Multichoice Media Technology significantly improves media archiving and retrieval with high-speed solution from Datacentrix


Johannesburg, 29 Nov 2017

Weekends are incredibly busy at M-Net and SuperSport, the group of sports-focused television channels owned by Multichoice and carried on the DSTV satellite platform. The company understands the importance of technology in bringing sports-mad South Africans the sports visuals they love, as quickly and slickly as possible. Warp speed in staying up-to-date with the latest sports news from around the world is a non-negotiable demand, as is the case with the organisation's video-on-demand (VOD) and BoxOffice offerings.

It's against this background that the recent Multichoice enterprise storage solution project took place in partnership with Datacentrix, a provider of high-performing and secure ICT solutions. Leon van Wyk, Multichoice head of department for the Media Technology Media Asset Management (MAM) division, says the installation process took place in two phases, providing a platform for high resolution and proxy files, with the project completed in March 2017.

He says: "The hardware for our MAM system runs on a five-year cycle, with a planned refresh at the end of this period. From the start of this project, we knew it was time to go big and go different for the archiving and retrieval of our media clips for insert and news productions and delivery to all our platforms.

"Across the various business units of Multichoice, we have enormous volumes of video information coming in on a daily basis. Previously, recent footage could only be kept online for about a month. Thereafter, it had to be archived to LTO (linear tape-open) format. When producers working on media inserts needed to retrieve archived clips and bring the media back online, the process could take up to four hours. This had an impact on workflows and often caused bottlenecks in the work process."

Van Wyk clarifies that Datacentrix has an established relationship with Multichoice, having installed the company's IBM hardware five years prior. He explains: "We did look at other products regarding our hardware renewal. However, given our longstanding relationship with Datacentrix, as well as their previous performance, we opted to maintain the partnership.

"When we started engaging with Datacentrix on the hardware refresh, we realised how cost-effective the proposed IBM Elastic Storage Server (ESS) offering was, and also that it would easily allow for expansion, from 285 terabytes of data to almost four petabytes. This was an astonishing leap forward."

Van Wyk adds: "We are also excited about the longevity that has been added to our storage capacity for the future using IBM Jaguar tape technology. This technology allows us to reuse our existing cartridge assets without having to change them as tape capacity technology advances, saving us data migration time from one technology to another. These transitions can potentially impact on our viewers, and the downtime implications of an on-air operation would be enormous. We will be able to expand in the future by extending our storage with minimal impact. The reasonable cost of the project was another drawcard, as were the performance guarantees."

He adds that the team was also attracted by the compactness of the new IBM media archiving solution. "Floor space is expensive, and the new storage solution offers a small footprint in terms of actual physical space required, yet delivers maximum capacity and extreme performance. It's like buying a Mini with the engine power of a Lamborghini and the storage capacity of a truck."

He continues: "Multichoice also has an off-campus secondary storage site, with a conventional storage solution that is currently at maximum capacity with no flexibility to adjust the system. Datacentrix has significantly exceeded this typical storage solution with its offering, for two reasons: its disk configuration, and the fact that the network plays a significant role.

"Now that we are running IBM software on IBM hardware, the combination of this gives us extreme performance. In addition, it also simplifies services as well as the identifying, escalation and resolution of problems."

Van Wyk says the installation of the new solution has significantly improved processes across the business. "All the footage proxy files is now online, both current and archived, for all users. There is no delay now in looking for a media clip. Not needing to wait for a recall of archived footage, or the high resolution version of a clip has enormous implications for the business in terms of productivity."

"It's now, quite literally, a find-and-click scenario," Van Wyk explains. "The time freed up by not having to wait for archive footage bottlenecks will have significant implications for the business' strategy moving forward, and allow the further evolution of creative offerings to our viewers."

Graeme Dendy, Datacentrix business unit manager: IBM and Lenovo, says: "This high-speed storage solution for media retrieval has solidified the lengthy, fruitful partnership between Datacentrix and Multichoice. We are pleased to have been able to meet the company's requirements for performance, price and guarantees by providing a solution that has outperformed the previous system so significantly."

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