It’s hard to believe that video teams of the not-too-distant past ferried desktop computers, monitors and storage media around buckled into car seats and nestled into trunks in order to work remotely. While a new generation of video editors and creatives have workspaces that harbor as much horsepower as major production facilities of the past, many church video teams still struggle to deliver on a schedule similar to a network weekly sitcom, but with only a fraction of the budget. Video creatives have proven they can do their job at home, but moving and storing the large volumes of data to meet production deadlines remains a challenge.
The creative.space OPMS solution leverages DigitalGlue’s experience in integration to provide a uniquely scalable storage system that works across multiple formats.
With multiple creatives working to deliver one production, separate workflows, along with large file transfers and multiple copies of files, can spell confusion and delays when broadcasts are coming together and deadlines are looming. How can teams work more closely, maintain order, and reduce the overhead that comes with huge video files? OPMS (On-Premise Managed Storage) may be your answer.
Space for Creatives
If you’re thinking that On-Premise Managed Storage sounds more like something you’d hear about from IT guys in a datacenter rather than at church, you’re right. Until recently, the cost and expertise needed to run such elaborate storage systems would have been prohibitive, but thanks to companies like DigitalGlue, OPMS systems are within reach of churches and, more importantly, with industrial-grade data storage comes many of the benefits you’d expect from an IT data center: security, speed, and scalability. Two additional benefits of smart storage systems make them ideal for churches where video is key to their ministry: the ability to better manage video assets and software that helps you run the system—without the need for an IT staff.
The creative.space //ROGUE storage solution from DigitalGlue dramatically steps up video workflow productivity, at a price that's right for church teams.
DigitalGlue is a team of systems integrators who provide equipment, integration, and software development specifically for the production and distribution of digital video. For over 20 years, they have offered optimized solutions for collaborative editing, automation, and media asset management, that includes storage, and archiving, along with an entirely new concept in media storage: a service called creative.space.
Of note to digital creatives is that the service thoroughly considers the need for lightning-fast and safe storage—so often the bottleneck in production—in a system that offers a clever balance of performance and price.
The creative.space OPMS solution leverages DigitalGlue’s experience in integration to provide a uniquely scalable storage system that works across multiple formats. Of note to digital creatives is that the service thoroughly considers the need for lightning-fast and safe storage—so often the bottleneck in production—in a system that offers a clever balance of performance and price. By affordably removing the storage bottleneck, organized storage like creative.space can help video teams excel with an unimpeded creative flow.
For a monthly or annual fee, teams can take advantage of creative.space strictly as a service, but an interesting option for many church video teams is DigitalGlue’s fully integrated package of blazing-fast hardware and intuitive software that churches can own called the //ROGUE.
What is the //ROGUE?
The //ROGUE is DigitalGlue’s portable NAS (Network Attached Storage) system. Despite its diminutive size, it is a bonafide enterprise shared storage server scaled down to a desktop form factor with four drives. The server-grade motherboard, CPU, and ECC RAM, the //ROGUE can deliver speeds over 1000 MB/s per user via each of the two built-in 10 GbE ports. You can connect more users using the 1 GbE ports or you can connect one of the ports to a router to give the system access to the internet. Local configurations can be expanded with a network switch to support more users and build a local area network. Of course, just how many edit workstations you’ll be able to service from the //ROGUE is going to depend on your codec choice and the power of your switch.
With up to 64GB of RAM and the use of an advanced adaptive replacement cache algorithm, the hard drives perform to specs more like solid state storage. Plus, add-ons, like NVME M.2 drives for ultra-fast caching and SATA M.2 for a DaVinci Resolve database, are also available. But, this system is smarter than the whole of its hardware. Intelligence is built into the //ROGUE software that is alert to your workflow, allowing the system to continually carry out tuning and improve performance over time.
Spaces allow for the creation of virtual partitions to slice up available storage and allot it to projects and/or users.
A key element of the //ROGUE’s user management is the concept of “Spaces.” Spaces allow for the creation of virtual partitions to slice up available storage and allot it to projects and/or users. Not to be confused with lower-level drive partitions, Spaces are completely dynamic. Spaces can be mounted by multiple users across various workstations, allowing everyone to collaborate without copying data. Additional benefits include the ability to control who can see what Spaces, folders and files as well as the option to set a quota, limiting the total capacity a Space can use. You can improve organization by setting up Folder Structure Templates and even reserve capacity in anticipation of a growing project.
The web and desktop applications take the most complex IT-centric tasks, the ones normally associated with enterprise storage, and streamline them with an intuitive graphical user experience, eliminating the need to learn command line controls.
With connections protected by a VPN (Virtual Private Network), user management is implemented using a full LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server to manage secure user permissions. User accounts are easily created, deactivated, or suspended in the “Team” section of the management software. Once in the system, users can be assigned to groups, and permissions can be set to allow access to Spaces, even down to individual folders, should that be required. Note that by assigning permissions to groups and then moving users in and out of those groups, team members can change "on the fly" without having to manually change any individual permissions. This is a powerful feature for the administration of recurring freelancers or volunteers. Once added to the system they can do their work in their assigned spaces and then be put “on hold” to be reactivated when they return.
While each Space on the //ROGUE can present to client machines as either an SMB or NFS mount, behind the scenes its software, built on OpenZFS, manages all the data on the disks. ZFS is uber-efficient and designed to protect data from all sorts of loss. Behind the scenes, checksums are used to identify and repair write errors in a complex “self-healing” process that works in concert with the RAID hardware. The system can even rebuild files should the RAID controller hardware fail.
ZFS is uber-efficient and designed to protect data from all sorts of loss.
ZFS is also smart. It will “learn” over time how you use data, thereby enabling the file system to know what data it can purge from the cache. Using two methods: Least Recently Used and Least Frequently Used, when the system has to go to disk to fetch a file previously in the cache, it adjusts its algorithm to keep the data you are most likely to need next accessible. Constantly adapting to your “consumption” style, the //ROGUE can serve up data one way when you’re working on a long scene and another when you’re jumping between many small clips.
In addition to being built with video production in mind, a huge benefit of the comprehensive design of DigitalGlue’s storage is that their systems, including the //ROGUE, all ship with the same creative.space software. The web and desktop applications take the most complex IT-centric tasks, the ones normally associated with enterprise storage, and streamline them with an intuitive graphical user experience, eliminating the need to learn command line controls. Additionally, powerful built-in monitoring and alerts allow DigitalGlue’s software and DevOps team to proactively manage your system to expediently address any issues.
Getting the Datacenter on Your Desktop
The //ROGUE portable NAS is just one of five systems in the creative.space platform, but it’s the only system that can sit on your desk and the only one offered by DigitalGlue for purchase. For churches wanting to buy a //ROGUE, an introductory promotion brings the price down to $4,975 for 48TB of RAW storage (normally $5,995) and $6,375 for 64TB of RAW storage (normally $6,995). Additional add-ons available are NVME M.2 drives for ultra-fast caching (2TB for $595 and 4TB for $1,695), SATA M.2 for DaVinci Resolve database (500GB for $249 and 1TB for $399). These add-ons can be combined for pricing advantage and added to the company’s current offer of 0% financing. Currently, the //ROGUE also includes a free year of proactive support, making it the perfect way for customers to experience the benefits of DigitalGlue’s unique service with a system they can own.
For those of you where 64TB of RAW storage is just not enough, the //ROUGE PRO offers 96TB of RAW storage for $595 a month or 108TB for $695 a month, both including three years of proactive support.
