NEW YORK--New York City public broadcaster WNET has installed GigE networking equipment from Small Tree to streamline its editing workflow and provide its post production team seamless access to critical digital assets in its new 95,000 square-foot facility at Worldwide Plaza in New York.
With more than 14 editing rooms and over 50 desktop editors throughout the new facility, WNET acquired multiple 10GbE switches, 10GbE network adapters and GbE switches with 10GbE uplinks from Oakdale, Minn.-based Small Tree to optimize the editing team’s workflow.
While supporting three different public broadcasting stations, including WNET-TV Channel 13 in New York City, WLIW-TV Channel 21 on Long Island, and New Jersey Television, WNET is also a major producer of broadcast and online media for local, national and international audiences. Notable programs created by WNET for national distribution include “Great Performances,” “Nature,” and “Need to Know.” WNET’s existing Ethernet Network Attached (NAS) shared storage solution supports three to eight editors working on multiple episodes of these programs at one time. Craig Thomas, senior director of IT for WNET says the network tapped Small Tree’s expertise with Ethernet NAS systems to implement a more fluid infrastructure surrounding their existing storage solution.
“At our old facility, storage would be patched for an editor’s use instead of having a network that was interconnected,” Thomas said. “At our new location, we’ve moved away from that configuration so that accessing data is more instantaneous. Small Tree’s storage and networking experts understand post-production workflows and how to efficiently move Server Message Block (SMB) and Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) data over Ethernet networks. SMB and AFP file sharing over Ethernet is more ubiquitous, easier to manage and use, and is less expensive to implement as opposed to complex shared file systems such as Xsan and metaSAN.”
In addition to providing WNET with technology to substantially improve its post-production infrastructure, Small Tree also optimized their existing NAS shared storage and Mac Pro editing workstations to increase performance even though WNET purchased its shared storage system elsewhere.
