SAN Solutions Supports Avatar

03.05.2010

Reno, NV (March 5, 2010)--Many are curious to see how James Cameron's Avatar will fare at the Oscars this weekend, including the team at SAN Solutions whose ArtiSAN Storage Platform was used to support sound design, editing and mixing for the film.

During Avatar production, two 6-TB ArtiSAN Storage Platforms enabled 11 Pro Tools users to stream up to 192 audio tracks each over 4Gb Fibre Channel links. Additionally, a third ArtiSAN Storage Platform provided 20-TB of backup storage, in just 2RU. The compact footprint made it possible for the team to move from early sound design at Pandora Film Services--the director's private Southern California facility--to the Twentieth Century Fox dubbing stages in Hollywood.

Over the course of the project, the ArtiSAN Storage Platform's robust centralized workflow gave Avatar sound designers, editors and mixers access to media, enabling multiple users to access a single instance of stored media. With the team working in a centralized streaming environment, they were assured that the correct version of the media was always being used and copies were not being created and distributed individually. By limiting media to main and backup instances, this centralized storage model from SAN Solutions provided a high level of media security.

"It was a pleasure working with the sound design, editing, and mixing team at Lightstorm Entertainment as they completed this remarkable feature," said Harry Aine, president of SAN Solutions. "'Avatar was a tremendous and technically challenging undertaking, and it will undoubtedly be one of the most significant motion pictures ever released."

SAN Solutions
www.sansolutions.com