INDUSTRY

Dot Hill Storage Plays a Leading Role in Today’s Blockbuster Films

Phenomenal script writing, an accomplished director, mega star cast, and dazzling special effects – all are considered key ingredients of a blockbuster film; and yet today’s biggest Hollywood blockbuster films would never exist without the most critical factor – data storage. Companies such as Dot Hill Systems, produce the all-critical data storage solutions that empower the film industry to produce today’s biggest digital cinema masterpieces.

Just as movies have driven sales at concession stands for a century, digital video is fueling demand for data storage solutions that can handle the requirements of today’s video post-production studios. It’s no wonder, when you consider that a film like The Social Network reportedly took up a petabyte of data storage space, the equivalent of 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets. As image resolution and 3D popularity grow, storage needs are exploding. Avatar, for example, required 17 gigabytes of storage per minute. By 2017, storage for media & entertainment (M&E) is expected to grow 5X, thanks to sophisticated digital encoding, larger digital images, HD video and special effects.

Dot Hill Systems, a leading provider of data storage systems, has experienced steady growth of its products in the M&E market. In the last two years, Dot Hill AssuredSAN storage arrays have been used to produce a range of films totaling more than $2 billion in box office returns. Iron Man 3, Lincoln, Skyfall and The Hobbit, are among the blockbusters that have rolled through editing bays powered by Dot Hill AssuredSAN storage solutions.

“Dot Hill’s superior performance and reliability provide a versatile tool set for M&E professionals to meet the demanding high bandwidth requirements of post-production applications including 2K and 4k workflows,” said Jim Jonez, senior director of marketing, Dot Hill Systems. “Together we deliver rich-featured solutions that are fine-tuned to meet the high-bandwidth requirements of post-production studios. The Dot Hill AssuredSAN 4000 Series, now with high-speed 16Gb Fibre Channel and 12Gb SAS interface options and the Ultra48 high-density chassis, is a popular choice among M&E professionals.”

The last 17 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects were created with software solutions from Autodesk. In 2012, Autodesk began integrating Dot Hill AssuredSAN storage offerings as part of Autodesk's turnkey solution for 3D visual effects and finishing.

“Dot Hill AssuredSAN storage solutions provide the speed, reliability and versatility that we and our customers require to deliver outstanding results,” said Everett Ward, technical solutions manager, Autodesk. “The AssuredSAN platform can be configured as part of a storage area network, or as direct-attached storage, and offers full support for industry-standard operating systems including Linux environments, making it ideal for workflows using Autodesk Flame Premium software.”

It’s not just the film industry that relies on Dot Hill for M&E storage solutions. Harris Broadcast Communications incorporates Dot Hill midrange storage solutions into its line of NEXIO Farad online storage systems for broadcasters and other media organizations. Dot Hill's proven storage architecture provides the reliable uptime and resiliency that Harris’ broadcast and media customers require for continuous operations.

Dot Hill AssuredSAN Storage Solutions Are Designed for Advanced Workflows

AssuredSAN storage systems provide the ideal high-performance storage platforms for workflows using Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe, Autodesk Smoke and Flame, Colorfront On-Set Dailies or any application demanding extreme streaming performance and proven reliability. Designed to accelerate video streaming, and support virtually any post-production environment including Mac OS X, Linux and Windows, Dot Hill AssuredSAN storage solutions are fully optimized for today's advanced HD, 2K and 4K workflows.

AssuredSAN shared-storage solutions allow post-production editors to leverage and access the same video assets from multiple editing suites at the same time. With accelerated read-write performance and tremendous versatility, Dot Hill's AssuredSAN linear performance models speed up production and rendering, while virtually eliminating dropped frames. The rock solid Dot Hill AssuredSAN storage portfolio offers up to 384 terabytes of capacity in a single system, great ease-of-use and up to 99.999 percent availability.