Florida Panthers Adopts Storage Systems From EditShare

Florida Panthers, the NHL ice hockey team based in the Greater Miami area, has transformed its production workflows with the adoption of storage systems and management tools from EditShare.

The new system provides support for a rapidly growing video department, which creates and delivers sophisticated content for in-house screens and scoreboards, and for extensive fan engagement online and through the team’s custom app.

Previously, the Panthers had been using ad hoc storage for video content, together with consumer tools for file transfers. Recent successes for the Panthers – including a Stanley Cup final place in 2023 – meant demand for content ramped up dramatically, and a more fluid, more secure workflow was required. It needed to support four producers/editors creating content at home and on the road, a motion graphics workshop charged with making engaging content for the scoreboard, and the team’s close relationship with the Bally Sports Network, its broadcast partner.

With consultation from sales engineers at 76 Media Systems (now part of Starin Marketing) the Panthers developed a solution around a 256TB EFS300 storage appliance. This is installed at the team’s home, the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, just west of Fort Lauderdale.

The ground storage network is linked and synchronised to an EditShare cloud implementation. As well as adding content redundancy, the hybrid on premise/cloud architecture allows shooting teams on the road with the Panthers to upload content via VPN, making it immediately available for post and delivery, as well as securing it. The ability to edit on the road is a real boost.

Dennis Docil, Senior Director of Content Services for the Florida Panthers, made the point that key tools like FLOW workflow and asset management and FLEX cloud synchronisation are core parts of the technology, making the system easy to implement as well as intuitive to use.

"Before coming back to the Panthers I worked for Ion Media Networks, and they were one of the first users of EditShare," Docil said. "When we were looking for a solution we looked at the market, EditShare seemed to be the most user friendly for what we needed it to do. It gave us the slick workflows we need to keep on top of our exponentially increasing workloads.

"On top of that, the EditShare price was more attractive than the competition, and that included all the extra software components we needed to manage content and synchronize through the cloud."

The ability to support large numbers of streams is vital for this sports application. At game time, as well as feeding the scoreboard and all the video screens around the arena the EditShare EFS300 is also ingesting live content from eight cameras, plus live coverage and additional shots from Bally Sports Network.

A lot of material is generated for fan engagement and distributed via the website and app. The Panthers also have a large retail shop alongside the new practice facility in Fort Lauderdale, and multiple screens there create interest and excitement around the team and players, as well as driving sales of merchandise.

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