Crawford Media Services Deploys Harmonic Omneon Mediagrid

Harmonic Inc. announced that Crawford Media Services Inc., a provider of post-production services and media management solutions to domestic and
international clients, has deployed the Omneon
MediaGrid active storage system with MXFserver
to support a collaborative multiplatform editing environment within its new
80,000-square-foot facility in Atlanta, Ga.

The Harmonic production
storage solution has allowed Crawford to implement a DNxHD workflow in which editors working privately or collaboratively on
different platforms can share content in a single storage pool.

"The combination of MediaGrid and MXFserver
from FilmPartners puts content at the center of the workflow, streamlining and
optimizing the process of media production," said Steve Davis, SVP of
Crawford Media Services and COO of Media Management. "Together, these systems serve as a complete and cost-effective
solution. In addition to enabling project sharing between edit clients, this
production storage platform allowed us to retain our existing project number
scheme. As a result, we were able to improve our infrastructure and realize
more efficient collaborative efforts without significant modification to our
operations and organizational workflows."

The MediaGrid production solution brings storage optimized for media to Crawford’s post-production workflow. Content is
ingested and encoded to DNxHD (220 Mbps) and then written to the MediaGrid
system as DNxHD files, which are registered to an MXFserver project and
presented to authorized users through a project-based interface. This model
thus allows producers and editors – regardless of their edit platform – to see
and work with all content files assigned to each project.

"MediaGrid storage combined with
MXFserver delivers a unique ability to support project sharing on any edit
workstation, and is valuable to Crawford’s current and future business
opportunities," said Geoff Stedman, general manager, storage solutions
at Harmonic Inc. "The company
already benefits from multiformat, multiplatform shared editing workflows, and
as Crawford’s operations grow, its Harmonic storage platform will provide a
scalable foundation for new content-focused workflows and services."