Teton Gravity Research (TGR), a production company that captures unique HD and 3-D action sports footage on 35mm film, has installed a GraniteSTOR ST-RAID, a Mac-based Gigabit Ethernet shared storage solution from Small Tree.
Since 1996, TGR has produced 25 feature-length films and numerous television series for Showtime, NBC, FOX Sports and Fuel TV. While working on a project a few years ago for Fuel TV, the company was contracted by Showtime for a 13-episode series. At that time, executives at TGR decided to install an Apple Xsan system to streamline the increased workload. The company quickly outgrew the Xsan and searched for a storage solution that was more easily scalable and more affordable.
After installing the Small Tree solution, TGR went from 8TB to about 20TB of capacity, with the ability to easily add more. Critical to TGR was a system that would allow its editing teams to work on multiple projects simultaneously without crippling the workflow. Prior to installing ST-RAID, TGR had four edit bays using Mac G5 systems. Today, because of Ethernet's ubiquity, the company's editing capabilities now includes 12 workstations, including six laptops and a group of new Intel-based Mac Pro workstations.
Another cost-saver for TGR was using one of its existing Mac Pros as its server. All it needed was the new GraniteSTOR ST-RAID storage array, a network card and a switch.
