Halo Heralds A New 4K ERA

halo Post Production, based on Noel Street in the heart of London's Soho, has never rested on its laurels. In addition to meeting the criteria of being a post-production house that provides outstanding service, delivers quality results under tight deadlines, and provides creative solutions for programme makers, halo is also consistently adding editing suites and mixing rooms, while embracing the latest technology.

Recent halo post production credits include The Danish Girl, Bear Hunt and Nocturnal Animals, while dramas include Doctor Thorne and The Missing 1 and 2. Documentaries including Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough for the BBC Natural History Unit, Forces of Nature, and the television comedies Murder in Successville, Upstart Crow and Toast of London.

When halo wanted to enhance its 4K capabilities to meet increasing market demand for such facilities, it realised that its existing storage system would not readily be able to cope with the increased pressure that 4K production would place on its existing workflow infrastructure. The company turned to ERA to design and implement a solution.

Implementation
After a number of site visits to ensure complete understanding of the existing workflow infrastructure and the aims of halo, both ERA and halo agreed that PixStor software-defined storage system from Pixit Media was the right solution to ensure playback on multiple 4K workstations and complex VFX workflows. As PixStor provides scalability and predictable performance without relying on proprietary hardware, it enables content creators at halo to manage vast amounts of data by combining in a single platform the performance of SAN-based solutions with the manageability of a central NAS.

Benefits
One of the benefits of PixStor solution to organisations such as halo is that it runs effortlessly on OTS components, which delivers considerable capital cost savings coupled with ease of maintenance. In addition, PixStor is extremely sophisticated, performing at a level high-end houses such as halo expect for demanding file-based, multi-resolution media work.

Today
PixStor now supports six real-time 4K clients for halo, including Nucoda grading systems, Flame VFX and Avid Media Composers. There are also two 4K conform and I/O stations. A separate workflow supports an additional 20 2D/3D clients and multiple render nodes within the same logical storage space. The network fabric was architected using lossless, non-blocking Mellanox IP cores of 40GB or 10GB dependent on client connections. Prioritisation across the network guarantees performance levels for specific users, while ensuring smooth data delivery to all network clients.

Summary
"We wanted to avoid proprietary technologies or restrictive and expensive infrastructures and it quickly became clear that PixStor was what we needed on every level. Its performance is very high end, without breaking the bank, and we have almost unlimited room for expansion as interest in 4K – and possibly beyond – continues to grow," said Daniel Napier, Technical Director at halo.

"ERA's in-depth knowledge of how we used, and needed to use, our applications was invaluable in laying down the virtual asphalt for our UHD highway. Their practical experience and honest, consultative approach were the keys for creating a central storage resource that we know we can rely on to deliver even the most demanding raw formats now and in the future. It makes all the difference, and provides levels of comfort and confidence that are too rarely found in the race to the future.

"We wanted an advanced storage solution that would enable us to provide the highest quality of service to our customers and expand our already considerable, award-winning creative services, and we got one. With ERA's guidance, we arrived at the correct answer in PixStor."

www.eraltduk.com

(JP)