CASE STUDY
JML Works at the Speed of Advertising with Facilis TerraBlock SAN
UK-based consumer brand and television shopping specialist JML specializes in retail and promotions for home television shopping. The company offers an extensive catalogue of products supported by in-store video promotions and nationwide ad campaigns. Over the last few years, JML has produced and broadcast several advertisements for international audiences – including 30-second spots for Belvia, Shark and Mantis, and a series of ‘Chatmercials’ for ITV – the UK’s largest commercial television network.
Its dedicated in-house team of designers, production staff and a 3D artist is responsible for creating all of the company’s content for broadcast on shopping channels such as JML Direct, JML Living and JML Cookshop. The team relies on a solid post production workflow with Facilis TerraBlock at its core to turn around content in time for air. All content is ingested into Avid® Media Composer® 6 through AMA and archived to a XenServer and Spectra Logic T50e tape library. After transcoding, projects are offlined/onlined on TerraBlock, and motion graphics are integrated using Adobe® After Effects®. Once finalized, projects are laid to tape for delivery and archived.
Last year, Post Production Manager John Lucas saw a need for additional bandwidth and storage space to accommodate a growing project load. In November 2012 he took advantage of the Facilis Customer Loyalty program and traded two older TerraBlocks for new 24D systems through Facilis’ UK Reseller Tyrell. Tyrell worked closely with Lucas’ team on installation and setup to ensure that the upgrade ran smoothly and will continue to provide on-going technical support. Lucas shared, “The TerraBlocks are so simple to use and give us affordable, reliable, super-fast bandwidth, as well as greater storage capacity. They’re perfect for a facility like ours.”
“We started using TerraBlock in 2004 and haven’t looked back,” Lucas continued. “One of the greatest benefits of the system is that our 3D artist can be connected via Ethernet to share project volumes when delivering animations to the editors – without having to create separate media volumes or use external HDD’s. We also have 7 Avid suites, and it’s essential that we’re able to use DNxHD185 media at any one time without experiencing a slow down. TerraBlock allows us to do that.”
He concluded, “TerraBlock is a solid, stable and high-performing networked storage solution. In the nine years we’ve been using the TerraBlocks, we’ve never experienced a slow down – even though we’re constantly filling the servers to max capacity.”
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