ZDF Upgrades Studios With EditShare

Broadcaster ZDF has commenced an upgrade to its broadcast studio locations to an EditShare media management workflow.

The end-to-end solution features a tiered storage environment with integrated production asset management, and includes the company's Bremen, Cairo, Instanbul, New York, Saarbrücken, Tel Aviv and Warsaw facilities. Each ZDF location will be equipped with an EditShare XStream HT 32TB shared storage platform and Ark 24-slot LTO tape library, with the integrated Flow production asset management solution providing end-to-end media management with tools to automate complex and or repetitive workflows.

In addition to facilitating content ingest, storage, archiving and asset tracking across the workflow, EditShare provides ZDF editors tools for media sharing. A feature within XStream Shared Storage, EditShare advanced project and file sharing allows post teams to collaborate within a rules driven workflow so work is not accidentally overwritten.

Flow Ingest generates proxies and stores in a database that can be accessed by anyone on the EditShare network with a Flow client. Easy-to-use tools let staff browse, perform shot selection and send to ZDF editors for final packaging.

Ronald Richter, a senior solutions architect with BFE Studio und Medien Systeme in Germany, the systems integrator overseeing the multi-site installation, said it was important to integrate the new solutions with the existing Avid Newscutter and P2 based broadcast systems.

"We did a proof of concept with ZDF staff where they connected their Avid Newscutters to EditShare and put it through the usual workflow scenarios, using Flow to ingest P2 content and manage content archiving and restoration to and from Ark. Within 3 days ZDF was able to confirm that EditShare was the right solution for their expansive operation," he said.

Tara Montford, Managing Director, EditShare, added: "EditShare Shared Storage and Archiving is known for its open environment, supporting nearly every format and industry standard post production systems. Combined with Flow production asset management, ZDF transforms the siloed aspects of their studio into a connected workflow that makes collaborating on projects and stories far easier than with the legacy tape-based solutions."

www.editshare.com

(JP/LM)