IBC 2008 | Sports Technology Blog | Turner Studios Transforms Media Production and Distribution with Isilon IQ

Turner Studios Transforms Media Production and Distribution with Isilon IQ
by | Sep 15, 2008 - 12:09:18 PM

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Turner Studios, the in-house production facility of Turner Broadcasting has deployed Isilon IQ clustered storage as one of its primary media repositories to accelerate delivery of digital and high definition television programming and products to the marketplace. By unifying its massive stores of media programming onto a single highly scalable, shared pool of Isilon clustered storage, Turner Studios can easily manage and quickly access its digital media content to create television programs and other media. Turner Studios is among multiple divisions of Turner Broadcasting using Isilon IQ to store and access a broad range of file-based data.

Turner Studios has connected its Apple Final Cut Pro systems directly to Isilon IQ to create an active editorial system, making its HD media immediately accessible and eliminating the need to transfer files before editing. By playing the material directly off the Isilon system, Turner Studios has created a more efficient editorial workflow.

Turner Studios's Digital Media Group deployed Isilon clustered storage to condense about five years of encoding work into two years, and is using it to author DVDs and create new products for services like Apple iTunes, Microsoft Xbox or Joost.

"Modern enterprises face the challenge of managing and leveraging massive amounts of data to maintain a competitive advantage," said Steve Fitz, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations, Isilon Systems. "Media companies, particularly, recognize that success in today's digital age hinges on an organization's ability to harness data in meaningful ways to move the business forward. Isilon clustered storage was specifically designed to empower this ability and enable these companies to significantly decrease time-to-market."

Prior to Isilon, Turner Studios managed its ever-increasing volume of media content with several shared Direct Attached Storage (DAS) systems. Editors and clients used different systems using different methods -- from different workstations -- in order to access media content. With a rapidly growing television business, an expanding list of broadband projects and an increase in high-definition programming, expanding their storage capacity was important.