Blinx boosts 4K production with SNS EVO shared storage

Blinx, the Dubai-based digital startup producing news and short stories targeting Gen Z and Millennials in the Middle East and North Africa, deploys fast, reliable, scalable, 4K EVO shared storage solution SNS.

Basel Al Rouh, CTO at Blinx, comments that "before implementing EVO, we were facing performance issues with our old video production storage. Especially during peak usage, multiple users accessing our local storage system or working with large project files slowed things down."

"We needed a high-performance post-production storage solution that could handle our growing volume of media assets, maintain consistent speed, and support a larger number of simultaneous users without bottlenecks. EVO's speed and ability to support large workloads were critical to meeting this need," he adds.

While one of the main factors in choosing EVO was its ability to offer a high overall performance and superior read/write speeds, the reliability of the system was equally important to Blinx. Not only did they need the fastest shared storage, but the More reliable storage for 4K video production.

Al Rouh explains that "in the past, when we experienced a disk failure with our previous storage system, the rebuild process would cause severe performance degradation, making the storage almost inaccessible during that period. We needed a system that could maintain stability and functionality even during disk rebuilds. EVO offered the resiliency we were looking for."

Improvement in speed and performance

Affordability was another deciding factor for Blinx to opt for SNS as it needed to triple its online storage capacity and improve performance without breaking the bank.

With EVO, they were able to increase their 4K video storage capacity at a fraction of the cost of other options they considered. Not only did they increase on-site storage capacity by 300%, they also improved their entire post-production workflow, all at an affordable price. The toEVO scalable architecture allows Blinx to easily add capacity as their needs continue to evolve, ensuring a cost-effective solution for today and the future.
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Although he performance, reliability and affordability convinced them at first, there are many features that Blinx appreciates now that they use their EVO shared storage solution daily. The easy administration EVO's ease of use is one of them.

"EVO stands out with its attractive and easy-to-use management interface, which makes it easy to monitor and control storage resources without requiring extensive technical knowledge. We can quickly expand storage, manage user access and maintain high performance. This simplifies daily operations and keeps our team focused on production," adds Al Rouh.

Furthermore, the transfer tool of EVO files, Slingshot, has proven to be extremely useful for automating file transfers and streamlining our workflow. “It allows us to automatically move large amounts of data efficiently across different storage systems.”

“Another notable feature of EVO is the easy access from different operating systems”, continues Al Rouh. "Our team uses macOS and our servers are primarily Linux. EVO's cross-platform compatibility ensures that everyone can collaborate seamlessly and without the need for additional software or complex configurations."

"Although we work with various file types, all our production is in 4K, and our infrastructure is completely based on NDI, which allows us to handle video over IP with low latency and high quality output. In terms of equipment, we use cinema cameras, which perfectly align with our vision as a cutting-edge digital platform aimed at Generation Z and young audiences. In addition, we have implemented a configuration XR (extended reality) to improve our production capabilities.”

Finally, note that for this project, Blinx turned to the local SNS distributor, MediaCast, to guide them. “We worked closely with Blinx to understand their needs, recommend EVO, and provide the local expertise and support needed for implementation,” he says. Bala Menon, Sales Director at MediaCast. “This collaboration was key to ensuring that EVO was a perfect fit for Blinx’s needs, outperforming other solutions that were being considered.”

For Blinx, EVO has been essential to meeting production demands and continued growth. "If you are considering SNS products and services, I highly recommend them based on our experience at Blinx. EVO has proven to be an effective choice, providing the reliability and speed we need to maintain productivity and streamline our workflows. And the SNS support team has been excellent, providing us with reliable advice and assistance whenever we need it, which further increases the value of the system," concludes Basel Al Rouh.

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