Miami Heat go tapeless in house

The NBA 2006 World Champion Miami Heat are blazing forward with a new tapeless workflow this season that relies on Sony XDCAM cameras, Avid editing systems, and a massive SGI video server.

The HEAT asked SGI to design a small, bundled system that
could fit in one rack and provide ingest, storage, editing, and archive of game
footage. They purchased an 8TB SGI InfiniteStorage array and an SGI Origin server
to create a Network Attached Storage (NAS) environment for their five Avid Liquid
editing stations. Working in an SGI shared storage environment, where content
is digitized once and then immediately accessible as context-specific data to
all, producers and editors are now able to put more time into the actual
creation of a promo, graphic, program or marketing pieces.

The Miami HEAT purchased an SGI InfiniteStorage NAS 2000
consisting of an SGI Origin 350 NAS Server and an SGI InfiniteStorage S330
storage array. SGI Professional Services integrated the encoders, asset
management software, and Avid nonlinear editing workstations to create one
centralized, shared environment.

“The SGI NAS eliminated the duplication of digitizing media,
specifically the time that it took to copy media from nonlinear station to
nonlinear station,” said Ed Filomia, Senior Director of Broadcast
Services, Miami HEAT. “Creating a workflow where the media gets digitized
to a central storage improved the workflow and the efficiency of our producer-editors. At this point the 8TB system basically just takes us through
the season, but the great thing about the SGI NAS system is that it’s plug and
play. If we want to upgrade, we can simply buy another chassis, populate the
array and we’ve got additional storage. As the cost of the drives continues to
drastically drop, it’s becoming more and more affordable to increase the
storage.”

Housed atop the American Airlines Arena in downtown Miami where all home games are played, the
Media Production department functions as an in-house post-production studio for
the HEAT s marketing department. The rotating staff of 15 producer-editors uses
the SGI NAS system to create content for HEATV, an in-arena network that
broadcasts to 20,000 basketball fans each and every game night. The Media Production Department also produces
content for NBA TV, seen nationally, as well as Sun Sports, the exclusive
regional TV partner of the Miami HEAT (available via cable and satellite in the
South Florida market). That content is used in
pre-game shows, half-time shows and within the on-air broadcast.

Seventy broadcasts are produced by the Miami Heat on Sun Sports and, in
addition, HEATV produces a half-hour “expose” type program, Inside
the HEAT. The 23-minute show features a combination of in-depth looks at
players, tours the behind the scenes operations, game highlight presentations,
and covers special features such as HEAT Dancer auditions.
HEATV content is also streamed to www.HEAT.com . All
types of corporate and sales presentations for major sponsors are produced by the
mini post house, in addition to advertising promotions to boost ticket sales
for the numerous events that come to the AmericanAirlines Arena during NBA
off-season, from Shakira to U2. In addition, the Media Production department
also produces motivational videos for its legendary coach Pat Riley.

Last summer, the HEAT Media Production department needed to expand storage
and expand their nonlinear workstations from three to five. At the same time,
NBA Entertainment, which produces NBA TV, was implementing the No. 1 high-tech
powerhouse in the world of sports content management: In its Secaucus, N.J.
headquarters, NBA Entertainment contracted with SGI Professional Services to
help architect an SGI InfiniteStorage production and archive solution enabling NBA
broadcast engineers to catalog and store all the action from every NBA game as
it occurs. Filomia visited Secaucus, and saw an SGI system in place, providing
the functionality that the HEAT required.

“Having a kind of ‘big brother’ in the NBA go through it first made the
decision a lot easier,” said Filomia. “I needed the reassurance that
the system would work and because we wanted a turnkey system for a networked
storage solution, having SGI physically in the NBA, and working at the NBA, was
significant enough for me to make the choice with SGI. What we wanted to do,
the Miami HEAT and SGI, was to basically create a module for other teams in the
NBA and other sports. The SGI system is providing us with the tools that we
need to produce all the different presentations for all the different mediums.
We have very high standards here in Miami.
And, the expectation, after winning a World Championship, is huge: We’re the
hottest ticket in America
right now and we’re under a magnifying glass. The important thing is that we
feel confident that SGI will be with us as the expectations continue to
rise.”

“The World Champion Miami HEAT has tapped the world-renown expertise of
SGI data migration-on-demand solutions relied upon by national and
international broadcasters, scientific and government researchers, and
enterprises needing immediate, context-specific access to live streaming
content for stadiums, on-air broadcast and mobile delivery, or seamless access
to archives of historical content,” said Louise Ledeen, Media market
segment manager, SGI. “The dramatic difference of SGI InfiniteStorage
solutions is that they can scale from multiple terabytes to hundreds of
terabytes and be easily grown from NAS to SAN solutions with no data conversion
necessary.”