"Fast access to and efficient management of data, and hardware, and particularly software innovations, such as Tiger Technology’s metaSAN, are the catalysts for success in today’s collaborative, heavy-bandwidth work environments."

 

Robi Roncarelli, Market Analyst, PIXEL Inc.

"I am giving metaSAN five stars! If I ever end up working in another facility that needs to implement a SAN, I will definitely recommend it. I’d also recommend it to anyone involved in video that needs a file-level sharing SAN."

 

Joe Kirby, Assistant Chief Engineer, FOX 54 – WZDX TV

"With metaSAN/metaLAN in place, every artist has instant access to data by simply clicking on the local hard drive in “My Computer” – and all this without having to perform sophisticated network administration."

 

Alex Rizov, FX Supervisor, Topform Studio

"I recommend metaSAN to anyone investigating a shared storage solution, especially to anyone Final Cut Pro based production house wanting to maximize their multi-station editing workflow."

 

Graeme Nattress, President of Nattress Productions Inc.

"metaSAN is the ideal SAN management solution for Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and Gigabit Ethernet networks. So far, we have tested metaSAN with Huge Media-Vault and Fibrenetix Storage systems, Qlogic SANBox switches, and Atto Celerity host bus adapters and have never experienced any compatibility issues."

 

Jörg Hoffman, PSIBER GmbH

"I’m using an HP xw9300 with 4 x SATA2 drives and a Bluefish444 HD Lust board. Whenever trying to capture DPX files, the system would run for 100-250 frames and then drops frames. After installing metaSAN and using DDO and FSO the system can now capture DPX files without any problem!"

 

Gerbrand De Ridder, Trans Tec bv

"Our customers have been clamouring for tools that will help them add intelligence to their workgroups. We are very pleased to be working with Tiger Technology to address this demand."

 

Howard Solomon, President, Integrity Data Systems

"By turning off-the shelf storage and networking components into versatile, easy to support, and highly scalable shared storage workgroups, metaSAN is ideally suited to solve a wide range of workflow configurations at a great price."

 

John Connolly, Midwest Media Group President

"metaSAN’s unique ability to allow multiple cross-platform users to share content and collaborate efficiently while maintaining very high bandwidth will afford us a highly efficient, reliable, centralized and secure storage solution."

 

Michio Fujii, CEO and President, MIC Assosciates, Inc.

metaSAN user story: Keyframe Communications Inc.

The smooth process at Keyframe Communications Inc. can be attributed to a team of highly efficient, creative, and fun people for the most part, but also to metaSAN that allows the three edit suites to seamlessly share standard and High definition content in real-time over a high-speed Fibre infrastructure.

Keyframe Communications is a post & production boutique located in London, Canada. The company seamlessly combines creative and production resources into one leading-edge finishing facility. While some of their clients wear more prestigious names than others – 888 Poker, Great West Life, World Vision, Tempur Canada, Sunwing Airlines and Kawasaki -, they can all bank on an extraordinary level of economic efficiency and project control.

Keyframe’s production capabilities are extensive, and range from uniquely engaging promotional and training videos to internationallybroadcast television commercials. The company provides a complete in-house service including script writing, filming, editing, motion graphics animation, DVD, web-TV broadcasts and interactive media solutions.

“We have a streamlined process to ensure the smoothest possible shoot and postproduction schedule” says Bryan Peel, Keyframe’s founder, “We take pride in keeping costs realistic without sacrificing quality or production value. We love what we do, and we are committed to delivering a positive experience and a dynamite finished product, on time…every time.” 

This smooth process can be attributed to a team of highly efficient, creative, and fun people for the most part, but also to metaSAN that allows the three edit suites to seamlessly share standard and High definition content in real-time over a high-speed Fibre infrastructure.

Within just a few hours, Keyframe’s SAN was up and running:

“Once our RAID was initialized, the FC switch zoned and the network conflicts resolved, we formatted and tested the array using Disk Utility, just like we do for regular drives. We then loaded metaSAN and instruct it to protect and manage this “SAN” volume. We then installed metaSAN on the remaining workstations so they could join the SAN. That was pretty much it.”

Simplicity and reliability is paramount to Keyframe as they do all of their day-to-day IT work by themselves.

“After considering various SAN offerings, we decided to opt for metaSAN” explains Peel, “I’m glad to report that three years of intense work later, it has proven affordable, efficient and reliable.”

Affordable - metaSAN costs significantly less than other SAN solutions because it is based on open standards and does not require a very complex setup. Keyframe’s SAN was originally built around a single Xraid and a Qlogic switch. They implemented a dedicated metadata controller to ensure optimal SAN performance and a Tandberg LTO 4 digital tape backup solution for increased security. “We’ve recently added another raid to the mix, the VTrak E-Class RAID subsystem. It’s great to know we can always to tap into the best of breed when it comes time to expand”.

Efficient - metaSAN has helped Keyframe increase its overall efficiency, as the editors no longer need to transfer material from one workstation to another. “We don’t often work on the same piece, but the simple fact that all content is always available to all edit suites greatly simplifies room bookings and touch-up sessions with clients.”

Reliable - metaSAN has been in operation an average of 16 hrs a day, almost 6-days a week. “We’ve now gone through hundreds of projects with metaSAN. It just doesn’t go down” says Peel enthusiastically, “It has really proved to be the perfect solution for our needs.”

Keyframe Communications Inc.
285 King Street, Suite 410
London, Ontario
CANADA N6B 3M6
http://www.keyframeinc.com