Digital FilmWorks Uses ADIC SAN File System for Collaborative Workflow: A Case Study

Business Wire, July 19, 2000

Business Editors, High-Tech Writers

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 19, 2000

Digital FilmWorks, a leading producer of motion picture digital effects, uses ADIC's CentraVision file system to manage its Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) and give itself a competitive edge.

When it can take more than 2.4GB of data to represent a single second of film footage, it's easy to see why storage management is a business-critical task for anyone in the world of digital editing. At Digital FilmWorks (DFW), serverless SAN technology dramatically reduces the time needed to process data, giving the company an advantage in a highly competitive field.

"In some ways, digital effects work faces the same problems as any business with large amounts of data that needs to be shared between different users" explains Peter W. Moyer, DFW's president. "We just see bigger files and more time pressure. In a simple effects workflow sequence, a single frame -- up to 100 MB -- might need to be used four times. One workstation cleans up the image. A second might use the frame as a reference to create a new digital image that will be added to it -- a futuristic car, for example. A third might lift an image from the master and alter it for use somewhere else. And a fourth would assemble all the pieces into a final composite. All of them need access to that image."

"In the days before SANs and CentraVision, we copied stuff like crazy and carried it between workstations on tape," Moyer explains, "and that's how most people still do it -- standard networks don't have the bandwidth to move that kind of data around. The problem is that it takes forever and people spend too much time waiting for their turn."

The SAN that DFW installed over a year ago dramatically altered the workflow sequence. Now, a single digital file is stored on a Fibre Channel disc on a high-bandwidth SAN. Workstations, each with the CentraVision distributed SAN file system installed, access the data over the SAN rather than working on copies. "Each workstation directly accesses the data at local disk speed, and with CentraVision, we have true data sharing," Moyer explains. "Several workstations -- even running on different operating systems -- can use the same file at the same time. It eliminates the waiting and slashes the amount of time a job takes. When revisions are needed, we can often make the changes while the client is in the studio, something we never could have done with the old system."

The DFW SAN also saves the company time in basic scanning and recording tasks, giving it another important competitive advantage. The company makes its own digital files from analog film using a scanner linked to the SAN through one of the workstations. "We can also move the data quickly from disk to digital tapes for delivery to a customer or for backup, using parallel data streams from the file master to several tape drives at the same time," Moyer said. "When it's time to write the digital files back to film, a recorder pulls the files back over the same SAN. With the CentraVision SAN, we have eliminated storage servers as well as duplicate files. Each workstation connects directly to the SAN, and a separate file system manager arbitrates requests from the workstations but is completely out of the data stream. This is a slick system."

About Digital FilmWorks

Digital FilmWorks is a complete negative to negative motion picture post production facility. DFW also provides high-resolution film scanning and laser film recording along with digital compositing and complete 3D graphics services. DFW's credits include more than 50 feature films and major television projects, including A Bug's Life; Air Force One; Alien Resurrection; Anna and the King; Armageddon; Babe II; Contact; Crow, City of Angels; The Fugitive; Mortal Kombat II; Mulan; Phenomenon; Rocketman; Selena; Star Trek 9; Tarzan; X-Files, the Movie; and Zorro. Digital FilmWork's web site is www.dfw-la.com.

About ADIC(R)

With more than 60,000 automated tape libraries installed and a suite of innovative software solutions and Storage Area Networking (SAN) products, ADIC (Nasdaq:ADIC) is a leading global provider in the growing market to manage and protect information for computer networks. The Company's own storage management tools include AMASS(R) and CentraVision(TM), products which provide users with shared access to network data. A pioneer in Storage Area Networks, ADIC's Open SAN solutions combine open-system SAN hardware and software with installation services and single-call support.

To download a color version of this case study or for more information about ADIC, go to the Case Study tab at www.adic.com.

ADIC and AMASS are registered trademarks and CentraVision is a trademark of Advanced Digital Information Corporation. All other product and company names in this release should be considered the property of their respective owners.