Sony's PetaSite technology fills post-production archive need at Double Negative

Sony's Storage Division, in conjunction with digital data management specialist Ovation Data Services, has announced the successful implementation of its PetaSite S Series tape library at one of the UK's leading post-production agencies, Double Negative.
The PetaSite S60, an enterprise class tape library that uses Sony's capacity leading S-AIT tape technology, is a fundamental part of an archive system designed by Ovation Data Services specifically for the post-production industry. By providing efficient lifecycle management of data, the resulting system is significantly reducing man-hours and production costs.
Pete Hanson, Studio Manager, Double Negative, said: "Sony's PetaSite library, combined with Ovation's software, is an essential and integral part of our management strategy for day to day data. The volume of data passing through the company is in Terabytes per month and we therefore needed a tried and trusted solution for management and archive. The system from Ovation more than delivers on our requirements - with S-AIT, based on Sony's trusted AIT format, fulfilling a pressing industry requirement for a low cost, high capacity archive media."
Double Negative is one of many companies in London's Soho district specialising in computerised special effects.
Film rushes from leading movies such as 'Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban', 'Bridget Jones 2' and 'Cold Mountain' are digitised, stored and manipulated to incorporate special effects; ranging from relatively simple manipulation, such as the addition of snowflakes, to the complex creation and inclusion of computer generated characters.
Working with such valuable data it is essential for Double Negative to archive the scenes being manipulated at every stage - generating the demand for a high capacity storage system that can be accessed in real time.
With several films constantly in this process at Double Negative, the system designed and implemented by Ovation Data Services ensures that capacity and cost requirements are fulfilled, whilst archive and retrieval of footage is virtually seamless.
Sony's S-AIT format is the first tape technology to break the 500GB capacity (uncompressed) for a single cassette, and its implementation in the PetaSite library means that Double Negative currently has access to 30TB of storage capacity - the equivalent of 1200 hours of film footage.
For more information visit www.sonyisstorage.com.
(SP)