Raidix Media Selected by Mariinsky Theater in Russia

IT service of the Mariinsky Theater selected the storage system Raidix Media from Raidix LLC for processing and storage of multimedia content.

Following implementation, Raidix engaged in continuous maintenance and regular upgrades of the software-hardware infrastructure delivered to the theater.

Mariinsky Theater. Innovation With Tradition in Mind
Founded in 1783 in St. Petersburg, Russia, the State Academic Mariinsky Theater (former Kirov Ballet) is one of the most celebrated opera and ballet houses in the world. It gave momentum to a plethora of classical and modern productions, as well as singers Fyodor Chaliapin, Ivan Yershov, Medea and Nikolai Figner, Sofia Preobrazhenskaya, and ballet performers Mathilde Kschessinska, Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Galina Ulanova, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and others.

The theater has focused on the ongoing repertoire and innovation, as well as masterpieces of the previous epochs. Its historic legacy is of great value to the Russian and world’s culture. Catering to glorious tradition, it hosts an archive of music scores, costume sketches, scenic paintings, photographs, audio and video recordings of performances. Needless to say, these data required meticulous storage and replenishment based on cutting edge solutions.

The Challenge

Media Portal
The evolving digital world extends the horizons for storing and sharing multimedia content, Theater performances being no exception. Conceived back in 2009, the Theater’s Media Portal provided a shortcut to the Mariinsky artistic legacy. As of the time being, the Media Portal enables web-based communication with the theater’s remote audience. Effectively, those unable to attend a live performance can still keep abreast of the scenic arts’ history and new tidings, perceive the heartbeat of the theater and its achievements.

Aside of concert and performance recordings, the Media Portal publishes news from the theater world, interviews with the maestro, musicians and actors. The interviews are recorded in the theater’s in-house Media Studio.

Mindful of increasing multimedia content and infrastructure needs, the Mariinsky Theater Management announced a tender for a storage system.

The key functional requirements included:

Smooth integration with the theater’s existing infrastructure and scalability of the Media Portal
A single video clip recorded by multiple cameras could reach tens of gigabytes in size. Given these workloads, the Media Portal required high sustainable speeds of video processing.

The Solution

On designing the Media Portal, the theater’s IT service reviewed multiple architecture options and opted for the HLS technology. Storage and processing of video and audio content required a performing storage system – core component of the Media Portal. In the selection process, the theater highlighted the requirements of fast video processing, data integrity and reliability.

Raidix Media met the customer’s needs by delivering a fast and scalable solution. This implementation enabled the theater to extend its media content volumes by a factor of several times.

As part of the Raidix solution, video footage transfers to the storage system, accessible through the FC interface. Video editing tasks are performed on the storage system, which allows for high speed data transfer. The HD video output is published on the Media Portal of the theater. The Raidix engineers update the storage system on a regular basis, enhancing opportunities for system monitoring and support for new media products.

Business impact

Raidix Media storage delivered uninterrupted multimedia experience to thousands of ballet and opera devotees across the world.

The theater’s Media Portal benefited by adding:

Easy access to digital media content with 99,999 data availability
Maintenance cost optimization due to compatibility with commodity hardware
High velocity of data processing
Fault-tolerant system operation.

“Raidix storage system resolved the issue of storing and efficiently processing large volumes of the theater’s video. It also guaranteed seamless delivery of the Media Portal content in line with increasing scalability needs,” said Evgeniy Barbashin, deputy it director, the Mariinsky Theater.

Benefits:

High speed and consistency of operations
Optimized infrastructure costs
Smooth scalability of hardware configurations
Tech support 24/7 and regular system upgrades

Case study