Harmonic Production Storage Platform Streamlines Crawford Media Services Workflow

Crawford Media Services, a provider of premium postproduction services and media management solutions to domestic and international clients, has deployed the Harmonic Omneon MediaGrid active storage system with MXFserver to support a collaborative multiplatform editing environment within its new 80,000-square-foot facility in Atlanta, GA.

The unique Harmonic production storage solution has allowed Crawford to implement a highly efficient DNxHD workflow in which editors working privately or collaboratively on different platforms can share content in a single storage pool.

“The combination of MediaGrid and MXFserver from FilmPartners puts content at the center of the workflow, streamlining and optimizing the process of media production,” said Steve Davis, SVP of Crawford Media Services and COO of Media Management. “Together, these systems serve as a complete and cost-effective solution. In addition to enabling project sharing between edit clients, this production storage platform allowed us to retain our existing project number scheme. As a result, we were able to improve our infrastructure and realize more efficient collaborative efforts without significant modification to our operations and organizational workflows.”

The MediaGrid production solution brings efficient, highly available storage optimized for media to Crawford’s postproduction workflow. Content is ingested and encoded to DNxHD (220 Mbps) and then written to the MediaGrid system as DNxHD files, which are registered to an MXFserver project and presented to authorized users through a project-based interface. This model thus allows producers and editors — regardless of their edit platform — to see and work with all content files assigned to each project.

“MediaGrid storage combined with MXFserver delivers a unique ability to support project sharing on any edit workstation, and is valuable to Crawford’s current and future business opportunities,” said Geoff Stedman, general manager, storage solutions division at Harmonic. “The company already benefits from multiformat, multiplatform shared editing workflows, and as Crawford’s operations grow, its Harmonic storage platform will provide a scalable foundation for new content-focused workflows and services.”