The StorageDNA Spectra Logic archiving solution saves us huge amounts of time, which leads to an improved overall look for our network. In addition, we have complete control over our media. Having such universal easy access to our history of shows makes repurposing them to VOD, TV Everywhere, web and other destinations much more manageable.
– Don Hertz, Video Operations Manager, Sportsman Channel

A division of Outdoor Sportsman Group, Sportsman Channel is a television and digital media company devoted to honoring the outdoor adventure lifestyle. Reaching nearly 36 million U.S. television households, the network delivers entertaining outdoor lifestyle shows: Amazing America with Sarah Palin, MeatEater, Life of Duty, Iditarod Unleashed and Shed Wars.

With its staff split between its headquarters in Milwaukee and its creative office in New York City, Sportsman Channel was challenged with providing its entire team fast, easy access to content when needed.

“We needed to find an affordable and efficient way to free-up our media so the creative team could quickly produce promotions and other teams could access and repurpose existing content for TV Everywhere, Video on Demand and OTT initiatives,” said Don Hertz, video operations manager at Sportsman Channel. “Turnaround times are very quick and if our teams are forced to wait for files to be overnighted between locations or restored from off-line media, it can limit what they are able to produce.”

To address these challenges, Sportsman Channel required a high performance, turnkey archiving solution, including an archive engine and LTO tape library that would seamlessly integrate into its environment and communicate effectively with its Apace postMAM asset management system included in its central Apace vStor storage system.

Enabling all users, regardless of location, with immediate access to archived media, would significantly reduce the amount of time required to complete projects while providing added time for creative collaboration. Sportsman Channel also specified the need to move to an open format LTO LTFS archive solution so that access to its media assets would be protected and guaranteed long-term.

“Archiving is very important to us,” continued Hertz. “We manage 250 TB of data and ingest more than 300 new shows each month. Maintaining that content in an organized fashion and making sure it is quickly accessible for all departments is critical. Our ability to easily transition media from the NAS to LTO tape, and then back to the NAS when required, saves valuable time so our team can focus on more important tasks.”

In August 2014, Sportsman Channel implemented StorageDNA’s DNAevolution N100, which fully integrated with its Spectra Logic T200 tape library. The two technologies work impeccably together to provide a complete LTO LTFS archiving solution for every show on the network.

Sportsman Channel’s Media Workflow:

• • More than 300 new shows per month are archived using the turnkey DNAevolution and Spectra Logic LTO LTFS solution
  • Show masters are saved to the central Apace storage for 6-12 months until the shows are broadcast
  • DNAevolution enables a seamless end-to-end workflow with the Apace PostMAM system
  • After the initial broadcast run, the show masters content is removed from central storage
  • When content is needed for future repurposing, DNAevolution and the Spectra T200 allow Sportsman Channel to quickly and easily restore content back to central storage

“StorageDNA and Spectra Logic communicate effectively with each other,” stated Hertz. “We simply log into DNAevolution through a web browser interface and select individual tapes that are inside the Spectra library and format them or assign them to particular workgroups within our organization. The process is seamless.”

The solution also met the broadcaster’s need for long-term open access to its media assets.

“If years from now we need to access media on these tapes, we have the peace of mind that comes with knowing our tapes have been written using an open standard and will be accessible and readable at any time, under any circumstances,” reinforced Hertz.

With a fully-integrated and high-performance turnkey archiving solution in place, Sportsman Channel is saving significant time and resources while boosting productivity to an all-time high.

“We recently had a request to create a two-and-a-half minute trade show highlight reel by pulling clips from 90 archived shows. Before we had our asset management and archive solution in place, the thought of pulling even a dozen shows on a tight turnaround project made people panic. The fact that we were able to pull back 90 shows over a 24-hour period and turn that project around in several days is phenomenal,” stated Hertz. “This solution enables quick access to years’ worth of content which gives our creative team more time to find the best clips and results in a much better end product.”

Together StorageDNA and Spectra Logic deliver highly-efficient LTO LTFS archiving technology that enables Sportsman Channel’s teams to quickly and simply select a show or season to restore and immediately get to work where the Quality Control team left off.

“The StorageDNA Spectra Logic archiving solution saves us huge amounts of time, which leads to an improved overall look for our network,” continued Hertz. “In addition, we have complete control over our media. Having such universal easy access to our history of shows makes repurposing them to VOD, TV Everywhere, web and other destinations much more manageable.”

Key Benefits of the DNAevolution and Spectra Logic Turnkey LTO LTFS Archiving Solution:

• Helps build secure, scalable, long-term archives
• Seamless company-wide access to archived shows increases productivity and allows teams to create and distribute content on new platforms faster and easier
• Time savings results in improved creativity with enhanced look for network
• LTO LTFS open format ensures future access to content for repurposing and monetization

“We set out to find a way to enable our staff to do significantly more in a day by improving workflow and process efficiencies,” concluded Hertz. “StorageDNA’s and Spectra Logic’s technologies have become an important piece of our entire operations workflow as they give us the ability to handle much more content with fewer resources. We are much more productive today, turning out excellent work while building peace of mind for the future.”

Spectra Logic develops deep storage solutions that solve the problem of long term storage for business and technology professionals dealing with exponential data growth. Dedicated solely to storage innovation for more than 35 years, Spectra Logic’s uncompromising product and customer focus is proven by the largest information users in multiple vertical markets globally. Spectra enables affordable, multi-decade data storage and access by creating new methods of managing information in all forms of deep storage—including archive, backup, cold storage, cloud and private cloud. Visit www.SpectraLogic.com.

StorageDNA helps media professionals move, manage, search, and access digital filed-based assets for faster repurposing and monetization of content. DNAevolution is the company’s groundbreaking nearline and archive workflow solution for LTO LTFS that helps customers build more cost-effective, scalable, and secure archives. StorageDNA’s solutions power some of the most complex and critical workflows for customers worldwide ranging from broadcasters, major film studios and television production companies, to sports organizations, government agencies, and Fortune 500 corporations. Visit www.storagedna.com.

Launched in 2003, Sportsman Channel/Sportsman HD is a television and digital media company fully devoted to honoring a lifestyle that is celebrated by millions of Americans. A division of Outdoor Sportsman Group, Sportsman Channel delivers entertaining and informative programming that showcases outdoor adventure, hunting and fishing, and illustrates it through unique and authentic storytelling. Sportsman Channel embraces the attitude of “Red, Wild & Blue America” – where the American Spirit and Great Outdoors are celebrated in equal measure. Sportsman Channel reaches more than 36 million U.S. television households. Stay connected to Sportsman Channel online at thesportsmanchannel.com, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.