Storage in focus for ColorTime

At the same time, ColorTime also installed a Spectra®BlackPearl® Converged Storage System, a Spectra® BlackPearl Object Storage Disk System with 500 terabytes for quick recall of active projects, and a Spectra® Stack Tape Library to ensure safe, scalable and economical preservation of its high-resolution digital media.

ColorTime, an established Hollywood post-production studio that specialises in all aspects of digital media, content creation, and management and distribution for TV, needed to find a solution to their overflowing repository of digital content. ColorTime ingests raw camera footage to be colour corrected and edited, and also scans original film as high-resolution digital intermediate files to be stored. All of this amounts to the processing of millions and millions of small files as part of their busy media workflow. 

Their growing content was overrunning ColorTime’s SAN, and they wanted to reduce the amount of data on their primary storage tier, freeing up room for incoming projects. They also needed to manage their folders and files based on customer, age and type so that assets could be searched and recalled easily and quickly. Lastly, they wanted to copy projects to a tape library where they could be stored until finishing as well as for cost-effective, long-term archiving.   

After a thorough review, ColorTime chose a complete storage solution from Spectra Logic that improves content management, helps to streamline post-production workflows, maintains content availability, and safeguards data for distribution and future use.

ColorTime deployed StorCycle software because of its ability to identify inactive files and migrate them off the SAN to lower-cost storage options via their new BlackPearl Converged Storage System, while still enabling ColorTime professionals to easily find and restore those media assets. In addition, StorCycle makes it possible to re-use predefined migration jobs and automate the cleanup of production storage on an ongoing basis.

“Spectra’s StorCycle storage management software was exactly what we needed to scan and move files to free up space on our storage area networks, enabling us to reduce spending on additional SAN clusters,” said Bill Wornack, chief technology officer at ColorTime. 

The studio also deployed a BlackPearl Object Storage Disk system that stores active projects and high-resolution work-in-progress files with expiration dates of 30 days for efficient use of space and quick recovery. In addition, the newly deployed Spectra Stack Tape Library provides ColorTime with a modular long-term data repository that will enable them to seamlessly scale as their storage needs grow.  

“I am amazed at the size of ColorTime’s projects, the depth of their attention to detail, and the breadth of their organisation’s capabilities. I am proud that Spectra Logic is a part of their workflow and viewed as a trusted vendor,” said Nathan Thompson, Spectra Logic CEO and Founder.

“Working with Spectra has been seamless from sales to implementation, and we are confident in the solution’s future roadmap and our long-term relationship with the company,” Wornack said.

Hossein ZiaShakeri, Spectra Logic vice president of business and strategic alliances, said, “We could not be more pleased that ColorTime selected Spectra Logic’s total solution to help automate their workflows and create efficiencies that are directed toward high-quality creative work.”