Filmwerk and Systempiloten Opt for 96TB Facilis TerraBlock

The next series of Germany’s version of the Got Talent Show, Project Got Talent 2016, is in production and will go to air on September 10.

As part of a massive time critical production schedule, Köln-based production service companies, Filmwerk GmbH  and Systempiloten, improved the daily rushes process by integrating Facilis’ TerraBlock  shared storage system for content creation and post production.

Working together, the two companies are responsible for capturing all the action at the auditions, as well as backstage and in the waiting areas.

“We recorded 14 jury casting sessions in August and we have a very short post production window before broadcasts start on September 10, 2016,” explains Systempiloten’s Thorsten Feldmann, technical director, Filmwerk.com for Project Got Talent 2016.

Due to the timescale demands of the production, Filmwerk.com needs a daily turnaround of rushes into post production that have already been transcoded into an Avid XDCAM 50MBit OP Atom codec, so that all data is compatible with the Avid-based post environment. With 19 different Canon, Arri, Sony and GoPro cameras capturing the action in the casting sessions, backstage, the waiting areas and outside, the challenge of safely capturing, storing and backing up this data is critical.

“After evaluating various options we selected the Facilis TerraBlock 24D/96TB. It allows us to record all incoming data twice – once as the working copy and once as a backup on the same server,” explained Feldmann. “TerraBlock has a sophisticated folder structure which enables us to backup each day’s shooting and each individual camera’s contribution.”

The amount of data for the production days with the backup / render and transfer files has grown for Project Got Talent 2016 to 110TB.

For connections to the TerraBlock, Filmwerk.com is taking advantage of Facilis’ simultaneous FC and Ethernet connectivity. Render and ingest machines are connected directly via 8Gb FC to single user write volumes for maximum speed. One Metus Ingester, three Avid Media Composer workstations, and four copy stations are connected via 10GbE.

“In previous years, handling this massive amount of data had been a hugely labor intensive mission critical process and now TerraBlock has made this so much easier, more efficient and safer,” explained Feldmann. “The backup process can be monitored and all the conversion and recording processes happen simultaneously.“

“One of the factors that drew us towards TerraBlock is the system’s incredible flexibility in terms of client selection, programs and connectivity options,” he explained. “Add to this the system’s fantastic resilience and reliability and we have found ourselves a sure-fire winner.“