Hitachi Helps Asahi Broadcasting Corporation To Transform Its Video Editing Landscape

Overview

Outcome

• Improved response times
  
• Editing and output tasks faster and easier

Challenge

Smarter Post-Production Editing Capabilities

Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is an all-around family entertainment network. The Japan-based company produces high-viewership programs, including Takeshi’s Medical Check-Up Show, Welcome Newlyweds, Attack25 and Pretty Cure cartoons. ABC recently updated its editing landscape utilizing newer technologies to simplify, unify and enhance post-production activities and workflows.

The goal was to transition to a complete file-based system while maintaining existing workflows, video archives and offline files. Now, ABC was seeking highly flexible centralized storage to accommodate both storage area network (SAN) and network attached (NAS) protocols for hybrid file sharing across its video enterprise.

Solution

Unified SAN and NAS To Transform and Scale

ABC required a SAN-NAS hybrid solution to support diverse workloads and accessibility needs. With on-site editing booths and post-production rooms as well as affiliated station traffic, ABC wanted to ensure highest performance and availability for video files, data and metadata.

Using Scale Logic HyperFS and Scale-out NAS Gateway, ABC worked across numerous industry applications and systems on Microsoft® Windows® and Apple Mac. For intelligent and centralized storage, ABC selected Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) G series.

Hitachi VSP G series delivers the seamless transition to ABC’s modern vision, with resilient software-defined architecture that automates, moves and supports all block data. ABC deployed one VSP exclusively for metadata management while two more manage user data.

This cohesive storage solution allows users to access the same files through SAN and NAS, with on-the-fly capacity and performance scaling, and robust high-availability access to billions of files, folders and objects.

Outcome

Next-Generation Broadcast Program Production Workflow

Today, ABC can support dynamic workloads and is working toward a next-generation environment for producing its high-quality programs. Results include:

• Users can simultaneously perform multiple ingest, editing and output tasks faster and easier.
• Significantly improved response times for video scrubbing activities and editorial workflows.
• NAS and SAN protocols and files are seamlessly unified and accessible.
• Poised for future high-performance storage and capacity requirements.
• Proactive services to maintain and support the environment provided by Hitachi Systems, Ltd.