As part of GBH’s ongoing Technology Roundtable, staff responsible for GBH’s many media brands meet regularly to discuss new technology resources. Organized by Senior Director of Production Technology, Tim Mangini, these now-virtual discussions help inform and educate internal production and post-production units about the latest advances in technology in and out of the organization.  

During the latest discussion, CTO Shane Miner, Director of Technology Ryan Groth, and Systems Manager Steve Barker focused on Remote Edit Stations, with an overview of new storage solutions and options which the Technology team has been researching for over a year. Since March of 2020, GBH production and post-production units have been navigating the ins and outs of accessing GBH-based edit systems from home, sharing media, and dealing with a variety of bandwidth situations. As a result, the technology team has been hard at work providing access to resources and updating a diverse set of editing options for each unique scenario.

The main goal has been increased flexibility which allows all teams to edit remotely from any location. The most recent Roundtable discussion centered around remote edit systems based on either long-term or short-term timelines and a variety of storage options.

Remote Editing options currently include the fairly inexpensive PC-based VDI's (virtual desktop interface); Teradici for PC or (coming soon) Mac users - providing a higher visual quality user experience; Jump Desktop for PC or Mac users - providing a good low-bandwidth solution; and ARS Cloud PC, providing agility and the same experience everywhere.

GBH will also be rolling out new edit storage options over the next few months.  Those solutions include Avid Nexis and EditShare EFS on-premises options with over 1.3 petabytes of usable storage combined - almost three times the existing usable storage. Simultaneously, an entirely new network with 100gb backbone will offer up to 10 gig edit-station connectivity – allowing multiple simultaneous streams of 4K.

Clients can choose between Avid Nexis with good Interplay compatibility, EditShare EFS at a slightly lower cost with deeper workflow capability, and internal Elements storage - a low-cost storage option without editing, and Object Store - a free, always-on archive (each with pros and cons).

The team also provided an overview of some additional future technologies such as Media Composer Enterprise, Alchemist File conversion, an upgrade to the Vantage processing system, and the incorporation of new ingest stations.

Interested in utilizing our production or post-production services? Contact us to learn more at productiongroup@wgbh.org or (617) 300-2448.