Building Storage for 4K Production

This article lays down important elements to consider when building out your 4K workflow. You'll also want to take a look at our guide to post-production bundles featuring Avid NEXIS | PRO as the central hub for shared storage in a studio and our overview of new storage systems from G-Technology and Promax from this year's NAB Show.

Building Out Storage Infrastructure for 4K

From Broadcastbridge.com The media and entertainment industry is moving toward 4K and UHD because of the beautiful resolution and increased depth and color these formats offer. With more information in every frame, editors and other artists are empowered to be more creative — and they are better able to use the latest technology and tools to manipulate media files and create richer content that compels audiences to consume it. As content creators move toward higher resolutions and frame rates, they put a great deal of stress on their existing infrastructures. Given the speed of this shift, some such companies already store hundreds of terabytes or even petabytes of media content. Far greater storage capacity is a clear and immediate must, but it is not the only important characteristic to consider in adapting storage infrastructure to work with today’s much larger file sizes. Increasing only storage capacity to address 4K workflows is akin to using a screwdriver to hit a nail; it may yield some results, but it is not really the right tool for the job. In the case of adapting storage infrastructure to work with larger media files and formats, media facilities also must evaluate their requirements with respect to throughput, latency and input/output operations per second (IOPS). The ideal balance of these factors will be dictated by the unique aspects of an operation’s workflow and all integral processes...[continue reading]