Facilis Unveils New Shared Storage and Asset Tracking

Facilis (Booth SL8811) has announced new offerings for both high-end and budget-conscious facilities, along with an all-new tracking product that combines search, management, and access to project assets in a simple interface.

The TerraBlock 24D/HA hybrid array includes a drive group of eight SSDs (solid-state drives) for ultra-high performance, alongside a larger drive group of traditional 4-TB SATA drives for 72-TB combined capacity. Since TerraBlock is a virtual-volume system, facility administrators can create unique volume configurations that make the best use of the capacity and scalability of hard-disk drives and the consistency of speed and bandwidth inherent in SSDs. Performance derived from the SSD group can power multistream uncompressed 4K workloads; the 16-drive group delivers the collaborative experience for compressed HD editorial and content-creation workflows.

The new TerraBlock 8D is an eight-drive, 16TB turnkey content-creation system. Like Facilis’s larger servers, this 2RU server combines the Facilis shared-file system with virtual-volume workflow and performance. The 8D provides Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and can be upgraded to support Fibre Channel and 10GigE connections, making it very attractive for facilities looking for a cost-effective way to use existing Fibre Channel networking. The TerraBlock 8D is priced at less than $10,000.

The Facilis FastTracker is a comprehensive application for cataloging, searching, and viewing many media types within the Facilis TerraBlock shared-storage system, including all major QuickTime, MP4, and MXF codecs, along with DPX and TARGA image sequences, to name a few. This easy-to-use system includes custom metadata tagging, catalog user permissions, Boolean search capability, and incremental indexing functionality. With no browser-based dependencies, this application is the fastest way to find clips, view them, and bring them into a project.

“Our customers have been asking for a system capable of concurrent editorial and finishing workflows, an easy way to track the terabytes of media they use, and an entry-level system for deploying in smaller workgroups,” says VP, Marketing, James McKenna. “Our new products are direct responses to these requests and will help our customers be prepared for the changing landscape of postproduction.”

Visitors to the Facilis booth will also be able to see TerraBlock software Version 6.5, which offers new scalability features for volumes and workgroups. Interoperability with third-party applications has been further improved along with performance enhancements for resolution independent workflows. Features include the following:

Cascading volumes — enables seamless expansion of storage capacity among multiple drive groups and servers, all without moving or copying data.

Growing Windows-file support — helps users incorporate, capture, and encode automations, along with popular edit-during-ingest workflows on Windows as well as OSX.

Increased user count — up to 250 connected multi-platform users with no per-seat fees through the Facilis Shared File System.

The TerraBlock 24D/HA, TerraBlock 8D, Facilis FastTracker software and TerraBlock software Version 6.5 will be available in the second quarter.