HP and Help Starz Entertainment Group Team Up

HostReview.com
Thursday, December 8, 2005; 03:58 PM

HP announced that Starz Entertainment Group (SEG) has deployed an advanced HP storage solution that will streamline the delivery of uncut movies to millions of customers.

SEG will leverage the HP Media Storage solution to store and manage its complete repository of movies and television content, which is delivered to cable and satellite operators and ultimately to its approximately 25 million subscribers via 13 channels, including Starz and Encore.

SEG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, is the largest provider of cable and satellite-delivered premium movies in the United States. Like many other media companies, SEG must be able to manage massive amounts of digital information.

Designed specifically for the broadcast and media industry, the HP Media Storage solution offers extremely fast and efficient access to these huge digital video files. This ultimately helps media companies such as SEG reduce operational costs and improve customer service.

"HP took the time to understand our business needs first. Then, they presented a solution that was carefully tailored to give us the best performance - and the best return on our investment," said Stephen Smith, manager, Automation and Systems Integration, Starz Entertainment Group.

HP initiated the project by working with SEG to digitize all of its tape-based content and convert it to an industry-specific file format. The solution will support SEG's digital asset environment, which includes content ingestion, re-purposing, management and packaging for distribution.

"HP is helping media and entertainment companies unlock the value of their digitized assets," said Matt Lane, director, Media and Entertainment Solutions, HP.

Based on open, industry standards, the HP Media Storage solution offers media production and distribution companies both high-speed performance and the capacity to handle future growth.

Using the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 8000, HP Media Storage creates a fast, efficient, high-availability storage area network (SAN) that provides SEG with 175 terabytes of capacity.

With its SAN architecture, the HP Media Storage solution creates a virtualized storage environment that delivers "shared access," a key benefit for SEG. In this environment, a single copy of a video file resides in one location and all other servers have shared, concurrent access to the file.

This feature significantly increases workflow productivity because no server has to wait to access the file and it reduces bandwidth bottlenecks since the huge video file is transferred within the high-speed SAN rather than on a slower local area network.

Shared access also allows streaming video content to be delivered without creating redundant copies on multiple servers. As a result, SEG allows cable and satellite providers to experience high-performance access, while SEG itself can minimize server and storage resources.