Archive by Joe DiBenedetto

Frustrated by having projects continuously freeze up in the middle of editing sessions and having to rummage through multiple external drives to locate footage, Red Productions, a full service, script to screen video production and independent film development and production company, recently commissioned respected independent video engineer Bob Zelin to install a cost-effective Ethernet-based shared storage solution featuring Small Tree technology.

Specializing in national TV commercials, feature films, viral videos for web, industrial videos, and non-profit fundraising pieces, Red Productions has experienced steady growth since its inception. With well-known organizations such as Coca Cola, the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Christian University among its client roster, Red Productions could no longer rely on the external drives chained via eSATA they were using within their three-room facility to complete projects if they were interested in keeping clients happy and continuing their more

JPL, a Harrisburg-based integrated communications company working across a variety of media, recently made the switch from a growing pile of G RAID drives to a single, cost-effective Ethernet-based shared storage solution featuring Small Tree technology to streamline workflow.

“We were working off ‘sneaker net’ drives from suite to suite, and had no ability to share the same media in our six edit suites,” said Paul Grosso, vice president of media productions for JPL. “This was a challenge, as we often work on multiple projects for our corporate clients – to support an event launch or the introduction of a new service – and we needed to have access to the same media across multiple suites in order to meet tight deadlines.”

To streamline its workflow, JPL installed Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR shared storage technology with its unique OS X networking capabilities supporting multiple more

In the suburbs of Nashville lies Tier 1 Media, a small production company handling production and post-production for several popular Outdoor Channel competitive shooting sports programs, including “Shooting USA” and “Impossible Shots.” Featuring three newly renovated Final Cut Pro editing suites, Tier 1 Media recently installed a cost-effective, Ethernet-based solution from Small Tree that has improved productivity and efficiency substantially.

To streamline its workflow, Tier 1 Media installed Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR shared storage technology with its unique OS X networking capabilities supporting multiple Ethernet ports, tightly integrated with Apple’s built in file sharing system. The GraniteSTOR solution incorporates Small Tree’s PEG6, a 6-port Ethernet card with the Edge-corE ES4524D, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch certified to work with Small Tree’s technology.

Before the installation, Tier 1 Media’s three suites each had its own RAID, more

A recent shared storage installation at Tempe 11, a government access station operated by the City of Tempe, illustrated once again that it’s either Ethernet or it’s EtherNOT, as an Ethernet-based solution from Small Tree has enabled the full-service production team to substantially increase its workflow without crippling its bottom line.

“We recently added a third editing suite and we needed a solution that would allow us to share resources between the suites,” stated Greg Wolfe, media services producer for Tempe 11. “Originally, we were looking at a 6TB Fibre Channel system, but the pricing we received was between $25,000 and $40,000. With Small Tree’s shared storage and networking technology, we were able to double our storage capacity to 12TB for about half the price of a typical Fibre Channel system.”

“Working for a municipality, keeping expenditures low is always a priority,” Wolfe continued. “This more

As tournament poker continued to rise in popularity, so did the demand for online instructional videos. For Las Vegas-based Trans City Productions, this demand led to a need for better workflow. Lady Luck was on Trans City Productions’ side, as Bob Zelin had the ideal solution for their three workstation facility – shared storage from Small Tree, designer of simple-to-install, inexpensive Mac-based networking and shared storage products for professional video and audio editors.

To facilitate its workflow and increase its editing team’s productivity, Trans City Productions installed Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR shared storage technology with its unique OS X networking capabilities supporting multiple Ethernet ports, tightly integrated with Apple’s built in file sharing system. The GraniteSTOR solution incorporates Small Tree’s PEG4, a 4-port Ethernet card with the Edge-corE ES4524D, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch certified to work with Small Tree’s technology.

Prior to the Small more

Faced with having too much footage, not enough storage and no way to share the media between multiple users, Caipirinha Productions, Inc., an independent mixed media arts and culture company with activities in film, music and human rights, recently installed GraniteSTOR shared storage technology from Small Tree to facilitate workflow on the production company’s latest project, “Cultures of Resistance.”

Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR shared storage technology with its unique OS X networking capabilities supporting multiple Ethernet ports, tightly integrated with Apple’s built in file sharing system, provided Caipirinha editors with a shared storage Gigabit Ethernet network where all media is available to everyone simultaneously. The GraniteSTOR solution incorporates Small Tree’s PEG4, a 4-port Ethernet card with the Edge-corE ES4524D, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch certified to work with Small Tree’s technology.

Prior to the installation, Caipirinha’s editing team, consisting of three editors, two more

Small Tree, designer of simple-to-install, inexpensive Mac-based networking and shared storage products, has finished developing its network driver software for the next generation of Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit PCI Express Adapter, based on the Intel® 82599 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller. Small Tree’s OS X software driver designed for Intel’s adapters offers a significant performance improvement in 10 Gigabit connections at an affordable price for the Apple marketplace.

Small Tree’s technology is ready to support all the new performance boosting features in the upcoming Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. Development was focused on providing reliable real time performance using Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), the protocol chosen most often by Final Cut users to share files. The software has also been optimized to work seamlessly with Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR line of robust, affordable Ethernet-based shared storage products – ST-RAID, abcSAN and EasyAoE.

“Small Tree’s software for the more

To improve throughput for its compressed HD projects, Wilkman Productions, Inc., an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood-based production company founded nearly 40 years ago, recently installed shared storage technology from Small Tree, designer of simple-to-install, inexpensive Mac-based networking and shared storage products.

Using the Small Tree technology – Edge-corE ES4524D, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, and PEG4, a 4-port Ethernet card, which are a part of Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR product line – in combination with Apple’s built in file sharing system, enabled Wilkman’s two main Final Cut Pro editing suites to triple their throughput.

“The Small Tree technology made it possible to create a network that doesn’t rely on a separate piece of software to manage the traffic across the network, which eliminates added expenses and unnecessary complexity,” said Sergio Palermo, editor at Wilkman Productions. “The solution we settled on is more

Using dozens of FireWire drives to store projects became an unmanageable project of its own for Creative Media Group, Inc., a Utah-based full-service production company specializing in commercials, direct sales, corporate, training and live event videos. With the size of its projects continuing to grow with the business, CMG installed cost-efficient shared storage technology from Small Tree, designer of simple-to-install, inexpensive Mac-based networking and shared storage products for professional video and audio editors, to maximize its people and technological resources.

“Keeping track of where certain files were saved was becoming a huge problem,” said Krisi Church Summers, senior editor and eight-year veteran at CMG. “If two people were working on the same project, we’d have to copy files onto two different drives and it was increasingly hard to manage. I more

Brides panicking over floral arrangements, guest seating and wedding vows have nothing on television show producers working on tight deadlines. For the producers of Get Married, the popular multi-channeled wedding planning resource program that airs on Lifetime Television and across the Internet on www.getmarried.com, a news-like production schedule was choking the Atlanta-based production facility’s limits. Needing a solution that would provide real-time editing, Get Married recently installed cost-effective shared storage technology from Small Tree, designer of simple-to-install, inexpensive Mac-based networking and shared storage products for professional video and audio editors.

Featuring seven suites running Final Cut Pro across Mac G5’s, Get Married produces 65 episodes each year. Requiring a two month turnaround time to produce 10 to 12 episodes, the company was looking more