EFD Digital Builds an End-to-End Post-Production Workflow Powered by Subscription-Based StorNext 7 Software

For years, the production companies that rented cameras, lenses, lights, cranes, and other equipment from EFD suggested that the company expand into post-production services. In 2020, EFD’s CEO and President, Georgina Terán Gilmore, decided to move forward and launch a new post-production studio, EFD Digital, which could support both existing and new clients.

One of the first tasks: build the technology infrastructure necessary to support a large number of simultaneous projects. Of course, starting up a new post-production business in the middle of a global pandemic can be complicated. Instead of taking on a huge project all at once, the team wanted to move forward in phases—while still avoiding the patchwork approach adopted by other studios.

Building on a Reputable Brand: Quantum
As part of a premier equipment rental company, the EFD Digital team understands the importance of choosing technology brands that clients instantly recognize as reliable. “We wanted to be a trustful and innovative partner to our customers, being able to offer a strong, stable, and flexible storage platform that can handle any type of workflow and multiple projects at the same time,” says Roy Santoyo, director of post-production, EFD Digital. “For us, that meant selecting Quantum.”

With help from system integrator Seal Telecom, the EFD team designed an end-to-end Quantum software solution that could be deployed in phases. Ultimately, the environment will include Quantum Xcellis Workflow Director and Workflow Extender systems, high-performance Quantum NVMe storage, Quantum QXS Disk Storage, and a Quantum Scalar tape library—all powered by the Quantum StorNext 7. For the first phase of deployment, EFD Digital implemented 1 PB of storage, and within a year, the team plans to scale up to 3 PB. With the StorNext software subscription, they now have the ability to scale to potentially unlimited content growth.

Providing the Flexibility for a Variety of Applications
Integrating the Quantum StorNext environment with an ELEMENTS GATEWAY solution has given the post-production studio enhanced bin-locking and project-sharing options for a wide range of NLE and VFX tools. “We need to support multiple platforms in almost every area— including editing and color,” says Santoyo. “Now team members can use Avid, Adobe Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, Baselight—really any platform they want to use.”

Achieving Region-leading Performance
Strong storage performance is vital for EFD since a growing number of projects have ultra-high-definition content and use lossless formats, such as EXR or DPX. Quantum NVMe storage, coupled with StorNext capabilities that automate data placement on NVMe and hard disk storage, can deliver exceptionally high-throughput, low-latency performance.

“Quantum’s StorNext 7 software platform gives us the performance that teams need for collaborating efficiently—both locally and remotely—with very large files and all types of codecs, resolutions, and bit rates,” says Santoyo. “With this solution, we expect to have the fastest post-production environment in Latin America.”

Gain the Scalability for Rapid Growth
With the Quantum solution, EFD Digital has both the scalable storage performance and capacity to work on multiple, large projects simultaneously. “Now we can handle anything that clients want to bring us,” says Santoyo.

When production studios ramp up their work post-pandemic, the EFD Digital team expects to see a rapid rise in new projects. “Our business is changing and growing quickly,” says Santoyo. “But with Quantum, we are ready.”