CASE STUDY
Nomad Editing Finds a Home with TerraBlock in NYC
Founded in 1996, the Nomad Editing Company currently has two facilities in LA, plus offices in NYC and London. A large percentage of Nomad’s work is in commercial editorial for some of the biggest brands in the world including Starbucks, Bridgestone Tires, Pepsi, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Lexus, American Express, Facebook, Visa, Nike, Samsung, T-Mobile, and more.
For the NYC facility, with offline, online/finishing, and VFX rooms supporting every stage of the postproduction process, Nomad required a cost effective and reliable shared storage solution that would continue to grow with them. Key requirements were performance, ease of use, minimal IT support and administration, and no per seat license fees for connectivity. After researching the market, Nomad selected Facilis.
After several years of great performance from their first TerraBlock system, it was time to expand. After more research and with confidence based on their past experience, they went with Facilis again. With the assistance of Facilis reseller Zeke Margolis of Cutting Edge, Nomad recently installed an additional 64TB TerraBlock 24D at their NYC facility. The Nomad team elected to convert their existing TerraBlock system into a high performance near-line solution to better manage multiple simultaneous client projects and the constant deluge of media coming in.
In the early days, editing was on Avid systems, then later on FCP, but these days, cutting is all done on Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Facilis TerraBlock is the central repository for projects and media in the offline edit workflow. All editing work is performed in ProRes LT format to keep material in an HD format while maximizing available space. Nomad uses Flame Assist to pull material from the TerraBlock storage in to the Autodesk Flame finishing suite.
“With the amount of media and clients we have flowing through the building, we prefer to work in the traditional offline/online way,” said Matthew Poletto, Technical Producer at Nomad. “Even though the Facilis and Premiere Pro CC workstations can handle 4K or greater playback, it’s not efficient for us to work in that way since we have to maximize the use of our storage.”
Flexibility and No Per Seat Connections
Client workstations at the Nomad NYC facility are predominantly connected via Fibre Channel, although Ethernet networking exists as a backup. A key benefit Facilis offers that few other storage vendors provide is the ability to support both Ethernet and Fibre connections without added complexity. This flexibility gives the team confidence that whatever expansion or changes may occur, the Facilis system will accommodate.
“When we first moved into shared storage, we wanted something robust that wouldn’t break the bank. We were looking for something that was easy to setup and administer, as we certainly didn’t want to pay $20K- $30K a year in support costs,” says Poletto. “We were also very attracted to not having to pay per-seat licenses for each client connection.”
Ease of Use and Reliability
Another key benefit for Nomad is ease of use. Editors new to the system have been shown how to mount, create, and manage volumes in as little as 10 minutes.
“The Facilis user interface is very streamlined with little to get in the way of an end user. It does not require an IT expert to administer,” says Poletto. “The cost benefit becomes very apparent when comparing systems if you have to pay for IT support for the more complicated SANs.”
The Nomad team has watched the evolution of the TerraBlock directly in relation to requests from users. “We like that the system is turnkey in the sense that it’s completely self contained,” continues Poletto. “All the client side apps and documentation are stored on the server, so even if the Internet is down, it’s easy to get to the resources you need.”
About Facilis Technology
Founded in 2003, Massachusetts-based Facilis Technology, Inc. designs and builds affordable, high-capacity, turnkey shared storage and archiving solutions for collaborative media production networks in the film, television, education and audiovisual markets. Its production-proven solutions are fast and intuitive –making it easier for creative professionals to collaborate and work more efficiently. Flexible, scalable and compatible with industry-standard creative solutions, Facilis’ products blend seamlessly into any studio environment –boutique, mid-size or large –and have been installed in more than 3,000 facilities worldwide. https://www.facilis.com/
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