Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 44 | Page 75

WITH A SCALABLE ARCHIVE , OUR COMPANY CAN STAY FOCUSED ON DELIVERING ENGAGING CONTENT INSTEAD OF WORRYING ABOUT WHERE TO STORE IT .
INDUSTRY WATCH

WITH A SCALABLE ARCHIVE , OUR COMPANY CAN STAY FOCUSED ON DELIVERING ENGAGING CONTENT INSTEAD OF WORRYING ABOUT WHERE TO STORE IT .

Headquartered in Mérida , Spain , with offices in Badajoz , Cáceres , and Plasencia , Canal Extremadura is a public multimedia company that delivers engaging content for radio , the web and two television channels . Content focuses on the identity , cohesion and culture of the autonomous Extremadura community , which is located in the western-central part of the Iberian Peninsula .

To make the transition from a traditional radio and TV business to a modern multimedia corporation , Canal Extremadura needed to revamp its complex , ageing IT infrastructure . By selecting a Quantum StorNext solution for its content archive , the company accelerated retrieval of completed media projects and gained the scalability for a swiftly evolving business .
( MAM ) system from Dalet , which is essential for the company ’ s media production and post-production workflow . In addition , the archive would have to enable a smooth transition from the large existing environment , which contained a large volume of old files in legacy media formats .
Selecting a scalable archive from Quantum
The IT group initiated a request for proposals from multiple storage vendors , but Dalet recommended Quantum . Coming from Dalet , the recommendation carried significant weight : the Canal Extremadura team knew that Dalet had validated integration of the MAM with the Quantum platform .
Canal Extremadura is in the middle of a large-scale transformation . Beyond providing traditional radio and TV services , the company strives to become a public multimedia corporation that produces rich , compelling audiovisual content for a full array of platforms . Canal Extremadura wants to put the citizen at the centre and deliver digital content with a sense of disruptive innovation .
“ We tend to keep solutions for a very long time – we had been using [ our previous ] system for about 12 years . So we needed to be very confident in a new solution before making the selection ,” said Reyes . “ The advice and technical information we received from the Dalet and Quantum teams was very helpful . They gave a very clear picture of how the solution would work and how it would be implemented .”
Achieving this transformation requires technological change . In particular , the IT group needed to refresh an outdated infrastructure that lacked the flexibility for supporting an evolving business and the scalability for fast-growing volumes of multimedia content .
“ We were impressed that the Quantum CEO reached out to us directly ,” said Damaso Castellote , Technical Director at Canal Extremadura . “ It was clear that the Quantum team was accessible , engaged and deeply invested in the project .”
“ We ran out of room in the tape library ,” said Francisco Reyes , Technical Chief at Canal Extremadura . “ We had to migrate some video to an NAS just to free up space .”
“ The main problem for us was economics ,” said Reyes . “ It would have been too expensive to expand the system .”
Any new archive solution would have to integrate well with the group ’ s preferred Media Asset Management
Through consultation with Dalet and Quantum , the IT group selected a Quantum StorNext solution that includes Xcellis storage servers , an Xcellis metadata array , a QXS disk storage array and a StorNext AEL6000 tape library . The tape library , which has 400 slots , uses LTO-8 drives – a significant upgrade from the LTO-3 drives the company was using previously . The environment is fully integrated with the Dalet Galaxy MAM system .
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