Starz Entertainment Selecting HDS

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation announced that Starz Entertainment LLC, an integrated media and entertainment company, has selected Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) with Hitachi Unified Storage VM (HUS VM) to refresh their post-production workflow and IT environment.

In an effort to standardize their post-production solutions, Starz also selected Scale Logic, Inc.’s HyperFS file system for their file-based workflows.

“We are excited to be working with HDS to bring our award-winning content to viewers anywhere, on any device,” said Judy Batenburg, VP of IT services, Starz. “Our current television lineup is among some of our proudest achievements as a company, and with the right partners by our side, we are thrilled to be able to share it with the world.“

HCP is an object storage-solution that allows broadcasters to store their programs and video content and share, synchronize program versions, protect, preserve broadcast content, analyze and retrieve file data in a single system. It provides massive scale via open interfaces, including HCP REST, S3 and Swift. Built on Hitachi hardware known for its scalability and performance, it provides a range of flexibility, automation, configurability and input options. HUS VM manages storage and consolidates data into a single, virtualized platform, providing flash-accelerated performance and lower TCO. Delivering enterprise storage virtualization in a unified platform lets organizations manage information more efficiently.

“With a growing list of challenges caused by big data in media workflows, the ability to speed up global file delivery on budget and on time becomes a significant issue for Programming Directors at the studio,” said Dwight DeClouette, VP, media and broadcast, HDS. “Whether the problem is real-time broadcasting or archiving and managing media repositories on-site or in the cloud, our goal is to provide customers with the tools and software needed to solve these challenges. Together with our partners, we are pleased to offer complete end-to-end solutions to some of the world’s greatest media and entertainment companies.“

HDS Highlighted Media and Broadcast Technology Solutions at NAB 2015
At the NAB 2015 Conference HDS showcased 4K production workflow and more than 10 technology demonstrations. It also introduced a certified and integrated network, compute, and storage platform optimized for Adobe Anywhere. Created in collaboration with Adobe Systems, the new platform solution combines Brocade VDX Switches, Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS) storage, and Hitachi Compute Blade 500 (CB500). The Brocade VDX provides the Adobe client connectivity, while the CB500 presents a GPU-powered blade solution to run mercury-streaming engines with massive I/O bandwidth. HNAS provides highly available and high-speed file system access to media assets for Adobe applications.