Case Study: Florida Panthers Tap EditShare To Meet Video Department’s Increasing Storage Needs

Flexibility, security, and ease of access are key to the system

Recent successes by the NHL’s Broward County-based Florida Panthers — the team played in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final — have boosted the pressure on the video department’s creative group. To help meet that pressure, the team selected shared-storage provider EditShare.

As the team’s successes have grown, so too has the video department, with four producer/editors and interns creating stories for fan engagement. In addition, motion-graphics artists produce engaging sequences for the scoreboard system at the Panthers’ Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL. Screens in all the zones of the venue also depend on content from the in-house production team, as does the new retail store at the Panthers’ practice facility in Fort Lauderdale.

Content for a dynamic scoreboard and screens around the Florida Panthers’ Amerant Bank Arena is produced by the team’s creative group.

The amount of material passing through the unit is huge: stories, features, and player interviews shot locally and on the road; eight cameras in the arena on game days plus feeds from broadcast partner Bally Sports Network; and connectivity for all the postproduction suites in the building.

That’s a lot of assets that need to be managed.

Much Content, Many Users

As the workload increased, it was clear that the Panthers needed to support more users and sources simultaneously and to get shooting crews on the road into the production system as quickly as possible. The solution was a flexible, secure central storage system that could be readily accessed by everyone while remaining secure. It needed to support a lot of concurrent users, and the material had to be backed up as soon as practical.

Crews on the road needed access and ingest facilities using a secure VPN. In addition, the system must support a large number of live inputs as well as feeding outputs during matches.

Florida Panthers Senior Director, Content Services, Dennis Docil was tasked with identifying the best solution. Having worked at Ion Media Networks, a very early adopter of EditShare technology, he was familiar with its capabilities. The architecture the Panthers selected features a 256-TB EFS300 storage node installed in the department at the arena and backed by cloud storage, which is maintained via EditShare FLEX cloud sync.

Access From the Road

“The benefits were immediate and obvious,” says Docil. “It gave us a simple way to keep track of what we have. The ability to tag and search through all our content was a revelation.”

Content sent into the cloud by crews on the road is automatically replicated on the on-premises storage, and producer/editors can access the entire content store over a secure VPN.

They can edit complete stories on the road, something that was impossible before the EditShare installation. Besides being more rounded and complete, the packages put together on the road can be posted from wherever producer/editors are, allowing content to reach the fanbase faster. That is important in packaging roundups of away games.

Bally Sports Network uses a lot of content originated by the Panthers. In turn, the broadcaster provides a key game feed to supplement the team’s own cameras, all captured live and immediately available to editors and postproduction platforms.

A Comprehensive Package

“The recent successes of the team mean that there are a lot of eyeballs on us,” says Docil. “We are in the spotlight, and our workloads are increasing exponentially. We had to have a core workflow system that gave us what we needed: the ability to work at home and on the road, direct access for editors and other post people, powerful asset management tuned to the specific requirements of sport, and the security of knowing all our material is backed up in the cloud.

“We looked at a number of systems,” he continues, “but EditShare definitely seemed to be the most user-friendly while delivering on all requirements. On top of that, the price was more attractive than the competition. We were able to order a comprehensive package with all the extra components we wanted — like cloud synchronization and direct access for editors — in one affordable fixed price.”

Besides high-quality game coverage, Panthers fans demand more. Through the team’s app and website and on screens around the live experience, the Panthers’ video department seeks to meet that demand, bringing the players closer to the fans and building loyalty to the team and excitement around its successes. That loyalty, excitement, and engagement also build revenues, increasing attendance and driving sales online and through the fan shop.

Producing all this content and turning it around with the speed of a hockey game called for the sophisticated workflows, excellent asset management, and secure but readily accessed storage of the EditShare implementation.