Long Beach Campus of California State University Customer of AC&NC

Organization
For anyone who wants to learn about television production, Beach TV at the Long Beach campus of California State University (CSU) is a place to start.

For nearly 40 years, it has been training video journalists, producers, content creators, broadcasters, editors, and technicians in all manner of video production. The non-profit, local educational cable TV channel operates 24/7 and boasts of some 600,000 viewers.

It is operated by the Advanced Media Production Center, the professional digital video production department at CSU Long Beach. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Douglas, and the Dalai Lama are some of the luminaries and Nobel Prize winners who have appeared on the channel. The channel also distributes its content on the web as well as via Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

Challenge
Using a production studio, a green-screen studio, and other facilities, staff and students at Beach TV do end-to-end video production, from script writing to shooting to editing to distribution. Producing programming generates a large number of files, many of which are huge in size, and all need to be stored. Moreover, content must be archived for future use, sometimes years later.

Originally, Beach TV saved files on individual workstations, but each was an island and sharing content was difficult. Moreover, the station archived its programming on tape, but retrieving files was arduous.

In 2006, school administrators looked for better solutions and turned to storage providers like Hitachi. Their platforms, however, cost as much as $100,000 and were out of the reach of the station’s budgets. Instead, Beach TV looked for rack-mounted RAID arrays that supported FC connections. It found that JetStor solutions from Advanced Computer & Network Corporation (AC&NC) were less expensive, and yet offered the functionality and performance the station demanded at a fraction of the cost of big-brand systems.

The station installed a JetStor 416 array with 16.5TB drives. Over the years, the enterprise upgraded to 2 JetStor SATA 516F platforms and then to 2 JetStor SAS 716F arrays.

“Every time we needed more capacity, we had to get three quotes, and every time, JetStor systems were the most affordable,” said Craig Walker, digital systems analyst for the advanced media production center, CSU Long Beach. “Every time, our JetStor platforms performed flawlessly. But to support our operations, we eventually needed storage that was even more capacious and robust so we solicited three more quotes.“

• Solution: JetStor SAS 816F arrays from AC&NC
• System configuration: Three JetStor SAS 816F arrays, each with 16 12TB SAS drives

Benefits realized
Beach TV stuck to its winning formula by deploying 3JetStor SAS 816F arrays for a total capacity of some 500TB. The 3 store all video programming, including elements like scripting, narration, captions, etc. required to create content The devices form a SAN that enables staff and students to access and share files. They also retrieve material archived on the JetStor systems. Content silos and difficult to access files are relics of the past.

One JetStor 816F platform serves as primary storage for 10 workstations and supports online editing. The second system mirrors the first for backup and data protection. The third is used for distribution outside the station’s firewall. It delivers the station’s content on the broadcaster’s website and provides video-on-demand for different pay channels across the state. Additionally, 23 stations across California download various Beach TV programs for airing on their cable systems and pay channels.

“Our JetStor arrays continue to be an excellent investment for the school,” said Walker. “No vendor offers as much value and performance as AC&NC. We even have our JetStor 716s and JetStor 516s still connected to the network and serving as additional backup. They could outlast everyone here at the station.“

How it was done:
Workstation has the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite to support video production.

The JetStor 816F units also link to four NewTek TriCaster video production systems. These video switches deliver a complete array of media production capabilities. They store content directly to the JetStor 816F devices and enable producers to edit live productions such as switching from one camera to another.

The 3U JetStor 816F units are each provisioned with 16x12TB HDDs and are configured for RAID-6. that offers high fault tolerance and can sustain multiple concurrent drive failures.

“Installing the JetStor platforms is pretty straightforward,” said Walker. “I was able to do it myself, saving us the cost of professional installers. Plus, they don’t require a whole lot of management. We set them up and they just keep working.“

Conclusion
Video production requires working with large multimedia files under tight deadlines. Moreover, an educational non-profit station like Beach TV lacks the budgets of large commercial outlets.

“This is why we keep turning to JetStor storage solutions,” explained Walker. “For going on 2 decades, JetStor products have given us the storage capacity, performance, and money-saving reliability that allows Beach TV to deliver high-quality programming for so long.”

Beach TV built its SAN by linking its 3 JetStor 816F devices to 3 Dell R540 servers via FC connections at 16Gb/s speed. The servers connect to Cisco switches and to 10 Dell 7900, 7800, and 7600 series workstations at 16Gb/s speed.