Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/33055
Making the right match is key when selecting storage By Christine Bunish “Storage isn’t sexy or glamorous—it’s infrastructure. For any- one doing a volume of work today, storage is the heart of things,” says Chris Magid, president of Renaissance Television & Film (RTVF), based in Dallas. Then Magid rethinks the “storage isn’t sexy” part of his remark. “Storage is the gritty, Harley stuff, the muscle-car stuff. It’s what separates the men from the boys, and there is an indus- trial sex appeal to that. The wrong choice can destroy your business.” Renaissance RTVF (www.gortvf.com) is a full-service production company for television programming, commercials, and corporate projects that is “very leveraged in post,” says Magid. “Today, production doesn’t necessarily end when you get in post. In a way, the back half of some new cameras is the edit suite. Files from RED One, Arri Alexa, and DSLRs need processing to be edit-ready. Transcoding, creating proxies, baking in proper color, and keeping large original fi les eats up storage. Transfers should happen fast without storage issues getting in the way.” According to Magid, RTVF does a heavy load of high-end political spots every other year. He estimates that the facility did 200 spots last September and October. “Th ey’re deadline-oriented and mission-critical,” he notes. Th e company adopted shared storage as soon as it was a viable option, using Avid LANshare for multiple seats of Avid Symphony and Media Composer. When RTVF went “all-online, all the time,” it got a Facilis TerraBlock system, an early, cost-eff ective SAN sys- 16 May 2011 SPECIAL SECTION: STORAGE IndustrialSex Appeal