ABS-CBN’s iPost Deploys Large Facilis Technology SSD Hybrid Shared Storage System

Philippines-based integrated post production facility puts 288TB shared storage system at heart of new media asset management architecture supporting national commercial broadcast television & radio network

Facilis, a leading international supplier of cost-effective, high performance shared storage solutions for collaborative media production networks today announced a large-scale order for its TerraBlock shared storage system. Philippines-based ABS-CBN Corporation iPost (Integrated Post Production) has purchased four TerraBlock Hybrid24 systems, which have already been delivered and installed at the customer’s Quezon City-based post production facility.

The order was secured by Facilis working in partnership with local authorized reseller, Singapore and Philippines-based Media Village.

iPost operates under the Technical Operations Division of the Philippines’ national commercial broadcast television and radio network, ABS-CBN. It provides audio and video post production and visual effects services with an extensive range of content from drama series to soaps, talk shows and game shows. ABS-CBN operates two national TV channels, two regional radio networks, 11 cable channels and six international channels.

Prior to this install, iPost had four editing workgroups where each workgroup comprises 20-25 editing bays. To significantly increase the broadcasters’ editing capacity, it has added two more workgroups where up to 30 Avid Media Composer systems will work in a shared collaborative workflow. Facilis TerraBlock provides the shared storage facilities which bind this large-scale open workflow together.

The TerraBlock shared storage system is integrated alongside iPost’s content ingest facility to capture video feeds from other channels within the network and also from external sources. Eventually, the TerraBlock systems will be part of a larger central ingest system aimed to manage materials from acquisition to post production and delivery to in-house clients.

Specified by Media Village’s expert team of workflow designers, the TerraBlock system utilizes a combination of SSD and spinning hard drives to provide optimum levels of operational efficiency, resilience and cost efficiency. The system provides 10GigE and 16Gbps fiber channel client connectivity.

“We evaluated several other shared storage systems prior to making our decision and the Facilis TerraBlock out-performed all of its rivals,” commented Jessie Yamzon, the Head of Post Production at iPost. “Price and performance combined with its ease of maintenance were major factors that also led to the decision.”

For Facilis, this contract marks a turning point in company’s 13 year history. “Our ability to extend our technology to meet such high bandwidth and capacity requirements is a testament to the evolution of company and product line,” commented James McKenna, VP of Marketing and Pre Sales at Facilis Technology. “Working with Media Village, our ability to meet the needs of a national broadcaster in the APAC region speaks volumes about our customer focus and product quality.”