NAB Show Updates

Rock Legends, Primetime TV And Universities Rely on Cache-a To Safeguard Their Treasured Assets

By StudentFilmmakers.com
posted Apr 10, 2013, 14:57

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Cache-A Corporation, manufacturer of award-winning archiving appliances, today revealed details of how its LTFS LTO-tape-based archive appliances, are being used by major TV broadcasters, in on-set production environments, higher education and rock legends, to safeguard the increasing amounts of data and video-related media they generate. Cache-A is showing its full LTO-6 product range at NAB 2013, Las Vegas, at Cache-A Booth #SL11109.

Broadcasters including BBC UK, BBC America and TBS in Japan have all recently purchased Cache-A appliances. Smithsonian Channel, a joint venture between Showtime Networks Inc. and The Smithsonian Institution, made the strategic decision in 2012 to base its archive future around LTO-tape, using the LTFS format on Cache-A’s versatile archive platform. The channel broadcasts award-winning original documentaries, series and groundbreaking programs highlighting America’s historical, cultural and scientific heritage. It also maintains a large collection of original field footage, plus production copies of archival material from the
Smithsonian Institution, the US National Archives and establishments such as NASA. It harnesses Cache-A Power-Cache with dual LTO-5 drives to undertake this vital aspect of its work.

“With Cache-A we have found a really user-friendly, scalable solution, that can grow as we grow,” says Smithsonian Channel archivist Karma Foley. “It allows us to
protect all of these assets for posterity, while facilitating a working archive so that we can repurpose material as required for new programs and other uses.”

Tamalpais Research Institute, also known as TRI Studios, is a virtual music venue in San Rafael, CA, created by legendary Grateful Dead founding member, and 1994
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Bob Weir. Weir regularly hosts interviews and performances from leading musicians, such as Sammy Hagar Lukas Nelson, Dave Schools and Phil Lesh, which are broadcast live across the Internet. The associated media, typically HD video and ProTools audio files, are preserved to LTO-tape using Cache-A’s Pro-Cache appliance, with dual copies being made for storage at separate locations.

“As a state-of-the-art facility, we only deal with best-of-class equipment, and you can’t argue otherwise when it comes to archiving with Cache-A,” says John Harkin
CTO at TRI Studios. “The Pro-Cache does exactly what it says it does – it archives our stuff, and retrieves material whenever we need it again. It’s the sort of no-nonsense hardware that we love.”

Cache-A has also impacted in higher-education with appliances at Clemson University, Louisiana State University, MIT and Harvard. Each of the 450 students
taking film and media courses at University of Texas, Austin, TX, are encouraged to use Prime-Cache to archive their projects and the accumulated media associated with their studies. Typically, this includes native footage from an array of DSLR, HD and digital cinema cameras, such as ARRI Alexa, as well as non-linear editing
and audio finishing systems, and 3D animation tools. The university’s radio, TV and film department has also recently used Prime-Cache to archive the award-winning Portrait Of Wally, the story of the discovery Egon Schiele's painting that was looted by the Nazis, directed by University Faculty-member Andrew Shea.

“We use Prime-Cache pretty much every day, and it has proven a reliable, well- thought-out, highly-affordable and easy-to-use product,” says Susanne Kraft, Post Production Supervisor, Radio TV-Film Department at University of Texas. “With students producing increasing amounts of data, it’s just not cost-effective, or safe, for them to store media on hard disks for the long-term. We recommend they safeguard their media with LTO-tape. For just a few dollars they get huge storage capacity and a great feeling of security.”

In Europe, Egg Post Production, Dublin, Ireland, is making a return on its investment in Pro-Cache by archiving RAW camera material for primetime TV shows, including Sky One’s Sinbad and BBC’s Ripper Street. Shed Media, one of the UK’s leading broadcast production houses, has harnessed Pro-Cache, and its LTFS capabilities, as part of a larger DIT solution, into the on-set production workflows of its most recent primetime series – the BBC’s Turn Back Time, in which families experience what life was like for their ancestors in bygone times, and on Channel 5’s romantic reality show The Bachelor.

“Due to the volume of material we create, particularly on multi-camera productions, we knew the capabilities of LTFS would be a great benefit for working with assets after they have been archived,” says Adam Downey, group head of post production at Shed Media. “Once we heard that Cache-A had LTFS working properly and that it was stable, we invested in their Pro-Cache5. From the on-set system we now get protected copies of material, and faster turnaround to edit. It’s cost-effective, as the production already has data wranglers on-set, and the routines with the Pro-Cache5 are simple, so it’s easy for them too.”

Resources:

www.Cache-A.com

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