HOT Israeli Entertainment Channel Heats Up Post-Production

Dubbed HOT Israeli Entertainment, the channel runs the full gamut of programming, including reality series, dramas, comedies and the daily news show HOT Entertainment News.

Having experienced a recent surge in popularity, HOT Entertainment News migrated post production in February from an off-site shop to a new in-house facility to streamline the team’s workflow, enabling editors to turn around quality content faster.

Post-production manager Yonni Banin collaborated with reseller PAI Creative Solutions in overseeing the development of the facility, opting to equip the new space with a 16TB Facilis TerraBlock shared storage system and six Avid editorial suites.

Yonni Banin said: “It was pretty simple: we needed a storage system that would perform flawlessly 24/7 and work well with Avid. TerraBlock holds a proven track record for reliability and is very compatible with Avid, so it was a good fit. Furthermore, the support we received from both Facilis and PAI throughout installation was fantastic.“

On average, production for HOT Entertainment News shoots three hours of footage, four days a week, which is handed off instantly to Banin’s six-person editorial crew.

Tasked with preparing the content for air, often the same day, Banin explained: “Editorial comes under a lot of pressure, because we have to get our work done before the day comes to a close and at the level of quality viewers expect. It’s critical that our editors have immediate access to everything that is shot, imported and digitized. Now that we’re in-house, we can quickly pull up files with a dedicated machine like TerraBlock that lets us do our jobs without hassle.“

He continued: “Our workflow with TerraBlock is comparable to our previous solution, but offers even more flexibility and advanced connectivity. TerraBlock’s UI is simple to navigate, which makes it easy to add and change volumes, and I love how quickly I was able to pick it up.“

Throughout most of the day, all six editors are running full speed ahead across the edit suites. With so much data flowing around and being held to strict deadlines, the team has benefitted from new management and organization features that the TerraBlock provides, while also ensuring that no data is lost.

“Volume permissions are essential when it comes to not only organizing our files, but also protecting them,” said Banin. “TerraBlock lets you know when a volume is locked and on which computer, so there’s no confusion; it’s given our editorial team huge peace of mind.“

Additionally, TerraBlock’s Multi-user Write features have enabled Banin’s team to collaborate across six workstations simultaneously without any drop in performance.

“Even though we keep our TerraBlock pretty full, using it morning to evening, it just keeps running. In the year we’ve had it, we haven’t had any issues with lost materials or corrupt databases, which were regular bottlenecks with our former system,” he shared. “We couldn’t do what we do without our TerraBlock; it enables us to work the way we want to and at the rhythm we want to.“