Techtel Enables First UHD-editing Workflow for RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication

Sydney, Australia, 22 November 2019 – Techtel, Australia’s leading broadcast systems integrator has successfully upgraded RMIT University’s (“RMIT”) infrastructure to power its School of Media and Communication with the Harmonic MediaGrid 4000 shared storage system. The upgrade for RMIT connects 44 concurrent Adobe Premiere edit seats, teachers and multiple ingest facilities to a single, high-performance, shared storage resource with UHD editing capability. This comes as the faculty moves increasingly towards UHD editing workflows which demand shared, real-time storage and video codecs with high capacity requirements.

Built specifically to support media applications with storage cost and management complexity reduction in mind, MediaGrid 4000 shared storage handles everything from compressed workflows to online digital libraries and uncompressed video. Boasting a low rate of IT utilization, this model not only reduces operational costs, but also increases workflow productivity by reducing media copy and transfer times. The unparalleled capacity and throughput of the Harmonic MediaGrid system makes it possible to consolidate “islands” of storage and run all workflow steps off a single system, thus simplifying its IT infrastructure to increase efficiency and reliability.

“The Harmonic MediaGrid 4000 shared storage system offers an ideal solution for UHD-based workflows, while offering SAN-comparable performance and NAS simplicity to facilitate the optimal balance of bandwidth and capacity”, says Mal Chandler, Techtel CEO. “We are confident that with increased performance and density of the Harmonic MediaGrid system, RMIT’s School of Media and Communication can truly deploy one storage platform to support the entire production workflow”.

“Based on the first-hand experience we had with the rock-solid Harmonic MediaGrid 2000 shared storage system provided by Techtel back in September 2013, when it came time to upgrade to UHD workflows, we chose the MediaGrid 4000 system”, commented David Beesley, Technical Services and Facilities Manager with the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. “To support over 40 edit stations with thousands of student users and require a system that has negligible impact on the workload of the University’s IT staff, we needed a robust storage solution that is reliable, scalable, bandwidth efficient and simple to manage. The Harmonic solution delivers on all fronts, with excellent after-sale support from Techtel, and all the while providing reliable, high-capacity concurrent performance to power our post-production workflow and contribute to a state-of-the-art and hands-on learning environment for our students."

Techtel has been providing shared storage solutions for production, archival and playout purposes for over a decade with its users ranging from Football Clubs to major broadcasters such as SBS, Nine Network and Astro Arena. Each project illustrates the company’s capability to choose the appropriate technology, and deliver the critical project management, commissioning and support that customers expect.