M&C Saatchi

Find out how Trams assisted M&C Saatchi with a storage and workflow solution

Overview

M&C Saatchi are a multi-national Advertising Agency who have relied on Apple’s xSan, xServe and Active Storage as their core platform for video production and central storage.

M&C Saatchi's TV department supports a team of five editors producing TV ads for leading UK brands. They were keen to move away from proprietary Apple storage as they needed a faster and more flexible solution to deal with the need for concurrent HD and 4k work.

Company Profile

Leading international advertising agency M&C Saatchi was founded in 1995 and now has 23 offices around the world. There are 12 businesses within the UK and now including brands such as M&C Saatchi Mobile, M&C Saatchi Sports, M&C Saatchi Milk, Human Digital, and an innovation the Central Strategy Unit (CSA) bringing strategists together from all areas of the business. The first year of M&C Saatchi Mobile has brought top brands like Reebok, Topman, Ernst and Young, and BMW.

Project Background

The existing platform was around Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Server Asset management. With the business moving to Reach Engine MAM and Adobe Premiere, the need for more storage and faster throughput were key requirements. Furthermore, as customers were looking for the latest video production, the solution had to cope with HD and 4K within a stable platform to reliably deliver ads.

The Challenge
  • Fast reliable shared storage with room to expand in future
  • Archive and backup of existing data
  • Replace Apple xServe and xSan
  • Replace Active Storage RAIDs
  • Protect and migrate media to a new platform with minimal downtime and business impact
  • Provide implementation, training and support
The Solution
  • Consultancy to identify workflow, storage and throughput requirements
  • Delivery of new storage platform and network for SAN migration
  • Installation Quantum SAN Appliance, Qlogic Switching
  • Setup/Testing and optimisation of the new SAN
  • Migration of existing media into the new SAN
  • Installation of Macs with links to fast storage
  • Training for employees on new workflow and setup
  • Support implementation
The Results
  • Fast shared storage for their editors that transformed their workflow
  • Ability to have concurrent users on SD/HD on the SAN without frame drop
  • Substantial stability improvement within the SAN/TV, so the users can ‘just work’ and get it out the door
  • The ability to grow the amount of work they take on and produce
  • Modern, reliable TV department that can handle any type of media creation
M&C Saatchi approached Trams to replace our ageing xSan / Active Storage environment. Delivering TV ad’s for some of the UK’s top brands we needed a reliable SAN that could keep up with the demands of higher resolutions, bandwidth and future expansion. We spent time with Trams consultants who designed the replacement solution, migration and testing plan and went live within a few short weeks. The new solution has been able to cope with all of the HD and 4K work and we’ve since added DR and archive to the solution.

Alistair Roberts, Head of IT - M&C Saatchi