CASE STUDY
Facilis TerraBlock Augments CGI and Post Production for SBT
One of Brazil’s largest television broadcasters, São Paulo-based SBT offers international audiences the full gamut of programming including soap operas, sitcoms, dramas and films. The network depends on a dedicated CGI and post production arm to deliver a distinct aesthetic for each show, with a Facilis TerraBlock shared storage system serving as the cornerstone of its operations.
Founded in 2011 to support an increasing demand for CGI elements in its soap operas, SBT’s CGI and post production department was originally designed by SBT´s engineering team and is supported today by Technical Supervisor Roberto Takeda. The department is responsible for delivering computer graphics, editing, color correction and finishing for a number of SBT programs. Its state-of-the art facility features an integrated workflow comprising 20 different Mac and Windows workstations that run everything from Autodesk® 3ds Max® and Autodesk® Maya® to Adobe® After Effects®, in addition to a dedicated in-house render farm. Every workstation is connected to a Facilis TerraBlock 24EX shared storage system.
An integral part of SBT’s workflow, the TerraBlock deftly handles the team’s everyday storage needs. “When we first built this department, we knew we’d need a massive amount of storage and high bandwidth at the lowest possible price,” shared Takeda. “TerraBlock offered almost three times more bandwidth than similar competitive products on the market and was a direct answer to our needs. It’s been fantastic; since day one, the system has run continuously without any interruption.”
With help from local reseller DriveSYS, SBT´s engineering team had the TerraBlock up and running in a matter of hours. “I can’t recall any other storage installation that was as fast and simple as TerraBlock. We unpacked it, put it a rack, turned it on and we were in business,” Takeda said. “Our team is intimately familiar with shared storage, as we’ve been using SAN and NAS for years. From an engineering standpoint, I can easily say it is the most seamless system I’ve ever deployed. TerraBlock is so low maintenance and straightforward to manage.”
The ability to connect to the TerraBlock via Fiber Channel or Ethernet has also saved SBT’s team on a several occasions. Takeda explained, “One of our workstations had an optical cable failure, but we were covered because of the TerraBlock. We just switched to an Ethernet connection and continued to work until the optical cable was replaced, which meant we didn’t lose any time.”
SBT continues to discover new benefits that the TerraBlock affords. Takeda concluded, “When we first heard about Facilis, we were expecting ordinary, but we were absolutely wrong. What we’ve received with TerraBlock is above and beyond extraordinary.”
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