The MLB Network has deployed a DIVArchive system from Front Porch Digital to facilitate a file-based workflow. The network added more than 50TB of content to its DIVArchive managed system every week during the present baseball season, for a total of more than 30,000 hours amassed during the first eight months of the year.
Tab Butler, director of media management for the MLB Network, said they record up to 15 complete baseball games a day during the season, along with live programming and shows. All this content as well as interstitials are stored in a data tape library. As the producers' requirements for highlight clips dictate, the DIVArchive’s partial-restore function is used to pull back just what is needed for real-time highlight creation. The technology helps to capture, catalog and protect more information — and more historic baseball moments — than they ever could before.
Besides games, the network's signature programming “MLB Tonight” and “Quick Pitch” together account for about nine hours of baseball highlights every day. To satisfy that demand, MLB Network's producers consistently need fast access to clips. In addition, DIVArchive gives MLB Network producers creating long-form programming easy and virtually unlimited access to clips stored in the tape library. To support business continuance, DIVArchive automates duplication of content for redundant storage in an off-site location.
Front Porch Digital's DIVArchive is a hardware and software solution that manages, moves and secures digital media content throughout its lifecycle — from ingest to long-term preservation — whether it's stored on disk or data tape. Because it enables servers, editing systems and other workflow applications to work together, DIVArchive helps preserve, manage and retrieve file-based content quickly and efficiently.
MLB Network’s workflow is based on its Diamond System for asset management, Nesbit MLS tape management, a Grass Valley K2 production server system, 14 Final Cut Pro edit suites, 15 Grass Valley Aurora LD edit rooms, more than 50 Aurora LD proxy edit workstations, Snell Morpheus automation and a Sun StorageTek SL8500 LTO-4 data tape library.
