CINCINNATI: YES Network, home to the New York Yankee baseball and New Jersey Nets basketball teams, has acquired an SGL FlashNet system to help the network transition from an analog to a file-based workflow based around its Avid production environment.
YES Network selected SGL FlashNet as an integral part of its major digital upgrade providing back-up, archive and restore functionality. The network’s traditional analog workflow was time- and labor-intensive and restricted fast access to material. Reji Mathew, YES Network’s Director IT explains, “The workflow has changed significantly. Material is now ingested using our MediaKive system, digitized from tape and is immediately available for the editors to restore from our LTO environment.If they have access to the file that they need they simply restore it and SGL takes care of the rest from the back end.”
The behind-the-scenes integration between SGL FlashNet, Avid Interplay and SpectraLogic allows editors to access archived content as easily as nearline, allowing YES to continuously create master copies of material, which are backed up and held securely in the LTO archive. Doug Wynn, vice president, Sales Americas says, “Editors at YES can access archived or nearline content as required, and SGL FlashNet’s seamless integration with Avid and SpectraLogic means that it doesn’t matter which environment the material is stored in. SGL FlashNet’s Open System architecture creates true transparency of content to all departments”
Mathews adds, “It’s really seamless to the end user, or in this case the editor who is the end user. They don’t care if material is coming from a hard disk, nearline storage or from tape; they’re simply bringing it back online.”
The new workflow has seen YES significantly increase productivity and turn-around time for editing, a major benefit for a sports broadcaster. The network has already digitized important historical material from its back catalogue and will continue to digitize further material over the coming months.
