Studio Network Solutions’ SANmp chosen by Granada

Granada Television, a division of ITV plc, recently installed Studio Network Solutions ’ SANmp in 10 of its 14 editing suites at the broadcaster’s Bristol location.
SANmp is multi-platform volume management software that enables multiple workstations with different operating systems to concurrently access and share information on a workgroup Storage Area Network.
Dave Blackham, Granada Television’s Bristol operations manager, says the introduction of the SANmp software has meant increased accessibility, stability and most important, efficiency. “We wanted to be more efficient in the way we were managing our data,” Blackham stated. “We have close to 45 terabytes of local media storage, which was running well, but it just wasn’t efficient when doing things like archives and sharing media files. We wanted to improve our existing infrastructure and adding SANmp to it has provided some huge benefits in efficiency and workflow for us. One of the main benefits we’ve experienced with the software is its flexibility with many different media applications, such as Avid, Final Cut Pro, Shake, Pro Tools and others. It’s like having flexible media workspace that we can manipulate and still use the applications of choice, rather than being locked into a third party manufacturer’s solution.”
Granada Television is using an Apple-based storage system fronted by SANmp. Currently, the vast majority of Granada Television’s workstations are based on Apple’s G5 workstations running OS X. However, several suites are equipped with Windows XP, making the cross-platform accessibility of SANmp a must.
“Prior to installing SANmp, we had a number of stand alone media workstations, which didn’t allow us to share the media between separate edit suites,” Blackham continued. “This was a bit restrictive and prevented multiple user access to the media if we wanted it to appear in two places at the same time, or if we needed to move media from one suite to another, which was also very difficult to achieve with the huge amount of online media we have to manage. Now, with SANmp, we’re using four workstations to access the same media on one upcoming project and the media is shared between five suites by different editors, which is great. SANmp has been the most robust and simplest to use software we’ve seen in a long time. It’s feature rich, and it’s not lacking anything.”
As a result of installing SANmp, Granada Television has received a number of inquiries about the software from its area competitors and ITV partners. While some in the industry would shy away from sharing trade secrets, the professionals at Granada Television welcomed the opportunity to enlighten industry insiders to the many benefits of Studio Network Solutions’ software technology.
“We’ve had several major broadcasters come and look at what we’re doing, and of course other sites within ITV who are sharing and learning from what we’re doing at Granada Television,” Blackham said. “We’ve been pleased to show how we’re doing things, how we’re moving forward. In the UK, we think things are done better in a collaborative way.”
(GB)