University of Roehampton Implements Facilis TerraBlock Shared Storage Workflow

University of Roehampton Digital Film and Media Department has streamlined its post-production workflow with the addition of a Facilis TerraBlock 24D shared storage system.

Connected via 1GbE to 16 Mac workstations running Apple Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Creative Suite 6, the TerraBlock, which was installed by reseller Tyrell Content Creation Tools Ireland Ltd before the start of the Spring 2014 semester, now acts as a centralized hub for housing student AV criticism, AV dissertation and BA film projects.

With TerraBlock at the core of the department, University of Roehampton Technical Manager Ian Shand is confident that he and his team will be able to better protect student assets and simplify project management.

“Our program grows every year, and with TerraBlock, we now have one central location where we can put everything and know it’s secure,” he said. “Continuing to use individual HDDs for storage as we had in the past would be costly and inefficient. TerraBlock not only gives us a fail-safe, but also removes time-consuming management tasks; the less time I spend managing tasks, the more I can focus on the students.“

From creating essay films to documentaries, all 95 students enrolled in the Digital Film and Media Program are given access to TerraBlock. They’re able to complete and store projects on the system simultaneously – without the university incurring the per-seat licensing fees traditionally associated with alternative shared storage solutions. Once completed, projects are submitted as ProRes 4:22 files for evaluation by faculty and stored in an archive media space on TerraBlock. 

Shand opted to invest in TerraBlock after researching high-capacity shared storage solutions that could enhance collaboration, project management and data security.

He shared: “We had a strict budget, and out of all the solutions we looked at, TerraBlock offered the biggest bang for our buck. I loved the amount of storage we’d get and how easy it is to use. Our students will now be able to quickly log on to any workstation and pick up where they left off on a project.“