Santa Fe Productions Selects Atto FastStream RAID Controller

ATTO Technology, Inc. announced that their FastStream SC 7500 RAID storage controller that enables a shared environment using SAS or SATA storage while connecting workstations via Fibre Channel – has been selected by Santa Fe Productions to deliver a high-performance, data-protected storage environment for a shared workflow in a studio environment.

The Brain Fitness Program

FastStream allows up to four Fibre Channel-based workstations to share a pool of RAID-protected SAS or SATA storage without using a Fibre Channel switch. Using the FastStream with SAS drives protected by RAID 5 provides support for up to five streams of 10-bit uncompressed HD video with performance up to 1200MB/s. In addition, the FastStream manages latency so editors can work with up to 30 total streams of DVCPro HD while simultaneously accessing up to 48 streams of uncompressed audio over eight workstations when using a Fibre Channel switch.

Santa Fe Productions creates non-fiction programming for broadcast television and home video and film distribution specializing in science-oriented educational entertainment programs. Its latest project, The Brain Fitness Program, has aired on PBS stations nationwide with a sequel in production. Several independent producers rent the company’s facility on a project-by-project basis. Santa Fe realized the fiscal responsibility of protecting storage and likewise, needed a shared system so editors would not have to wait for long file transfers in order to work on a given project.

Santa Fe was using eSATA and Firewire storage with multiple Mac workstations to share massive amounts of footage (20 to 30 hours or more of HD video) while trying to meet very tight deadlines, storage was swapped among the computers as needed. “The way we worked was very inefficient”, according to Santa Fe. “We had to duplicate all of our digitized footage and other graphic assets across multiple firewire drives and share them as we needed them. If someone needed a clip and they didn’t have it, we’d have to copy it from wherever it might be and move the drives around.  When you’re dealing with 20- or 30-minute clips of compressed HD footage that means waiting for hours to get the footage where it needs to go, wasting a lot of bandwidth and precious editing time.”

After looking at several other solutions that were price prohibitive, Santa Fe found the perfect solution with the FastStream SC 7500. By adding low-cost SATA arrays instead of more expensive Fibre Channel storage and increasing connectivity to additional workstations, Santa Fe was able to take advantage of all the benefits of a SAN with the added performance expertise of ATTO.

“ATTO’s tech support made the difference, ATTO provided unparalleled support to work with us to be up and running with optimal performance. While many all-in-one solutions require specific hardware to marry the RAID chassis and storage, the FastStream supplies the RAID configuration and performance management eliminating the need for RAID in the storage enclosure. ATTO has created a solution that is affordable and flexible enough for us to add more storage and workstations as we need without adding an entire new SAN or RAID box to the mix,” according to Santa Fe.