CASE STUDY
Markenfilm Taps Facilis TerraBlock to Keep Pace with the Future of Advertising
Internationally renowned German advertising production and post production powerhouse Markenfilm Group
has worked on venerable ad campaigns for Mercedes, Audi, Coca-Cola, Kayak, AXE, BMW and more. To
accommodate a recent surge of projects, Group CIO Ralf Nyenhuis invested in three Facilis TerraBlock 24EXs with
the Facilis Shared File System. Each system is connected up to six workstations running Avid Media Composer and
Apple Final Cut Pro and spread out across three of Markenfilm’s facilities including: INFECTED Postproduction in
Wedel, Markenfilm Schweiz in Zurich and M hoch 4 and Markenfilm Crossing in Hamburg.
As the company’s client roster grew, it became clear to Ralf that the facility’s aging Unity systems (no longer
supported) could not provide enough bandwidth to keep pace with the demanding project and data load. During
IBC last year, Ralf set out to find a new multi-user write shared storage solution that would complement
Markenfilm’s existing Fibre Channel topology, as well as its Media Composer and Final Cut Pro workstations.
“After perusing the IBC show floor and exploring various options, I was drawn to TerraBlock. Rewiring our facility was out of the question, and we needed to increase our bandwidth while also planning for the future,” he said. “TerraBlock was a perfect fit; it was one of the most cost-effective, high-performance solutions available that would allow us to tap into our existing Fibre Channel infrastructure and still see optimal performance.”
The transition from Unity to TerraBlock proved seamless for Markenfilm Group. Nyenhuis shared, “TerraBlock was easy to install and preconfigure on our own; we had it set up, configured and running in a matter of an hour. Once up and running, we could easily create workspaces, copy our data quickly to the new system and configure secure access connected to the mountable workspaces.”
A number of Markenfilm employees require secure access to the volumes of data to complete each project. “Centralized shared storage is fundamental to everything we do here, and everyone needs access to files at any given time. The more workstations we use and the higher size files we see – especially as we transition from HD to 2K and 4K – and the more information we’re sharing. That’s why it’s absolutely critical that we have a high capacity system like TerraBlock in place,” he added.
“We also need the flexibility to tailor our connection to client needs. While we’re currently using Fibre Channel, it’s important to have the option of Ethernet if our clients require it. As we expand further into the future, TerraBlock gives the flexibility to use both,” Nyenhuis concluded.
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