WCPMedia Brings Tiger Technology’s Smart Storage to the Cloud
WCPMedia Services is now using shared-storage software from Tiger Technology in its web-based media management and distribution platform WCPApp to add functionality for users to rapidly and securely store, manage, market and transcode media assets, and deliver them to distributors, broadcasters, video-on-demand services and other end users.
Storing media on the WCPApp platform also helps producers overcome the constraints of working with and sharing physical media during film and television production, when team members are in dispersed locations. Production media on the platform can be reviewed and shared with directors, DITs, editors, postproduction facilities, investors and other stakeholders in a controlled, coherent manner to support collaboration, wherever they are.
The WCPApp is a platform of smart process applications that combine WCPMedia’s proprietary software with third party systems developed by recognized companies. For example, a function that differentiates WCPApp from other cloud-based media management software is its transcoding farm.
WCP has set up workflows to accommodate as many transcoding requirements as possible, while optimizing quality, including such considerations as frame rate accuracy and scan type conversion. To make sure all tasks happen reliably and predictably, it employs transcoding engines from known market specialists such as Snell, Telestream and Harmonic.
Consequently, the transcode engine can be used to automatically generate previews from a master video for the purposes of promotion and screening. It can also transcode content according to the particular technical specifications of individual recipients. Quality control procedures can be executed during upload or after transcoding.
At the same time, as its service grows, WCP has designed its infrastructure with scalability in mind. They feel the ability to manage large data sets is essential for storage purposes and the smooth operation of the front-end web application, which is why they became interested in Tiger Technology. It is even more critical for their online services such as fast file transfers and transcoding on demand.
To support these processes, WCP has implemented a new type of architecture that embeds shared, very fast storage layers into a virtual environment. This results in much better performance for the transcoding and QC engines, facilitating flexibility, service continuity and scalability that the cloud platform otherwise wouldn’t allow.
WCPApp needed to accommodate fast storage, shared among many servers operating under different operating systems and versions. To accomplish that, WCP selected a SAN structure with a scalable 10Gb network, exporting SSD-based LUN using iSCSI protocol. It also needed a file-level locking security system that worked with different file systems to ensure writing control of stored files into this volume and to prevent file corruption.
Tiger Technology’s Tiger Store was chosen because it works as a component that is hardware agnostic, works with mixed operating systems, is easy to use and configure and can make use of available SAN storage speed. This is also the first time Tiger Store has run on a virtual environment. www.wcpmediaservices.com
