Sydney universities adopt EditShare solutions for media production demands

The University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) are among Australia's leading educational institutions utilising EditShare storage solutions, as supplied by Digistor, in response to their growing media production demands.

Tom Cavdarovski, the University of Sydney's Manager, Media Production, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services, reported that the use of EditShare systems is well suited for their increasing production volume. "Our media team has grown over the last few years and our post-production workflow has changed to meet the growing demands. We have huge amounts of 4K data that needs to be accessed across multiple editors," Cavdarovski explained.

The University of Sydney uses a 98TB EFS 300 system, with compatibility for both Mac and Windows computers connected through a 10Gb network ethernet connection. This system allows for seamless collaboration across editors working with Adobe Creative Cloud projects.

"The EditShare system Digistor installed has RAID redundancy, integrates with existing university infrastructure and allows our editors to work in various 4K resolutions seamlessly," stated Cavdarovski.

The use of EditShare solutions is equally impactful for UTS. Simon Prowse, UTS Client Computing Manager Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, reported that the faculty's shift to more open production workflows led to their adoption of EditShare solutions for their diverse course demands, which include sound and film production, journalism, and animation.

For UTS, a solution that could manage up to 60 concurrent connections for personalised and group project spaces was integral. Prowse stated, "This time around we chose 10GB Ethernet with 20GB link aggregation to a 10GB switch. Since COVID, there is more need for flexibility and a need for more students to work remotely. We also have students studying remotely overseas so the need for working from the server remotely was important."

Prowse and Cavdarovski perceive EditShare's cloud platform, EditShare FLEX, as a significant tool for advancing remote collaborative workflows and video editing in the cloud. It offers easily implementable solutions for education institutions often looking to utilise a combination of on-premise and cloud storage and editing.

Cavdarovski pointed out that the EditShare systems Digistor delivered allowed the team to reduce menial tasks and streamline complex workflows. Prowse echoed this sentiment stating that EditShare provided a "flexible and future-proofed" product and that the ability to add capacity and bandwidth is vital.

Both Cavdarovski and Prowse gave high commendations to Digistor for the delivery and implementation of the EditShare platforms. Cavdarovski praised Digistor's professionalism and understanding of working within large, complex organisations. While Prowse appreciated the prompt and professional service management, affirming, "the great confidence we have in Digistor and EditShare is a very important factor for us."