To improve throughput for its compressed HD projects, Wilkman Productions, Inc., an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood-based production company founded nearly 40 years ago, recently installed shared storage technology from Small Tree, designer of simple-to-install, inexpensive Mac-based networking and shared storage products.
Using the Small Tree technology – Edge-corE ES4524D, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, and PEG4, a 4-port Ethernet card, which are a part of Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR product line – in combination with Apple’s built in file sharing system, enabled Wilkman’s two main Final Cut Pro editing suites to triple their throughput.
“The Small Tree technology made it possible to create a network that doesn’t rely on a separate piece of software to manage the traffic across the network, which eliminates added expenses and unnecessary complexity,” said Sergio Palermo, editor at Wilkman Productions. “The solution we settled on is simpler, faster, and makes use of all the great features built into the Mac OS, which is the foundation of Final Cut Pro media management.”
Working on “Moguls & Movie Stars,” a ten-part documentary series on a history of power in Hollywood for Turner Classic Movies, power was one thing Wilkman editors were sorely lacking as they began post-production on the project. According to Palermo, the amount of time spent on the project was reduced substantially because of the enhanced workflow generated by Small Tree’s shared storage technology.
“It’s amazing to think of how much time we would have saved working on this project had we been using this shared technology all along,” said Stephon Litwinczuk, assistant editor. “Our editors are more productive and happier, which certainly will result in a better end product along with less stress on the assistant.”
“Budget is always a concern when dealing with documentary filmmaking,” said Producer/Director/Writer Jon Wilkman. “The Small Tree technology was an affordable solution that alleviated our system’s bottleneck without crippling our bottom line.”
Small Tree is the Mac Networking Expert, making networking child’s play. Small Tree provides a complete portfolio of Ethernet-based networking and storage solutions for Apple Mac OS X customers. Small Tree’s team of networking developers has extensive experience in high performance computing, and knows how to achieve the demanding application requirements of Mac customers. Small Tree also provides contracted programming services for the Department of Defense. For more information about the company and its products, please call 1-866-STC4MAC (1-866-782-4622), or visit www.small-tree.com .
