Adobe/Trams

Digital Workflow Event (15th June) www.trams.co.uk (London)

Who: Nick Pearce & Mark Andrews

Cyfle/S4C/Boomerang/Mwnci

File Based Production Seminar

• Caernarfon (June 22nd) (Who: Mark Andrews)
• Cardiff (June 24th) (Who: Nick Pearce & Mark Andrews)

EBU Technical Seminar – “Networked Content Exchange”

Geneva 22nd/23rd Jun

Who: Nick Pearce

WIG2010

Workflow Innovation Group. Cardiff 29th June.

Who: Jon Morgan, Nick Pearce, Mark Andrews

Feel free to sign up where appropriate and come chat!

The View From OM

June looks busy for both events, sales and technical progress. Exciting times.

• Secure, Searchable Rushes/Dailies Ingest and Protection (Panasonic P2 etc)
• Nearline or parking space for AVID or Final Cut workflows
• Local Library, keeping assets alive to be re-purposed/re-used

The View from OM

NAB is always an experience and shows how niche storage vendors can dominate in a space not yet penetrated by the big tin companies (thought they all claim to be there). Please do get in touch if you would like to have a chat with Mark or myself.

Cardiff, UK – Object Matrix, a developer of secure asset archive and retrieval software, has today supplied Cardiff based content creator and post-production facility Boomerang Plus Plc with its rushes, nearline and library archive solution, The MatrixStore. The multi-purpose data management solution provides a secure archive for client owned content that enters the facility and also keeps content available to be re-purposed, re-used or monetised.

Paul Owen, Head of Post Production at Boomerang stated, “In line with the rest of the industry we are facing up to the challenges of tapeless and HD production. We manage a mixture of studio and post content which must be protected and available on demand. The solution from Object Matrix provides the peace of mind that the content that comes into the facility, or that we produce locally, is authentic and protected at the highest levels. ”

Boomerang is largely an Avid facility that produces its own content for clients such as the BBC, S4C and Channel 4.

“Boomerang owns a lot of content that it has created over the years which is mainly tape based and less accessible when we need to re-purpose content. We will use the Vault functionality of MatrixStore to keep legacy content available online to all authorised personnel which means we will save time and money when a request comes in for content.”, added Paul.

More here: Press Release: Boomerang

The View From OM:

We are gaining a lot of traction in AVID and Final Cut workflows, both of which face the same challenges of implementing a repeatable, audited process for content ingest and exploiting legacy content by sweating the value of assets.
Please contact us for more information on the use of MatrixStore in an AVID tapeless workflow.

The video (HD version available here) provides a high level view of The MatrixStore in this role:

As shown in the video there are 4 main benefit areas:

• Guaranteed Ingest - MatrixStore generates a hash (digest, digital fingerprint) of the content on the client and also on the two MatrixStore nodes the content lands on. Three different places where the content is checked ensuring the content in MatrixStore is bit for bit the same as came off the P2 or SxS card. Because MatrixStore keeps that digest/fingerprint as metadata with the content we are able to automatically, periodically and systematically (insert line from Grease here) ensure the content on disk matches the digest kept with it. Forever.. and ever.

• Secure Protection - MatrixStore provides the option to keep content in vaults that can have retention periods set upon them. No deletion or modification before the retention date. End of. This helps not only for the long term retention of content but also as a highly secure ingest vault for rushes/dailies coming into the post process. Set a one month retention policy on an ingest vault and that content will be secure from the accidents that do tend to happen.

• Searchable Metadata – “If you can’t find it you don’t have it”. DropSpot harvests metadata contained within the P2 (and other formats) media and creates a searchable rushes (dailies) repository allowing producers or editors to find and retrieve clips in an instant.

• Making use of the content – Now that the data is online and protected at the highest levels you can now access the data. Using either DropSpot or MxFS from any authenticated client content can be copied to and from the archive or can be accessed from within applications like Media Composer or Final Cut Pro. Using MxFS, The MatrixStore is perfect to provide quick access to content to browse or perform a quick edit before working ‘online’.

The View from OM

There is currently no de-facto standard or best practice defined for the safe ingest of tapeless content. The MatrixStore offers the ability to provide guaranteed ingest coupled with an audit trail from ingest through to archive in AVID and Final Cut Workflows.

TCO Analysis Document (TCOAnalysis)

An overview of the elements one needs to consider when putting together a TCO model. The elements in this document were garnered with the help from the wider storage community and creative professionals. The content under those elements is our work and we hope to have avoided FUDlike comment.

TCO Spreadsheet (Disk Vs Tape TCO v2.1.1 2009 (version 1))

Open to scrutiny and allows the user to enter their own values. We have only put in one tape library that has been spec’d to grow at 50TB p.a as, surprise surprise, we have been unable to get accurate pricing on a solution like the Scalar i2000 which can scale to 4500 tape slots (just under 5PB). If anyone out there has that pricing and can plug it in please do so and report back here in the comments.

In the spreadsheet we have place holders for showing the benefit of having the data available online and available. When you start to input the manual costs of retrieving content the TCO swings further towards clustered disk.

The View From OM

Please take these docs, scrutinise them, love them, hate them, change them, share them, add products and pricing. It is one way as a community we can create a living TCO model.

Being a vendor of disk based solutions we are of course confident the numbers will stay in favour of disk. We more than happy to have a conversation around this subject and potentially walk through the documents in order to ensure you get the best out of them for your needs. Get in touch!

Previous Posts on TCO:

http://www.matrixstore.net/2009/09/17/defining-an-up-to-date-tco-model/

http://www.matrixstore.net/2008/03/03/problems-with-total-cost-of-ownership/

So that’s what we did. We built security and compliance functionality into MatrixStore from day one. I would like to state now (in the way one of our percieved competitors seems to do quite often .. wow .. geee, aren’t we the bees knees, woot!) that it was our incredible foresight that saw this functionality being 100% applicable to the media and entertainment space… yeehaa. However, the reality is that as a talented team of geekoids we decided to build Rome (compliance, distributed search, seamless scaling, replication .. yada yada yada) and wait to people to come and buy it. If you build it they will come?

Anyway, back to the point of this blog post. How is it that the functionality (included free don’t you know) built for the protection of cheque images and MRI scans is applicable to companies with video workflows or legacy assets? I have covered some of the key points below and at the bottom of this post is a 2 pager on how MatrixStore helps with organisations under the regulatory cosh.

Authenticity

Producers, Facility managers want to know the content that has come off the camera and going into post is authentic. Guaranteed. MatrixStore generates a hash (digest, digital fingerprint) of the content on the client and also on the two MatrixStore nodes the content lands on. Three different places where the content is checked ensuring the content in MatrixStore is bit for bit the same as came off the P2 or SxS card.

Because MatrixStore keeps that digest/fingerprint as metadata with the content we are able to automatically, periodically and systematically (insert line from Grease here) ensure the content on disk matches the digest kept with it. Forever.. and ever.

Retention

Generating video content and adopting creative workflows is no longer restricted to post-production facilities or broadcasters. There is a bucket load of content being generated daily within heavily regulated industries. Hospitals, banks, police forces, utility companies. All producing video and some of them required to adhere to regulations around the retention and authenticity of that video content. Banks for instance may face FSA regulations that require content to be kept protected and available for 1 year from creation. Another factor is that a lot of these organisations are managing the creative process in-house which means they are turning to video workflow solutions over the less appropriate IT based tools. Solutions integrated into those workflows will win.

MatrixStore provides the option to keep content in vaults that can have retention periods set upon them. No deletion or modification before the retention date. End of. This helps not only for the long term retention of content but also as a highly secure ingest vault for rushes/dailies coming into the post process. Set a one month retention policy on an ingest vault and that content will be secure from the accidents that do tend to happen.

Mind you, ask most content owners how long they want to keep their completed works for and the answer will be forever. Good recurring support revenue/business if you can get it.

Access & Availabilty

Not providing an email for a court case has cost some companies a pretty penny. Broadcast or post facilities not being able to serve up content in a timely fashion can be equally costly. Data on demand is key functionality even if components fail.

Find is also key here, the magical eDiscovery. If you can’t find it, you don’t have it (Maxim no. 2). Metadata coupled closely to the content is very important if you are going to stand a hope of getting the proverbial needle out of the 500TB haystack. MatrixStore has that covered.

Equally important is restricting access to content from those who are not authorised to do so. MatrixStore allows content to be kept in vaults that can only be accessed by personnel who have the correct security credentials. Whilst using the same underlying hardware the vaults are completely distinct.

Auditing and Governance

Being able to provide a full audit trail of the actions performed upon a piece of content is crucial in the world of regulations and is also a nice feature for organisations with video workflow (and can actually be very useful where elements of the workflow require repeatable results). MatrixStore provides a built-in full audit trail of all actions, both management and data operations, performed against a MatrixStore cluster. Who archived the content? Who deleted the content? Who TRIED to delete the content? Who retrieved the content and put it on YouTube just before it was officially released? That sort of useful.

The view From OM

Organisations across the globe that are subsiduaries of US companies are pretty much tied to keep in line with US regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley. Even if video data is not a concern of Sarbanes Oxley the internal compliance departments within organisations tend to want all business data treated the same. It has to be protected, authentic and available when required.

We have provided this functionality as part of the solution, at no extra license or cost. As it should be. here is the sheet for your perusal:

The OM  team will demonstrate how The MatrixStore can protect content from ingest to archive:

- Guaranteed ingest with metadata harvesting (Panasonic P2)

- Secure Ingest Vaults (Lock down from accidental deletion)

- Production/Project parking to a Nearline Vault in AVID and Final Cut Workflows (one click operation)

- Archiving Legacy assets to an online Library Vault using DropSpot, Final Cut Server and CatDV

Implementing a tapeless or file based workflow has been highlighted as one of the top challenges facing creative organisations in 2010. With no tape to put on the shelf broadcasters, post-production facilities and creative agencies are looking for a solution to keep their assets secure and more importantly available throughout the production process. A single MatrixStore cluster acts as pre-production, nearline or local archive allowing content to move seamlessly through any digital workflow from ingest to delivery.

The View From OM

We are very much looking forward to the show so come along and see us on stand C10!

One sweet spot for MatrixStore technology is in the creative space. Creative organisations are increasingly being subjected to change driven by external forces such as changes in the way content is captured and our insatiable appetite for HD or 3D content (see The Big Broadcast Survey published in 2009). The industry is one that is used to adapting to whatever is thrown at it but it also relies on solutions that just work.

Below is a quick summary of the challenges they currently face and how MatrixStore is positioned to help. I will elaborate on each point in later posts :

1. File Based/Tapeless Ingest - Some call it pre-production archiving, some call it prechiving, the problem is the same, more and more content is being captured on disk or flash. There is no tape to put on the shelf. Protecting content that enters the building in an audited manner is a key area where MatrixStore is helping. Integration into Final Cut and Avid workflows, digital fingerprints on ingest, locked vaults to protect from deletion and metadata harvesting from P2, SxS etc are some of the benefits.

2. Parking/Nearline – Production disk, the online, the SAN should be kept lean and mean. Some projects can take years to complete so content needs to be moved off and onto the expensive disk repeatedly over a prolonged period. Tape based technologies do not cut the mustard. Organisations are also looking to ‘rightsize’ their expensive disk by offloading older or less-used content that should not sit clogging up the SAN to a more appropriate tier of storage. Seamless one touch capacity expansion, DropSpot (metadata support/search) and performance make MatrixStore a natural choice.

3. Legacy/Local Archive – organisations who own content need to protect their content or they will not be able to re-use or monetise that content. The two maxims come into their own here. Integration with DAM/MAMs, Self-Management,  redundancy of data, retention policies (prevent change or deletion), metadata and search goodness are key here.

4. Content Manipulation/Distribution Repository - If you own the content and have it protected and available on disk then what can you do with that data? Clustered/Grid architecture, high availability, metadata and search again key.

5. Regulations - More and more financial institutions are using video in the way they communicate with staff or shareholders, that video needs to be protected and stored for a pre-determined period in accordance with global regulations. MatrixStore has built in characteristics that satisfy these compliance requirements.

The View From OM

Even medium to large creative organisations will not have dedicated I.T staff to work on the video side of the business so they need solutions that just work and do not take them out of their comfort zone. The MatrixStore is the storage geek so they don’t need one.

Cardiff, UK – Object Matrix, a developer of secure asset archive and retrieval software, has
today supplied Cardiff based post-production facility Mwnci with its pre-production rushes archive and nearline archive solution, The MatrixStore. The multi-purpose data management
solution provides a secure archive for client owned content that enters the facility and also acts as a secure parking location for ongoing projects.

Rich Moss, Managing Director of Mwnci stated, “More and more of the projects coming into Mwnci are file based and as such we need to ensure we have the best infrastructure in place to cope with not only the incredible amount of content but also the wide variety of the content formats that come into the facility. The DropSpot software from Object Matrix understands the Panasonic P2 and Sony SxS formats allowing metadata entered on the camera to be harvested and attached to the content in our MatrixStore cluster. We made a decision to keep our production SAN at an optimal size for both performance and throughput whilst moving older content that still needs to be accessed to a more appropriate platform.

The MatrixStore fits perfectly as both the pre-production and the nearline archive in our Avid based workflow.”

Mwnci uses mostly Avid technology in the post production of television programming for clients such as the BBC and S4C.

More here….

The View From OM:
For more information on the use of MatrixStore in an AVID workflow go here..

Happy Days. A great end to 2009. Merry Christmas and wishing you a prosperous new year!