August 26, 2008

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS SOUND ADDS SNS STORAGE

As a full service post sound facility, Universal Studios Sound handles features, television and trailers, along with animation and gaming. Each of its digital mix stages has multiple Digidesign Pro Tools workstations on-hand for playback and recording, as well as additional systems for video playback.
 
Jeffrey Taylor, chief engineer of post production sound planned a department-wide Fiber Channel storage solution and worked closely with Jeremy Ayers of Post Production Engineering to develop a comprehensive requirement specification for the system. After evaluating their current and future requirements, Universal Studios Sound decided to go with Studio Network Solutions (www.studionetworksolutions.com), who partnered with LA-based reseller Audio Intervisual Design, to design and build a robust Fibre Channel storage solution that would enable the studio to easily store, share and move media assets in a secure manner.

The solution for the sound stages – which includes the Hitchcock Theater - is comprised of over 80 seats of SANmp, with Fibre Channel switches, and 12 IBM DS4200 enterprise-class storage arrays. The entire Fibre Channel fabric is connected using 10Gb Ethernet to allow mapping of any FC resource to any user as needed.
 
"By using multiple secure storage locations, we are able to eliminate the need for multiple copies, which speeds workflow and heightens security of our client's intellectual property," notes Doc Goldstein, VP  of engineering at Universal Studios Sound.