Ubisoft Montréal Deploys EditShare XStream EFS 450

EditShare, LLC, in scale-out storage, AQC and media management solutions, is helping UbiSoft Montréal meet the demands of live capture, editing and real-time playback of up to 4K content with its enterprise EditShare XStream EFS 450 shared storage solutions and integrated EditShare Geevs video servers which support up to 4 concurrent ingest and playout streams.

“We have a different set up from the typical capture or montage studio. First, our montage studio is larger than the average. With over 3,500 people on staff, we have a lot of different connections and workflow demands,” says Michel Forbes, system administrator, Ubisoft Montréal. “One of the key workflows is live capture, edit and real-time video playback. This is the de facto workflow for many teams; the complexity of managing such a large operation and heavy project load requires a high degree of organization and system performance. We researched the options and found EditShare to be versatile enough to meet the requirements with the performance necessary to support the nuances and needs of these demanding productions.“

Ubisoft Montréal first invested in EditShare in 2013, and upgraded the system to the XStream EFS architecture featuring almost 1PB in storage.

The XStream EFS 450 is a distributed scale-out video storage platform developed for the intensive media workflows. It’s designed to support resilient large-scale workgroups requiring high-bandwidth, high-volume media ingest, transcoding, online collaborative editing and multi-platform distribution of HD, 4K, 8K and beyond. Combined with the Geevs servers, which provide codec support including DVCPRO HD, Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD, XDCAM HD and AVC-Intra, the infrastructure allows Ubisoft Montréal to deploy the bandwidth intensive workflow as well as connect all creative systems to the EditShare system for media and project sharing across both UbiSoft Montréal campuses. The diverse set up feeds the media and marketing projects to a wide range of artists using Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects editors and artists. It also connects the facilities 22 sound design and pro tools editing systems.

Next Move ACL
EditShare released an ACL Media Space feature that satisfies organizations like Ubisoft Montréal who prefer access control lists instead of ‘read-only’ or ‘R/W’ rules that govern current EditShare media spaces.

“For an organization our size, we prefer to manage the EditShare like a windows system and the new ACL capability will give us the fine-grained control of user permissions we are looking for,” says Forbes.

ACL Spaces are managed in Finder and Windows Explorer extensions that are installed with EditShare Connect. Only users with the ACL Management Limited Administrative permission will be able to modify ACL Space Permissions. Those without such permissions can view ACLs in any place where they are allowed to browse in Finder and/or Explorer.

Forbes concludes: “For me, it’s all about the return on the investment and getting the most out of your storage solution. With features like ACL, we continue to get more from our EditShare platform.“

Case study: Ubisoft Montréal and EditShare