StorNext-powered workflow storage system enables doubling productivity and revenue, volume of video production for the media group
Quantum announced that NewBay Media Music Group, a leading creator of specialized music news, enthusiast and instructional content, has amped up its video production workflow capabilities by replacing an aging Apple Xsan system with a Quantum storage system powered by StorNext. By enabling NewBay to accelerate its rate of video production and double its output, the Quantum solution has helped the company meet ever-increasing demand for fresh content on a range of digital media platforms. NewBay Media is a premier publisher of specialized content across music, pro-audio, video and gaming, which it delivers through more than 35 print and digital magazines and more than 35 integrated web and mobile applications. In recent years, the company’s Music Group has seen increasing demand for video content, a major source of revenue and driver of continued growth, and it became clear that NewBay’s aging Xsan system could not support its needs.
Anthony Verbanac, NewBay’s director of IT commented, “It couldn’t keep up with the speed our production required. The team ran out of storage on almost every project, so we were always writing data off to tape. And the disk was so old that we were beginning to see frequent errors and even signs of data corruption.”
Lacking a large internal IT department, NewBay decided it needed a turnkey solution that would fit quickly into its Apple environment, be easy to maintain and meet the performance, reliability and scalability requirements of its evolving video production workflow.
Working closely with Reboot Computer Services, a trusted integrator, NewBay evaluated different options and ultimately selected Quantum’s StorNext Pro™ Foundation, which is fully Xsan-compatible and optimized for small and mid-sized production workgroups. The system provides 48TB of Quantum QXS disk capacity (raw) and full support for the company’s preferred applications, including Apple Final Cut Pro, Compressor and DVD Studio Pro, as well as Adobe Creative Suite.
The Quantum solution links NewBay’s four Mac Pro workstations directly to the company’s SAN fabric, giving all editors direct access to the same set of files at Fibre Channel speed. It also provides continuity with the old system — all the applications used in the original Xsan environment still work with the Quantum system, and StorNext enables the team to view previously created content and edit it transparently. Other key benefits include much greater performance, capacity and efficiency, as well as the ability for NewBay to expand or upgrade the system in the future as its needs grow.
Bill Amstutz, vice president and general manager of NewBay Music Group said, “The Quantum solution has made our video productivity at least double what it was without it. Before Quantum, upwards of 50 percent of our videos and related revenue would not have been actualized without using additional videography resources.”
