BURBANK — DigitalFilm Tree (http://digitalfilmtree.com) designed a new pipeline for two ABC Studios series that includes editorial, online, titling, color, dailies and VFX. The pipeline makes use of Facilis Technology’s TerraBlock, which serves as a shared storage solution.
DigitalFilm Tree employed TerraBlock because of the system’s small form factor, high-capacity and performance. The solution was first implemented in September 2012 and has been used to facilitate the workflow for DFT on the ABC series Mistresses and
Perception.
“TerraBlock packs all of the capacity and bandwidth needed to manage high-end color correction and DI workflows into a small form factor; it’s ideal for the self-post workflow,” notes Guillaume Aubuchon, CTO of DFT. “The system also allows you to choose the best tool for each job, because it’s compatible with so many industry standard applications, and you have the added flexibility to connect users via Fibre Channel or Ethernet.”
With support for 4TB drives, TerraBlock (www.facilis.com) fits 96 terabytes into a single 5RU, 24-drive chassis. This provides all of the bandwidth and storage necessary for a full show season, while also reducing the power consumption and heat emission from that of a traditional SAN. The robust and compact design allows post pteams to easily complete on-set dailies. Once filming is wrapped, hard drives with RAW Apple ProRes 444 footage are loaded into the TerraBlock for the dailies to be processed.
Guillaume Aubuchon, CTO, DigitalFilm Tree
Concurrently, an editing team is able to cut multiple streams of Avid DNxHD Mbit/s36 offline from the SAN. There is always a link to the RAW material housed on the TerraBlock, so the post team can easily lock a cut by reconnecting to the online ProRes 444 material rather than having to take the material off of an LTO or the post production facility’s SAN.
“DigitalFilm Tree and ABC are breaking new ground in post production, and it’s exciting to see TerraBlock at the center of it,” adds James McKenna, Facilis VP of marketing. “Facilis is committed to continually advancing the TerraBlock’s performance so that companies like DigitalFilm Tree and ABC can continue to produce high-end content for viewers faster and more efficiently.”