The RDS infrastructure is extremely flexible and can accommodate nearly any digital flavor from HD to VOD for mobile, as well as SD and 35 mm film. As the facility attracted more and more projects, Larry Whitlow, VP of Operations for RDS, began searching for a shared storage solution that would streamline the fast-growing workload. “We didn’t want to have to stop work just because the source work was on someone else’s edit suite,” Whitlow explained. Because RDS serves a diverse community of industry professionals, it was essential that the storage solution be “agnostic”, allowing customers to work comfortably in their preferred editing environment and in a variety of formats, including HD. “We wanted a system that gave shared storage as well as collaborative editing on Avid and Final Cut systems. We would never be exclusively one or the other. Our philosophy is to let everybody decide what they want to use,” says Whitlow. EditShare, the collaborative workflow storage solution, met all of RDS’s requirements.

The Solution
Working with Roscor Corporation, RDS installed 2 EditShare 8RU chassis units, populated with 48x 750GB drives for a total of 36TB storage, as their collaborative storage solution. Unlike many SANs (Storage Area Networks), which require expensive Fibre Channel cards and switches, EditShare systems are Network Attached Storage devices optimised for video, using a standard 1 Gigabit Ethernet network for connectivity. From field to finish – offline to uncompressed HD - EditShare products are designed to maximize media sharing and storage for multi-user editing environments. To facilitate increased workloads for uncompressed HD streams, RDS also implemented EditShare’s optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to some of its edit suites, enabling 4 simultaneous feeds of uncompressed HD without any system bottlenecks. EditShare enables file level sharing so that all connected workstations can capture, access and share a common pool of media files in real time. EditShare also provides true project sharing capabilities for editors working in either Avid or Apple® Final Cut Pro environments. Multiple editors can safely and securely access each other’s bins and sequences and work from the exact same Project without fear of accidental deletions. Resolution Digital Studios realized immediate workflow benefits from EditShare.

The EditShare units were installed just as RDS was gearing up for a demanding and complicated project for in-studio production of NCAA Basketball March Madness reports for on-demand mobile delivery. The pace was frantic with 16 games each day on the first 2 days of tournaments. Producers wouldn’t know which plays the in-studio anchors would highlight in their 3-minute wrap-ups until the reports were recorded for mobile delivery. RDS handled the same assignment the prior year, but with the new EditShare workflow, they dramatically reduced production time. Video from each game was recorded directly into the EditShare.

During the games, on-the-floor producers tagged plays as they happened, placing them into a folder created for each game. Library video and graphics were also placed into game folders during the game. At the final buzzer, anchor reports were recorded directly into the game folder in EditShare. Working from the same folder, producers would choose the appropriate game clips and editors would access clips, other library footage, graphics and scores, then attach the pre-recorded open and closes. “It was true collaboration,” Whitlow explained. “As the producer was performing each function, other people were creating material for him and just putting it into the EditShare game folder so that by time he was ready for it, it would be there. He never had to go searching for material. We didn’t have to move files or anything – everything was in the same spot. When we first did these mobile reports, the turnaround was about 15 minutes from the time the anchor started speaking to when reports were uploaded to mobile phones. We cut that time in half with the EditShare workflow.”