Generating Captivating Sports Video Content at Ole Miss with Quantum Storage

Ole Miss Sports Productions generates engaging content for the University of Mississippi’s 14 Division I NCAA teams. When its existing storage environment couldn’t keep up with demands, the organization turned to media workflow experts at 1303 Systems to design a new solution.

In addition to broadcasting video for ESPN and SEC networks, Ole Miss Sports Productions creates clips for in-venue displays and social media platforms, supports athletic recruiting efforts, and generates a documentary series that spans the university’s sports. All that content requires robust data storage. But the organization’s Xsan environment couldn’t keep up. “Our older Xsan system pretty much failed on us,” says Stewart Pirani, manager of creative services for Ole Miss Sports Productions. “It wasn’t the solution that could handle our needs for the future.”

The organization needed a solution that could deliver continuous reliable uptime, scalability, and consistent performance, regardless of the video format. The solution also had to enable fast, simultaneous access to content. “We have roughly about 14 editors who need to be hitting the system all at the same time,” says Pirani. “They could be doing color correction, audio correction, to just generic editing. This system needs to be robust enough to handle all of those editors at the same time.”

Teaming Up with 1303 Systems to Implement Quantum Storage
To find the right storage solution, the Ole Miss team contacted 1303 Systems, which designs and builds systems for media and entertainment workflows. The 1303 Systems team recommended Quantum. “We went with a Quantum StorNext® solution for its stability and performance,” says Chris Collum, president of 1303 Systems. “It just works, it performs, it scales, and it doesn’t break.”

The Ole Miss team implemented a solution with a Quantum Xcellis® Workflow Director and four Quantum QXS™ hybrid storage arrays. Subsequently, the 1303 Systems team deployed a Quantum ActiveScale object storage archive that integrated seamlessly with the StorNext volume. StorNext intelligent tiering helps migrate data to the right tier at the right time. In addition, the 1303 Systems team integrated a new MAM system. Users can quickly find footage inside their Adobe Creative Cloud applications or even send video to social media easily.

Maximizing Uptime and Boosting Productivity
Ole Miss Sports Productions team members can now complete tasks and meet incredibly fast turnaround times without encountering storage issues. “Our productivity is at an all-time high because our editors don’t have any downtime. They’re able to access everything on our system without any hiccups,” says Pirani.

Speeding Collaborative Workflows
The Quantum solution delivers the performance that the Ole Miss team members need to accelerate workflows. When it’s time for post-production work, the new environment facilitates collaboration and supports multiple concurrent streams. “At any given point, all our editors might need to be working on completely different projects or even the same clip,” says Pirani. “The Quantum solution is robust enough to handle all of that simultaneous work.”

Recommending Quantum
Given the immediate benefits Ole Miss Sports Productions has experienced since moving to the new storage platform, it’s not surprising the organization strongly endorses Quantum. “I’ve recommended this system to a lot of other colleagues in our industry,” says Pirani. “Quantum is reliable, it is stable, and the performance is there. It’s what we need, and it’s what everybody else should have.”