Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/33055
Special Section: Storage connection also delivers two streams of un- compressed HDSI video at near-theater reso- lution to Universal’s on-lot Digital Services group for dailies playback. UVS1 opened in December and has been running tests with clients preparing for pro- ductions. The production suite is equipped with an Isilon system offering six 10tb stor- age nodes each, plus two accelerator nodes; the storage solution is easily expandable to meet future needs. “We’re using the latest-generation Isilon here,” says Fischer, who has a long history a toolbox for the client that is adaptable to a production and within a production,” he says. “Their own artists and operators bring the fa- cility to life.” Although UVS1 does one production at a time, one of the attractions of the Isilon sys- tem is that it is partitionable to keep multiple productions in storage simultaneously. “We can have a production load on the Isilon while the next production is operating on the stage and another production is pulling material off the Isilon for editorial,” Fischer explains. ClearCube’s Teradici PC-over-IP technol- that could cost-effectively support multiple, high-bandwidth transactions at speeds high enough not to impact clients loading projects.” In addition, he says MediaGrid has immense write speeds for a large number of clients. “That’s where it really shines,” Womack adds. Clients upload episodics or features to Universal Studios’ Universal Virtual Stage 1 contains a large greenscreen area and attached produc- tion suite featuring high-speed Isilon storage. with storage systems of that type from previ- ous stints with Sony Pictures Imageworks and Imagemovers Digital. UVS1 has six artist workstations in its art- ists’ suite and three more workstations onstage running Autodesk’s Maya and MotionBuild- er, The Foundry’s Nuke, and Studio GPU’s MachStudio for previs. Digital scenes are sent to the stage for the shoot with live talent and high-speed ingest by the Isilon system. “It’s primarily digital negative and digital work- print, 1080p and 4k, and 2k off a RED One or another digital camera,” Fischer explains. “You get to see onstage the digital negative composited with the background; you see the timing and framing—we demo’d this on our opening night.” The onstage material is then ingested quick- ly to feed two Avid Mojos and an Apple Final Cut Pro system in the attached editing bays, and later live-streamed for dailies. Fischer notes that it was the studios’ plan to have a virtual stage that was ready to go. “Al- though we don’t staff the facility, we provide 20 May 2011 ogy enables all the workstations in the produc- tion suite to pick up or drop any keyboard or display. “It remotes the keyboard, mouse, and display over the network connection, adding versatility to what we can do,” says Fischer. Modern VideoFilm At Burbank, California’s Modern VideoFilm (www.mvfinc.com), a pair of Omneon Media- Grids performs very specific functions. A MediaGrid CSS 1042B unit handles incom- ing and outgoing cache storage, while a Media- Grid 2124 serves as production storage. “Almost without exception, the episodic and feature projects that arrive at Mod- ern VideoFilm via a file-transfer system go through the MediaGrids,” says senior engi- neer Bill Womack. “Projects land on the Me- diaGrid on the way in and on the way out, and during production.” Womack describes the setup: “We have 7tb to 10tb a day coming in over private Fibre and the Internet, many feeds simultaneously. MediaGrid was the only solution we found MediaGrid using the studio’s Signiant or Aspera file automation systems. Then material moves off Modern VideoFilm’s MediaGrid 1042 and into production on the MediaGrid 2124 or another content server for real-time playback, editing, or real-time encoding. Finished projects are delivered back to clients via the MediaGrid 1042. “We can’t control when the end user decides to down- load finished work, so jobs may clump up,” Womack explains. “The MediaGrid acts as an outgoing cache supporting many high-band- width distribution transactions.” The need for a content-serving solution became apparent as the company moved into new business areas. Says Womack, “We tried other manufacturers’ equipment for incoming cache, and MediaGrid performed best in that application. We’ve been using them for a cou- ple of years now and keep expanding them.” Another plus: They are easy to scale—it takes an hour to add new storage nodes to the clus- ter, he says. Womack expects even more of the produc- tion workflow, such as capturing real-time data off of Apple’s Final Cut Pro or doing faster-than-real-time transcoding, will move onto the MediaGrid. “We’ll continue to ex- pand its media functions,” he says. “We’re always trying to figure out how to optimize workflow, and MediaGrid is flexible in fitting into workflows.” Legend3D San Diego-based Legend3D (www.legend3D. com), a 2D-to-stereo 3D conversion studio, has seen client-review station storage demands skyrocket for its file-based workflow. “We’ve tripled the requirements for holding a standard-size movie,” says systems supervisor Jack Greene. “We watch the work in motion, uncompressed; we need to see the movie just as the viewer will see it.” Legend3D was introduced to Rorke Data’s Galaxy Aurora by Iridas, whose FrameCycler DI is a key tool at the studio. “We tested a 20tb Galaxy Aurora as direct-attached stor- age for a client-review station,” Greene recalls. “We loaded in the work overnight and were able to play back stereo in real time.” One of the challenges, Greene says, is stereo 3D’s need to deal with 12mb files for each eye