The Seven Network sets sail with its Spectra BlackPearl Solution

(Melbourne, Australia, 23rd June 2022) After a rigorous review of object-based storage solutions, Network Seven chose to implement the Spectra BlackPearl® Converged Storage System for their network-wide program, news, sport and historic archive. The solution supplied and integrated by Techtel is the first Australian deployment of BlackPearl integrated with VizRT for news production. BlackPearl is a modern object storage solution that seamlessly moves content into multiple storage targets based on pre-set policies.

Seven turned to Techtel for a solution as it became clear that the sun had set on their legacy storage systems and a change was necessary to protect their data whilst making vast improvements to the availability of their content. The BlackPearl solution from Spectra Logic addressed all of Seven’s requirements so Techtel architected a solution that could deliver seven years’ worth of storage at Seven’s main news production centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Additionally, in Melbourne, further flexibility was required to allow Seven to migrate data out of an old Sony PetaSite library that contained program material.

“Seven had been considering the Spectra BlackPearl as a solution to replace our news archive for a while, and for us the real trigger to move on this was seeing the Spectra-VizOne integration being adopted worldwide,” said Andrew Anderson, Director of Broadcast Operations for Seven West Media. “With BlackPearl we know we have a guaranteed level of performance and unlimited data access for the foreseeable future. Techtel’s proven ability to support Spectra products in Australia is well known so we look forward to working with them.”

The solution will serve content to Seven’s network-wide deployment of VizOne and VizStory, allowing news and production editors to retrieve, edit and publish content at breaking news pace. The RESTful integration between VizOne MAM and BlackPearl has been in deployment now for years, which provided absolute confidence to Seven that the solution would be robust and ready to go off the shelf.

BlackPearl has created an opportunity for broadcasters who currently have a costly and complex stack of aging software to migrate to one simple affordable solution.  The BlackPearl object storage solution also allows multi-tenant architecture so several client platforms like VizOne MAM can access data from a common infrastructure removing the need for each system to have its own silo of storage.

“When Seven approached Techtel for an archive solution, choosing a product that was MAM vendor independent made BlackPearl the logical choice. Spectra Logic’s BlackPearl integrates with any modern media and entertainment MAM provider, and when combined with BlackPearl RioBroker®, a software front-end data mover for BlackPearl, it can also integrate with third-party HSM’s for streamlined migration. We worked closely with Seven to ensure that we could deliver the performance they needed and I’m really pleased with the final result,” added Matt Hall, Business Development Manager for Techtel.