Cape Town-based Waterfront Studios has deployed an EditShare 18TB storage system to facilitate production workflows across its various operational units. Waterfront Studios provides front-end services and high-end post-production as well as studio support to local and international customers. With project demands on the rise Waterfront wanted to streamline operations while fostering the creative process. Reseller Shoal Creek Investments provided the solution with EditShare's Complete Collaborative workflow. The Waterfront editing facilities are principally used for feature film off-line work and on-line editing of drama-series that are being produced in the studio complex. Typically eight to ten editors are working concurrently on the EditShare system. There are eight Avid MC V3 and three Apple Final Cut Pro units connected via 1 Gigabit connections to the distribution switch which has a 10 Gigabit connection to the EditShare server. There's also an iSCSI connection from the EditShare to three Digidesign Pro Tools HD systems which streamlines audio production workflows. EditShare really improved our workflows; with our old system we had network connectivity but file sharing was very limited and not true media sharing. And there was no way to do any project sharing and that's really a key factor in all our work says Mike Smit managing director of Waterfront Studios. EditShare's project sharing capabilities within either an Avid or Final Cut environment really made a difference for us. The fact that we could operate EditShare with high reliability on our existing Gigabit infrastructure was another plus. We also appreciate that with the scalable architecture we can grow the system over time to adjust to the demand. The Waterfront Studios installation is a terrific example of EditShare's cross-platform high performance capabilities says Tara Montford general manager Editshare Europe Middle East and Africa. Multiple Avid systems on both Macs and PCs are online along with several Apple Final Cut systems. EditShare provides a truly open and safe media-sharing environment for creative teams regardless of application or platform. EditShare is very simple to use. Editors just go about their normal business; and for administrators the system is quite easy to manage. EditShare www.editshare.com
