final Cut editors and After Effects creatives into the Space was very attractive to us”
much runs itself on the network, requires little management and monitors its own health.”
It is also a lot more versatile.
“Knowing that if our SAN went down we could instantly plug the Final Cut editors and After Effects creatives into the Space was very attractive to us,” he adds. “Now we aren’t
reliant on a single system; our exposure to data loss and downtime is a lot lower.”
Sync routines
Because of the transient nature of the families and their unconventional lifestyle, content has to be constantly re-worked
48-port 1Gb Ethernet AV spec switch; and the facility for 10Gb Ethernet direct connections. It doesn’t need any proprietary
software, interface cards or drivers because the workstations are simply attached via Ethernet, making it much simpler to deal with than the traditional fibre SAN setup, with none of the IT complexity or support issues they had become used to.
“Our SAN, like any other
fibre channel system, can be frustrating. It needs client Apple Macs to run the same approved build of OSX, with the same driver versions to be used throughout the network,” he says. “We quickly learnt that it
only operates effectively in a predictable environment. Not so with Space: it pretty
Firecracker Films’ Gypsy Weddings documentaries have been a surprising hit
Its Space can become the primary storage if there is a fault in the SAN system. Because the Space backend storage backs up the MetaSan, via regular synchronising routines, it provides a failover editing system if the SAN goes down. The editors would simply mount the Space volume and carry on working as per the last synch with the MetaSan.
Prior to installing Space, data had to be frequently offloaded onto LTO tape as the workgroup had insufficient disk capacity. Although tape is currently the best choice for long-term archiving, it wasn’t something they wanted to deal with during the production process. The GB Labs system delivers recent data on demand to editors and protects Firecracker’s active assets by hosting mirror copies of all material that is in use on the SAN. It means the LTO tape is now used solely for holding legacy media. Hay feels that Space is “a fantastic piece of kit that greatly enhanced our workflow. It has also raised many question marks about what will eventually replace our fibre channel system.” As Firecracker’s storage needs grow, it will be able to add expansion units (Space EX), allowing it to increase capacity up to an additional 288TB per RAID controller in the background and with no downtime. As it uses high-speed Serial Attached SCSI connectivity, there is no need to install new cabling or adapter cards. Adding a Space can also double performance, allowing more editors to access files concurrently. At IBC, GB Labs is