Globosat Transitions to HD With DataDirect

DataDirect Networks, Inc. (DDN), Inc. announced that Globosat, provider of cable television programming to South America, has deployed DDN’s scalable media workflow storage technology to meet its rapidly growing storage demands.

In transitioning from SD to HD content, Globosat was faced with substantially more video to deliver through their broadcast system while maintaining uninterrupted levels of quality of service. After surveying the marketplace, Globasat chose DDN to power a full video editing, graphic design and archival suite for their Apple Final Cut Pro based HD workflow.

"Globosat requires storage that enables us to scale to the changing needs of our business," said Lourenco Carvano, manager of the Globosat Technology Department. "When we moved all of our content to HD, we chose DataDirect Networks solutions because they have been proven to meet our significantly evolving requirements. We had to grow efficiently but with extreme performance, great support, and maximum scalability for our FCP system."

Globosat serves markets across South America with 29 stations, and is one of the region’s largest providers of sports programming and premium movies in partnership with several major film studios. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, the company has more than 1,000 employees.

"We are thrilled to be a part of this project with Globosat as this is an excellent example of DDN’s value proposition for the HD broadcast market," said Paul Bloch, president, DataDirect Networks. "Our customers are able to capture and serve massive amounts of high-resolution digital and streaming content; provide shared, ultra-fast access to a common pool of data; and minimize data center footprint and storage costs for their rapidly growing archives."

Carvano says that going forward, DDN will enable Globosat to shift its tape archives to disk-based storage for greater reliability and faster restoring. The move to a tapeless architecture will also reduce content production schedules and cost by giving editors immediate access to archive content.

"We are moving very fast to a tapeless environment, and it is greatly increasing our storage needs," Carvano said. "The performance and scalability of our DDN systems will be critical to this effort."

DDN solutions for rich media and post production was on display at the upcoming NAB conference in Las Vegas.