General Assembly Offers Reliable, World-Class Post-Production Services with Quantum

Tanner Alvarez and Beau Tipton realized that the post-production landscape was changing. Several medium-sized post-production companies had been acquired by larger facilities, leaving few options for creative teams producing nonfiction content, such as documentary series. Those teams often lacked the budgets to work with larger post-production facilities that cater to feature films and scripted series.

Drawing on their deep experience in television production, Alvarez and Tipton set out to build a full-service post-production studio that could serve creative teams and businesses of any size, including those working on nonfiction projects. One of their first steps was designing a technology infrastructure. Finding the right storage solutions would be a key part of the equation—and reliability was the highest priority.

Building New Post-Production Services on Quantum StorNext
Alvarez knew that the Quantum StorNext platform could deliver exceptional reliability. “In one of my previous positions, we used Quantum storage and we never had a down day in my three years there,” says Alvarez, head of post-production at General Assembly. “So it was an easy choice to select Quantum StorNext for General Assembly.”

The company implemented a flash-based StorNext solution for online storage. Fibre channel connectivity provides post-production teams with fast access to online content, while flash storage delivers excellent performance. The company created multiple StorNext volumes, each configured for a unique use case. For nearline storage, General Assembly implemented a Quantum Scalar tape library with LTO drives.

Achieving Outstanding Reliability with Quantum
Since its founding in early 2023, General Assembly has rapidly acquired several high-profile projects, including the Amazon Prime docuseries Coach Prime, which follows NFL legend Deion Sanders in his impressive college football coaching career. These projects demand fast work. “[T]he turnaround time is insane,” says Tipton, executive producer at General Assembly.

Fortunately, the StorNext platform has helped the General Assembly team deliver all work on time. “We’re just completing our picture finishing work on Coach Prime Season 2, and we have had zero down days with Quantum—zero issues when it comes to finishing,” says Tipton.

Integrating Online and Offline Storage
The General Assembly team is also making a change for offline storage. “We’ve decided to use Quantum for our offline storage as well as our online storage,” says Alvarez. “We realized we should build our storage environment on one—extremely reliable—storage platform.”

Having a single storage platform for online and offline storage will streamline workflows for the General Assembly team and its clients. “Our aim is to provide our clients with a one-stop shop,” says Alvarez. “We can offer offline storage that is integrated with online storage, which makes conform and transfer processes much easier. Basically, you drop the media off, and we deliver the finished results. You don’t need to go anywhere else.”

Providing Enterprise-Grade Technology for Clients of All Sizes
With modest budgets, teams working on nonfiction and documentary projects are often relegated to outdated technology. StorNext is helping General Assembly achieve its goal of offering premium services, based on robust technology, for all types of projects. “Everyone in the post-production world knows that Quantum provides enterprise-level solutions,” says Alvarez. “Now, if you’re working on nonfiction or documentary projects, you can partner with General Assembly to access enterprise-grade Quantum technology without enormous budgets.”