Sports Production

Building a brand and maintaining a loyal fan base in today’s intensely competitive environment requires a new level of commitment, technology, and storytelling to capture the drama of spot, taking the art of storytelling to new heights. Your best storytellers need creative freedom and the most powerful tools. The media workflow must be perfectly selected and refined, with flexibility, scalability, and robust operation that can be challenging for producing action-packed, live sports content.

With all the demands of media production today, many sports producers are turning to open system technology and forward-thinking workflows based on StorNext® 5, the leading collaborative storage management platform for content workflow. Proven at world-class post and broadcast facilities, major studios, and sports producers, StorNext offers improved productivity, greater workflow efficiency, and the most options for content monetization and protection.

Creating winning content today is not easy. Modern workflows are becoming increasingly more complex with multiple acquisition formats, and an even greater number of delivery options. Managing the storage and accessibility of valuable sports footage demands a robust infrastructure designed for a collaborative environment. Every user must have simultaneous shared access to content with no fear of slowdowns or dropped frames. Multiple applications must run concurrently while accelerated file ingest and multi-transcode delivery are taking place.

The typical sports broadcast workflow pushes the boundaries for volume and speed. Volume comes in the form of high-resolution content, be it 4K, 6K, or even 8K, and the increasing number of content sources. The 2014 FIFA World Cup utilized a minimum of 34 cameras per match, with content being captured in 4K.

The workflow for any event must support content development to serve a variety of needs, including live broadcast, live online and mobile streaming, video-on-demand, or scheduled studio programs.

Working in-venue and dealing with remote production require a flexible and robust workflow, one where content and assets are instantaneously available and highly protected from loss or damage. No single component can ensure system reliability. It takes a fully integrated and proven storage infrastructure.

Ingesting and making footage available for production teams are solely dependent on the storage infrastructure. This infrastructure must be able to manage a large volume of very large files, while also allowing a geographically dispersed production team to simultaneously access and share files. Additionally, the storage network must be open, enabling interoperability with market-leading sports workflow technologies—regardless of the underlying operating system or network topology.

StorNext Delivers Confidence in
Sports Production

In the sports world, confidence is critical. From the athlete on the field to the producer in the control room, reliability and dependability breed confidence. Quantum StorNext 5 is a proven winner, building on a rich history of media management software, and today delivering high-performance end-to-end storage solutions designed specifically to meet the growing needs of demanding sports workflows.

While Quantum storage appliances are designed with state-of-the-art hardware, it’s the power of StorNext 5 at the core that ensures that users can access files when and where they need them, regardless of size and without fear of dropped frames or slowdowns.

StorNext 5 provides high-throughput client connectivity for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X users. Assets can be shared between remote production facilities and venues as well as home broadcast centers and independent contractors, enabling production teams to access, edit, prepare, and deliver finished projects.

Saving the Game for
Future Generations

The value of sports assets continues past today’s energized fans and must be preserved for future generations. StorNext 5 helps content owners remonetize existing assets and extend their value beyond initial delivery through a comprehensive set of storage options, tools, and tight integration with asset managers.

StorNext 5 extended online, cloud, and deep archive options include petascale, disk-based Lattus™ Object Storage, budget-conscious tape-based StorNext AEL Archives, and StorNext Q-Cloud™ Archive cloud-based storage.

All are managed long-term by the StorNext Storage Manager, a policy-based content and asset migration engine. StorNext Storage Manager analyzes usage patterns, determines the optimal location for assets, and automatically migrates content between workflow stages, all based on policies users set based on their workflow and budget requirements.

For ingest, production, and file delivery

1. Ingest assets and content from any source to an intelligently managed workflow.
2. Simultaneously copy work to a fast scratch disk for work in progress while ingested content is archived. StorNext 5 enabled file steering accomplished by asset manager, scripted, or manually performed.
3. Playback and edit from production workstations (projects).
4. Transcode and process assets seamlessly using Quantum technology partners’ products.
5. Distribute to any IP-based platform—local or cloud based.
6. Ready for optional automated archive for remonetization and disaster recovery.

Benefits:

• Allows for best-of-breed production tools and resolution independence
• HD, 2K, 4K, and beyond are supported
• Fully expandable to include extended online local and cloud archive
• Acquire and deliver to multiple delivery services simultaneously
• World-class performance and reliability
• Multi-platform flexibility