Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/256420
4 • Storage Solutions • March 2013 STORAGE SOLUTIONS STAR CROSSED PICTURES New York City-based Star Crossed Pictures (www.star- crossedpictures.com) creates documentary, branded en- tertainment and sports content from concept to delivery. Faced with 15 shows, all in post production at the same time, early last year the production company found itself in need of shared storage so multiple editors could ac- cess assets simultaneously. "We had all these shows to deliver, all with a good amount of footage requirements," says Star Crossed presi- dent/executive producer Stephen Palgon. "We probably had need of shared storage before, but we made do with copying things over to multiple drives. It was a clumsy way to operate," he admits. Star Crossed's tech expert researched storage solutions and came out in favor of Small Tree products. "It seemed like everything was very streamlined and easy," Palgon says. "We had a number of conversations with them and were comfortable with the product and support we would get from them. We don't have a full-time tech support staff, so it was important that Small Tree delivered on that." The production company invested in a 24TB Small Tree GraniteStor Titanium8 Ethernet-based shared storage solu- tion for professional video editors. "It's been very good for us," he reports. "For us, it's really about the ability of multiple systems — our Apple Final Cut Pro 7 editing systems and editors working from home — to share the same footage and project files. Star Crossed needs to meet many deadlines for a full roster of shows. When the GraniteStor Titanium8 storage was installed, Star Crossed was working on 10 half-hour episodes of Beginnings for MSG about players for teams playing in Madison Square Garden relating how their child- hood dreams have been realized; five half-hour episodes of The Garden Transformed for MSG about the building's three- year refurbishing; and three- to four-minute featurettes for NFL Network, which air on Game Day Morning and in the Web series The Season on nfl.com. In addition, Star Crossed was working on a dozen or so shows for the just-launched Pac12 Network. "Everything hit about the same time," says Palgon. "The Titanium8 is work- ing smoothly and saves us a lot of time. A lot of manufac- turers talk about giving good post-sales support and don't, but Small Tree's support has been a nice surprise for us!" GEEKBEAT.TV Named by Apple iTunes as Top Tech Podcast of 2012 and usually ranked in the top five tech news shows around the world, GeekBeat.tv can be watched in different variations on YouTube, iTunes and the Youtoo TV network. Daily edi- tions of the show air Monday through Thursday in a news magazine format; a one-hour show is streamed live on Fri- day on YouTube, Justin.tv and Ustream. Headquartered in Dallas, GeekBeat.tv (www.geekbeat. tv) has a 4,000-square-foot studio with sets for its daily pre- recorded and live streamed shows; Canon Vixia, XF300 and GeekBeat.TV co-host/CEO John Pozadzides: "We deal with so much data, tremendous file sizes and can easily run out of space." He invested in a Drobo B800i because their disk packs can be instantly upgraded to gain more room. Storage Supplement 2013RAV10FINAL READ.indd 4 2/28/13 10:32 AM