Leading Audio Post Facility Consolidates Storage, Simplifies Management, and Increases Collaboration with Lightning 9980V
SANTA CLARA, California — April 7, 2003 — Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today announced that Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm Ltd. company and the premiere post-production sound facility in the world, has chosen Hitachi Data Systems to consolidate its storage and meet the demanding requirements for recording, design, editing, mixing and playing back film soundtracks in real time.
"We needed a high-performance, highly scalable storage solution to maintain and manage hundreds of virtual volumes of sound and film files," said Tim McGovern, Director of Engineering for Skywalker Sound. "Our new Lightning 9980V has the performance power we require, and having centralized storage instead of individual drives has greatly simplified that aspect of our IT management. Most importantly, it creates a more integrated, collaborative environment for the editorial staff by making all soundtracks easily and instantly available to anyone on the system at any time."
To create this shared environment, Skywalker Sound needed a centrally managed, fault-tolerant, highly available storage solution with flexible backup options and security to prevent unauthorized access. The company selected a Hitachi Freedom Storage™ Lightning 9980V™ system with 12TB of capacity to centralize all of its editorial storage. The solution successfully scaled in performance to support 75 Macintoshes running real-time, highly dense audio tracks. Hitachi ShadowImage™ software was used to create point-in-time copies of Mac volumes that were then delivered to the recording systems. HiCommand™ Device Manager manages the whole array, saving IT staff the headaches of the previous, decentralized management system. Hitachi Data Systems worked with best-of-breed integrator San Solutions to implement the solution.
"With the stringent real-time, high-scalability, and high-availability requirements of Skywalker Sound, the Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9980V is the best-in-class product to support the company's needs today and as they grow in the future," said Harry Aine, President and CEO, SAN Solutions, Inc.
Prior to the new Lightning 9980V solution, Skywalker Sound relied primarily on removable hard drives to share soundtracks, physically walking them from place to place when an editor needed to work on them. By centralizing data, the company can now more easily backup, manage and maintain soundtracks that previously had to be physically stored and manually inventoried. In addition, the data is more secure stored centrally versus the old format, which required the constant "spinning up and spinning down" of the drives. Skywalker Sound has edited many upcoming film soundtracks on the Lightning 9980V storage system since its implementation in November, including James Cameron's upcoming IMAX feature, "The Ghost of the Abyss" and Pixar's summer 2003 offering, "Finding Nemo."
Skywalker Sound was so impressed by the Lightning 9980V that it recently also purchased the Hitachi Freedom Storage Thunder 9570V™ system to manage its sound effects library. The Thunder 9570V storage system allows the sound production firm to store and maintain 5TB of digital sound effects for use in editing and sound design.
"Skywalker Sound is the best in the business in sound production," said Fred Mills, senior director, Global Vertical Markets, Hitachi Data Systems. "Its problems with decentralized data storage demonstrate the need for highly-scalable, consolidated storage when dealing with the demanding environment of working with rich media. Hitachi Data Systems solutions can create more collaborative, easier to manage storage environments for companies in the entertainment and rich media production industries."
Skywalker Sound is known throughout the entertainment industry for its innovative and creative approach. The company has been recognized many times over for achievements of artistic and technical excellence. Skywalker Sound is the creator of multi-format audio experiences, ranging from Web sonification to IMAX presentations, from theme parks to video games. Following the award-winning work on Star Wars, for which the company was created by George Lucas, Skywalker Sound quickly established itself at the cutting edge of post-production sound in modern filmmaking. The company has won 16 Academy Awards® for Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Special Achievement in Voice Creation over the past 25 years.
SAN Solutions, Inc., with offices in Los Angeles and Reno, is a best-of-breed network storage integrator. Focused in the rich media markets, SAN Solutions, Inc. architects, develops, and implements storage network infrastructures that revolutionize the workflow and management of media assets throughout a studio. More information about SAN Solutions can be found at www.sansolutions.com.
Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organizations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth™ strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimize their information infrastructures. Our offerings include enterprise and modular storage systems and software, professional services, fully complemented by best-of-breed products through industry alliances.
With 2,700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct sales and resellers in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries and regions on six continents. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at www.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales totaled 7,994 billion yen ($60.1 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.hitachi.com.
Contacts:
Jodi Reinman, Hitachi Data Systems, (408) 970-1050, jodi.reinman@hds.com
Hitachi Freedom Storage, Lightning 9980V, ShadowImage, HiCommand, Thunder 9570V and TrueNorth are registered trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.
© Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd.
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