Pine Crest School Optimizes Storage and Enhances Student Learning with Quantum StorNext

For 86 years, Pine Crest School has been delivering academic excellence by offering a unique educational experience and creative programs. One of the most popular programs being offered at the school today is the Digital Media program.

To support the program, Pine Crest School provides the latest in video camera technology and editing software, three fully equipped digital broadcast studios, and three editing labs for high-definition post-production work. With over 300 students enrolled each year from grades 5 through 12, the school needed a fast, reliable storage system that could support video workflows, grow with the program, and foster an environment of learning and collaboration.

“When you have a high number of students like we have in our program coming in and out of the studio each day, coming in and out of our editing labs, going out on acquisition, you have a lot of data coming back to be edited and made into stories,” said Dave Burgess, director of digital media production at Pine Crest School.

Implementing High-Performance Storage
Pine Crest School worked with LH Computer Services, a storage reseller and integrator specializing in media and entertainment workflows, to explore storage options. Doug Cole, owner of LH Computer Services, recommended Quantum StorNext.

Pine Crest implemented StorNext running on Quantum Xcellis appliances at both of its campus locations: Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale. According to Cole, “Pine Crest chose Quantum because of its reliability, its file system built for video, and its ability to handle the scalability and capacity needs that were a part of their program.”

Enhancing the Creative Process
“When you’re looking for shared centralized storage in an environment such as ours, you really want something that’s not going to get in the way of the creative process or hinder your ability to teach,” Burgess said. The Pine Crest network is configured with fiber optic connections to every workstation. This enables high-speed access to the storage, and the StorNext File System enables students to access files from either campus as if they were stored on their local workstation. The shared storage environment appears as a local drive, which makes it easy to use for the students and the teachers.

Increasing Student Productivity
Shared access from any workstation not only makes the StorNext system easy to use for students, but also helps them to be more productive. Students are able to do their work without worrying about storage-related concerns or where files are located. Reliability is another factor that helps increase student productivity. The StorNext system has been reliable, Burgess said, with very minimal downtime and fast support from Quantum whenever there was a problem.

Scalability Supports Future Growth
The StorNext File System supports tiered storage and can scale to add capacity whenever it is needed. This will enable Pine Crest to manage their media assets cost-effectively as the Digital Media program continues to grow.

Burgess sees scalability, along with ease of use, elegance, and reliability as the top reasons for implementing Quantum’s StorNext File System. “If somebody is looking for a shared storage solution for their media program, I would definitely recommend Quantum,” he said. “It’s easy to set up, easy to integrate, and easy to use… and it just works.”