Case Study
Great American Country
Written by Mike Nichols, Broadcast Engineer, GAC
Overview
Great American Country (GAC) is a country music, cable television network, owned by Scripps Networks based in Nashville, Tennessee. GAC features original programming, special musical performances and live concerts, and is the exclusive television home of the Grand Ole Opry. The network is also the home of GAC Nights: Live from Nashville, a syndicated radio show that airs five nights a week.
Available to more than 55 million households, GAC required a digital production workflow that could be developed within its current environment. It was important that the new production environment streamlined and simplified the workflow for GAC's operators. Because the online shared storage within the new workflow would be limited, the archive would be crucial to the judicious use of online storage.
Solution
GAC selected an SGL archive in conjunction with Avid's Interplay asset management and production environment. SGL interfaces with a Sun StorageTek SL500 Modular Library System equipped with two LTO 4 drives. The system is cached with a 10TB EMC Clariion CX 3-10 storage system. Direct control of the tape library and drives is provided by an interface supplied by SGL. GAC currently has slots for 50 LTO cartridges. However, the Sun StorageTek SL500 library system is expandable to over 500 LTO cartridge slots, with each cartridge capable of holding 800 GB of data.
GAC has two studios in the middle of Nashville's Music Row that are available to service the needs of the network. The studios are equipped with seven cameras that can record directly into the Avid shared storage environment. These recordings are immediately available to three fully equipped edit bays through the shared storage of all online assets, and from the SGL archive.
GAC's digital workflow begins with the recording of its shows on a weekly basis, with sensible cataloguing of assets in the Avid Interplay environment. Each show recording has a project area within the Avid system where the GAC editors access the content for the post production process. When assets are archived, editors have an interface within the Avid environment to restore the assets from the SGL archive. This process can be started from the edit bay and takes place in the background by servers working within the Avid environment.
Because online shared storage is limited, some shows have to be archived to recover needed storage space for the next show recordings. Certain camera shots from guest interviews are always archived to the SGL system. This is carried out by GAC's media administrator on a weekly basis. The media administrator can also see the available storage space left on the existing data tapes in the SGL archiving system for future space planning purposes.
Result
SGL was chosen because of its long-term commitment to the Avid workflow environment. Many of the problems that come with archiving have been resolved because of the long-term commitment that SGL has devoted to the industry. SGL understands the broadcast workflow and does not have to be reminded of what is important to the broadcaster. Because of the seamless integration between Avid and SGL, we can do our jobs with the least amount of unnecessary searching through menus. This is a clear advantage for the SGL team.
Equipment
| Archive: | SGL FlashNet |
| Asset Management/Production environment: | Avid Interplay |
| Library: | Sun StorageTek |
| Storage system: | EMC Clariion |
 |
