Facilis Unveils TerraBlock Shared Storage and Asset Tracking Products

Facilis Technology, Inc. announced offerings for both high-end and budget conscious facilities, along with a new tracking product that combines search, management and access to project assets in a simple interface.

The TerraBlock 24D/HA hybrid array includes a drive group of eight SSDs for ultra-high performance, alongside a larger drive group of traditional 4TB SATA drives for 72TB combined capacity. Since TerraBlock is a virtual volume system, facility administrators can create unique volume configurations that make the best use of the capacity and scalability of HDDs, and the consistency of speed and bandwidth inherent in SSDs. Performance derived from the SSD group can power multi-stream uncompressed 4K workloads, while the 16 drive group delivers the collaborative experience for compressed HD editorial and content creation workflows.

The TerraBlock 8D is an eight-drive, 16TB turnkey content creation system. Like Facilis’ larger servers, this 2U rack mountable server combines the company Shared File System with virtual volume workflow and performance. The 8D includes GbE connectivity and can be upgraded to support FC and 10GigE connections, making it attractive for facilities looking for a cost effective way to use existing FC networking. The TerraBlock 8D retails for less than $10K.

The company’s FastTracker is a comprehensive application for cataloging, searching and viewing many media types within the TerraBlock shared storage system, including all major QuickTime, MP4 and MXF codecs, along with DPX and TARGA image sequences, to name a few. This easy-to-use system includes custom metadata tagging, catalog user permissions, ‘boolean’ search capability and incremental indexing functionality. With no browser-based dependencies, this application is the fastest way to find clips, view them, and bring them into a project.

“Our customers have been asking for a system capable of concurrent editorial and finishing workflows, an easy way to track the terabytes of media they use, and an entry-level system for deploying in smaller workgroups,” commented James McKenna, VP marketing, Facilis, “Our new products are direct responses to these requests, and will help our customers be prepared for the changing landscape of post-production.“

TerraBlock software Version 6.5 that includes scalability features for volumes and workgroups. Interoperability with third party applications has been further improved along with performance enhancements for resolution independent workflows.

Features include:

• Cascading volumes enable seamless expansion of storage capacity among multiple drive groups and servers, all without moving or copying data.

• Windows growing file support helps our customers incorporate capture and encode automations, along with popular edit-during-ingest workflows on Windows as well as OSX.

• Increased user count up to 250 connected multi-platform users with no per-seat fees through the Shared File System.

The TerraBlock 24D/HA, TerraBlock 8D, Facilis FastTracker software and TerraBlock software Version 6.5 will be available in Q2 2015.