Canal Sur Implements a Centralized Archive Built on Quantum

Established in the late 1980s, RTVA comprises the television stations Canal Sur, Canal Sur 2, and Andalucía Televisión, plus multiple radio stations and online web streaming channels. The broadcast TV stations deliver a range of engaging content, from news and political debates to magazine programs, cooking shows, movies, series, and Andalusian cultural content. Once it is broadcast and then stored, all this content becomes part of a public historical archive that is considered a heritage asset for Andalusia.

Creating a robust archive for that material is critical. The Canal Sur team needs scalable storage that can archive more material—including high-resolution files—while also helping to ensure its reliable availability for years to come. The Canal Sur team uses Avid nonlinear editing systems for production and for many years has archived content with Quantum tape libraries, managed by a Tedial archive management solution. These solutions worked well, but the organization wanted to centralize storage and archive environments.

In considering new solutions, Canal Sur required an archive designed specifically for the broadcast world. The archive had to balance large capacity with sufficient transfer speed and low latency.

Designing a Multi-Tiered Environment with Quantum Storage
Canal Sur’s longtime partner, Datos Media Technologies, worked with Spanish broadcast system integrator, TSA (Telefónica Servicios Audiovisuales) to design a new storage solution. The combined team proposed a multi-tiered Quantum storage environment built for broadcast work that would support the Avid systems. The team recommended Quantum tape libraries plus an online archive with Quantum StorNext, Xcellis, and QXS.

Avoiding Management Complexity with a Managed Service
For the new storage environment, Canal Sur opted for a managed service provided by Datos Media and Telefónica in conjunction with Avid and Quantum. The organization can benefit from uninterrupted availability without having to spend time and effort on hardware management or maintenance. Implementation of the new managed service went smoothly. The combined teams made the switch to the new environment without downtime.

Maintaining a Historical Archive with Centralized Access
Canal Sur now can ingest content from teams across Andalusia’s eight provinces, keeping project files all in one scalable and well-protected place. At the same time, this single archive environment enables teams from anywhere in the region to easily access the archived material that they need—and they can retrieve it fast when they use the online archive.