Broadcaster BRF Deploys PoINT Storage Manager

The Belgian Broadcasting Corporation of the German-speaking Community (Belgischer Rundfunk, BRF) is working with PoINT Software and Systems GmbH to digitize old recordings.

The PoINT Storage Manager archives media files on tape, guaranteeing fast and transparent access to data.

BRF aims to gradually digitize older recordings stored on various analog tape-based media. This is resulting in the creation of audio and video files in a range of formats and sizes, from a few megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes. It became clear that it was impossible to archive all of this data on HDDs alone; instead, BRF needed a more cost-effective solution.

The company therefore decided to archive on digital tape with the help of PoINT Storage Manager. The software integrates an LTO-8 tape library into BRF’s existing storage infrastructure to serve as an archive storage system. Using a 2-tier, hierarchical approach to storage management, it automatically archives data to tape. Editors use the primary storage format’s file system to access archived content, meaning that they can transparently access old audio and video recordings and use them in new reports.

“PoINT’s software meets all of our requirements, and it was the most cost-effective option,” said Marc Schiffler, head of production and technology. “The data is saved in a non-proprietary format, and the system is fully transparent for the applications used to access the files. It does exactly what we need while still being easy to use.“

Tape-based archive storage is reliably scalable, so BRF stands ready to deal with the rising volume of data in its archive. Archiving on tape improves data protection and ensures that files are available even if other tiers of the storage infrastructure experience outages.

About Belgischer Rundfunk
The abbreviation BRF stands for Europe’s smallest public service broadcaster. With around 70 employees the Belgian Broadcasting Corporation of the German-speaking Community is based in Eupen and has studios in Brussels and St. Vith. It offers three radio channels, one television channel and an Internet portal. The Belgian Broadcasting is the public service broadcaster of the German-speaking Community of Belgium and thus has a corresponding mission to accomplish. It sees itself as a medium that primarily has to inform: for and about the German-speaking community, about Belgium, the Euregio, but also about international events.