CHESA

Monday Morning Quarterback Sports Video Survey – The Future Looks Bright 

They say hindsight is 2020. As I reflect on the past year and our world of sports, I won’t soon forget the cancellation of games, the job/family/community bubbles we created, and of course how we watched sports. As fans, we generally only think about the play on the fields or courts. We should also remember all of the men and women at the venues who tell the stories, with amazing graphics and videos, that get us excited. What happened to them during the pandemic?  

I had a lot of questions. Like, how did they navigate these new waters we all found ourselves in? And, what do future post-pandemic environments look like, to thrive in their job? So, I called friends in the team and venue space to discuss what they learned from the challenges of working through COVID 2020 shutdowns and working in a bubble. 

Sports Teams During Covid-19

Overall what I learned from these discussions is that most teams were not ready for any kind of work from home scenario. A handful of teams had been working with a Media Asset Management system, but not necessarily in the cloud, and certainly not as a remote solution. Others had nothing prepared for a work from home (WFH) scenario and relied completely on their IT departments. Unfortunately, most of these IT departments were also not suited to sustain a WFH media production environment. Needless to say, most of us were caught off guard by the rapid changes that were needed to adapt to our new “normal”. 

So, how did these teams continue to deliver? A lot of creative thinking, intelligent workarounds, and perhaps some unapproved, but socially distanced hard drive exchanges. Many decided to use Teamview or remote desktop because they were already on those systems. Others went distinctly old school and used the public internet to exchange files through dropbox, Google Drive, or One Drive. Not efficient…but cheap. Hey, it was an emergency. 

I spoke to a few teams who luckily had both centralized storage and a MAM system that they turned into their own private “cloud” systems which allowed them to continue working effectively at home. They could access their systems through either a VPN or RGS login that allowed them to have full access to their entire catalog of assets, NLE, storage, and music. By utilizing their private cloud they didn’t have to worry about ingress or egress fee charges via a public cloud partner.  

Fan Engagement More Important Than Ever

Even though sports wasn’t happening, teams did have to keep their social media, marketing, and community engagement going. The fans, man! But with no one in the office, it made it much more difficult for those without a MAM system in place to find the assets they needed to get that fan base the fix they needed.  It was even worse for those who did not have a centralized storage system in place. Their only option was to SLACK their co-workers with questions of “who has the blah, blah, blah shot?” I don’t wish that pain on anyone.  

The overwhelming feedback I heard from the teams I spoke with was how much their IT departments were essential to them getting their work done. Something I’m sure IT has been trying to tell them for years. Whether it was to access the corporate network remotely, set up the Teamviewer credentials, or simply troubleshoot connectivity issues, the media department and IT teams found themselves collaborating in new ways throughout 2020.  

When I questioned how working from home affects the creative process, the overwhelming response was -“it sucked”!  There was no more walking next door to ask someone to take a quick look at a timeline for instant feedback, or bouncing ideas off each other in a weekly creative session. The in-person camaraderie they had with their colleagues had been snatched away, and programs like Teams, Zoom, or Google Hangouts became the norm. More than a few found the process less than productive and missed the interaction of in-person meetings. Incredibly, this didn’t stop these creatives from turning out unbelievable pieces of content that normally would be showing in stadiums or arenas on massive video boards and now had to be focused on their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. Big shout out to team storytellers. 

The Future…

So, what does a Post Pandemic workflow look like for some of our favorite sports teams moving forward? To be honest, the plan is different for each team as has always been the case. Some are planning to bring everyone from the team’s facilities back, in person, to work as soon as possible. Others are going to implement a more flexible environment where WFH still exists, allowing for more work-life balance.   

How were these teams impacted financially due to COVID? Budgets are always tough in sports media production and 2020 brought some new challenges to the table. I asked each team how they handled budgeting during the pandemic. Every single one said that their upper management was amazing and asked what they needed to help get the job done. Keep in mind, no one knew how long this would last so no team completely overhauled their environments. Many pushed off upgrades or planned projects due to state and local restrictions of allowing anyone into the facilities. Most expect to make do with current systems through the upcoming 2021 seasons in hopes that 2022 may bring new technology solutions. 

All agreed that not only have they learned a lot personally, but they also learned a lot professionally. 95% of the teams I spoke to are now looking at a longer-term solution for a better remote working environment, either through a managed service via their IT department or an outside vendor who can take on the day-to-day support of such systems, allowing them to focus on being creative and telling us the story. And we do love the story, don’t we?

None of us can wait for our favorite sport to start playing again. The folks who make sure us FANS enjoy our time at their venues cannot wait either. So the next time you go to a game and watch one of those funny videos or amazing player intros, remember the people behind the production. They figured out creative ways for us to stay engaged with our teams and our communities. They helped us forget, just for a few minutes, that we were all stuck at home during the darkest days of 2020, and allowed us to have a bit of good ole sports entertainment.

About the Author:

Doug Price is an award-winning video editor and sales professional. He has spent over 25+ years in the media industry with a focus on sports creative content and media departments. Doug has worked directly with sports teams, leagues, venues, and broadcasters across North America to help develop media production efficiency through technology solutions for the past 10 years. 

We are in a new year with new challenges and new aspirations. After closing out 2020, I think we are all in search of a bit of inspiration. I feel incredibly lucky that this inspiration came in the form of two incredible individuals who also happen to be my colleagues.

I’m proud to introduce Marina Blandino and Ashley Williams. Ashley and Marina are the co-founders of Women of CHESA – a community of women empowering women in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry.

Marina has been with CHESA for over 5 years and is our Director of Support Services and Customer Success. She’s also CHESA’s first Director woman of color. Ashley has been with us nearly 2 years and is one of our amazing Project Managers.

What’s interesting is they’ve only met in person briefly and for the most part, their jobs don’t intersect often. So, how did this spark of creativity lead us to where we are currently?

The Beginning:

As fellow women at CHESA (Chesapeake Systems), Ashley and Marina were seeking a way to connect with each other and with other women in the tech space, while in lock-down. This resulted in submitting requests to attend a virtual conference for women in technology. CHESA’s CEO, Jason Paquin, encouraged them to invite all female employees to attend, regardless of their role (sales, engineering, accounting, etc.). Nearly all said yes.

Ashley and Marina quickly realized they could do more. They realized they wanted to do more. And, their teammates wanted more.

With management’s full support, the Women of CHESA was born.

They started by launching monthly brunches with all their female coworkers. No work talk allowed – this was a time to just connect with each other. We started to share some of our personal likes and dislikes, our success stories and even some of the struggles we encounter. This was a way for all of us to come together and create those crucial supportive relationships that being remote was making more challenging.

CHESA has hired two women during COVID. Women of CHESA was a way for them to quickly feel welcome and create allies while never meeting in person. The group was already bearing fruit.

“This is a journey that we are going on together. And it’s so exciting because we are creating something so positive. A reason why I took my promotion is because I want to make sure I’m on that leadership team making those changes. I have a voice to say we need more women.”

Marina Blandino, Co-Founder, Women of CHESA

Currently, Women of CHESA have all female members but a lot of male allies.

Big Picture Goals:

• • Target college campuses and help drive awareness of the various careers available in the M&E industry. This will ideally create opportunities to hire a more diverse work pool.
  • Partner with other industry organizations that are working towards similar goals. Eventually they want to launch their own mentoring program, but for now plan to support Rise’s North America mentoring program this year.
  • Create a paid internship program to bring more women into our industry and give them the chance to see what a career in M&E could look like.
  • Create a scholarship program to target women before entering university or deciding on a major.

2020 proved that we can be productive while remote. Ideally, we still have face to face time but, for the moments in between, Women of CHESA will continue to find ways to connect with each other and maintain that crucial support system.

At CHESA, we like to say that our passion for the bleeding edge of technology helps to keep our clients on the cutting edge. That motto fuels the primary purpose of our work – to help you use technology to your advantage. Sometimes that means you need the latest and greatest products in the marketplace. Just as often, you don’t.

A current trend that we’re starting to see become part of the architecture for possible shared storage solutions is NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express). NVMe is a new storage protocol designed to provide direct data transfer between central processing units and SSDs using a computer’s PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) bus. It offers an alternative to SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) and SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) protocols and was designed to address the bottlenecks inherent in these previous technologies, unlocking the full potential of solid-state media. Its benefits include higher input/output operations per second (IOPs), gobsmacking throughput, and greatly reduced latency. The specifications for these drives report them to be roughly 20 times faster than traditional spinning HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) are today.

Naturally, people are talking about NVMe, especially after IBC 2019 where Quantum and Western Digital, to name just two, showed off their solutions. It’s the hot new thing. But do you really need it?

If your media creation environment needs extremely low latency and fast access to large amounts of data, then NVMe should certainly be considered. A couple of examples would be if you’re working in a collaborative environment with multiple streams of uncompressed or lightly compressed 8K or 4K video in use per workstation, or if you are orchestrating an event with a large number of concurrent ingest or playout feeds, such as an eSports competition.

Additionally, VFX houses with large numbers of real-time or non-real time renders might profit from every conceivable advantage to make shots available as fast as possible. There are some non-video workflows that also need extremely low latency and extremely fast performance as well. If I were trying to master global finances via high-frequency trading, build the perfect human via genomic research, or profit from understanding the human condition via real-time big data analytics, you bet I’d want to build a fire breathing NVMe monster.

In our corner of the industry, unsurprisingly, we are seeing organizations dealing with large amounts of data as quickly as possible interested in NVMe, such as big media conglomerates ingesting a lot of high-resolution media and networks acquiring shows at the highest resolution so they can future-proof content. These organizations may still be delivering primarily in HD but they are archiving 4K files for a time in the future when viewers may expect higher resolution as a matter of course.

Furthermore, Quantum, whose F-Series NVMe storage arrays received two industry awards during the IBC 2019 show, may be considered at the forefront of NVMe. Their F-Series storage, designed specifically for high-end video workflows, uses 24 NVMe drives per chassis and provides users with 25 gigabytes of aggregate bandwidth to work from simultaneously.

But outside this super high-end usage, most of our customers really don’t need a shared storage NVMe solution yet.

Most production and post environments currently don’t require extremely low latency or high IOPs because video playback is about large streams of sequential data. They’re ingesting and working with video on large, centralized, shared storage volumes that are using dozens if not hundreds of hard disk drives, which allows them to retain petabytes of information with great performance. Currently, that’s still the best bang for the buck, and the best solution for most use cases right now because compared to a petabyte of HDDs, a petabyte of NVMe is exponentially more expensive.

That’s not to say that NVMe doesn’t have its place in your workflow today — it’s just a matter of the scale of adoption. People are moving towards solid-state technology wherever it is affordable to do so. For example, I wouldn’t buy a new workstation or laptop without one. On a smaller scale where NVMe’s reliability and performance truly shine, it can make all the difference in the world to a freelancer or editor working remotely from internal or direct-attached storage. In fact, desktop workstations and laptops equipped with NVMe storage outperform some of the SAN volumes we built for customers five years ago and certainly weigh hundreds of pounds less.

Additionally, a hybrid approach to shared storage — where some storage vendors provide a layer of NVMe cache on top of traditional HDDs — could be commonplace in the near future. This solution could provide the best of both worlds with the speed of NVMe drives and the capacity and price of HDDs, so long as the software controlling the data flows between the drives works transparently and seamlessly.

In conclusion, we believe that customers at the top end – like studios, networks, and VFX houses – will use large NVMe shared storage volumes first. Additionally, the single, independent editor can make NVMe the cornerstone of their business by buying a machine equipped with a 1-4TB NVMe drive or attaching this storage to their machine via Thunderbolt 3. This option is cost-effective and offers 10 times the speed and performance of previous configurations.

Mid-tier media entities that comprise the majority of content producers and asset owners, who are currently working with compressed 4K or mezzanine HD video, might still consider the greater capacity and average performance provided by HDD storage solutions versus a smaller capacity NVMe storage solution with weapons-grade performance, as a better fiscal choice. You don’t need a supercar if a nice SUV will get the job done.

NVMe is in their future, too, as the industry inevitably moves to 4K, 8K, HDR, and whatever other astounding and immersive new technologies are waiting in the wings ready to blow our collective minds. Right now, the decision to explore NVMe really boils down to IOPs and latency.

CHESA is ready to help if you are considering NVMe. As your creative IT resource, we know time is money. Let us help you find the right solution for your business.

A little over a year ago, I moved from my long-time home in the DC Metro area to Durham, North Carolina. This move was made possible largely by CHESA’s pre-existing geographically diverse client base, where most day-to-day work is done remotely. Going from working in a ‘half-and-half’ remote/on-site work style to an ‘almost entirely’ remote work style (with occasional on-site travel) has involved numerous adjustments – which I thankfully had the opportunity to make while not under threat from a global pandemic. Additionally, as a person who is now able to live alone, I definitely have an easier time of this than others. That said, I think my experience might still be helpful – even if only as reassurance. Or perhaps a cautionary tale.

The first thing I did was to set aside an area for work; the second bedroom in my apartment was perfect for this. Even if all you have is a “work desk,” I think it’s valuable to set aside an area that denotes “I’m in work mode now.” This left me without a desk for my personal computer setup, and its temporary location is an ergonomic nightmare. So I’m about to mess up this idea by replacing it with a huge L-shaped motorized standing desk. On the one hand, this will encourage me to alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day, which is hugely aspirational and makes me feel very much a part of the zeitgeist. On the other hand, the division between personal and work will now be “which side of the desk I’m facing”. Jury is still out on the efficacy of this plan—I’ll report back once I’ve gathered more data.

It’s also important to take breaks to walk around, eat, and get fresh air. I’m terrible at this, often getting absorbed in projects for hours and only realizing I’m hungry once I have a headache. And with pollen season in full swing, the uniform and undisturbed dusting on my balcony leaves little doubt about how often I step out to breathe in that fresh, North Carolina air. Don’t be like me—set a timer for breaks, an alarm for meals, or perhaps rig up an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine with a pointed stick or cattle prod if that’s what it takes.

A lot of folks have asserted that showering and getting dressed “for work” every morning is a good routine to maintain despite not attending the office. Anyone who claims they actually do this everyday is either a liar or an alien wearing a human suit and should not be trusted. Treat yourself to some comfy micro-modal lounge pants, soft cotton T-shirts, and fleece-lined hoodies. In these dark times, we need comfort wherever we can find it. And you’re worth it. (Do try to shower every so often, though, especially if you live with other people—they’re also, presumably, worth it.)

If you have children who are now home 24/7—and especially if you’re trying to juggle them and work on your own—good luck! Do whatever it takes to keep them and yourself alive. Remember, only God can judge you.

In summary, this hungry, isolated, pajama-clad computer gremlin looks forward to answering your support ticket in the near future. Rest assured, I’ll work on it longer than I should, and I’ll be extremely comfortable while doing so—whether I’m standing or sitting. And in all seriousness, best of luck out there, stay safe, and let’s get through this mess together.

Coffee – check! Power cable plugged in – check! Favorite home-office chair – check!

Remote access to media – check???

While COVID-19 is testing the flexibility and preparedness of media teams around the world, enabling and empowering the remote employee has been a core tenet of production and media-IT pros for years. Media & Entertainment (M&E) has proudly stayed ahead of the curve for enabling field production partners, freelancers, and relocated employees to continue meeting critical deadlines. However, even the most tenured media-IT professionals are asking themselves, “Did we architect a system that will meet the demand?”

Whether you’ve been planning for such an eventuality or employee demand has increased remote access requests, the end result will look roughly the same. But, what does a well-designed media environment that can handle heavy demand look like? Setting aside the nuances of each unique environment, here is our checklist for the foundational elements to support your remote team members:

WAN: an obvious starting point, its importance cannot be overstated.

VPN: enhanced security, remote control, increased performance, reduced cost.

Remote Desktop Software: often goes hand in hand with a VPN and is vital to empowering employees to complete their specific tasks on time.

Media Asset Management (MAM) System: centralized, extensible, browser-based access, and fast. This is where the rubber meets the road for most teams. Users gain immediate access to the data they need in the resolutions they require. Many MAM systems enable workflows that include transcoding and access to new resolution options as well. This is the editor-turns-superhero utility belt (username and password required.)

From here, with thoughtful attention to the design of your workflows, the machine should be humming along nicely. It’ll be easy to forget that what you’ve architected will fundamentally change the way your media teams operate moving forward and this can be a scary proposition to embrace. As the possibility of a fully remote team becomes a demand, what are the attendant benefits? There are headline answers: improved productivity, time and expense saving, and now, safety. What is the benefit for the media production environment?

When consumer demand for content spikes, as it surely will in the coming weeks, or deadlines simply cannot be moved, the team is ready and equipped to deliver regardless of any limitation and lack of access to their office environment.

Production team leads can easily delegate or reassign projects to team members that can meet the deadline, regardless of location.

File size becomes a non-issue. MAM systems enable access and manipulation of your media by way of smaller, friendlier proxy files. Simply said: close proximity to the SAN or NAS is no longer a requirement.

Speed, efficiency, and adaptability. These are real business benefits; benefits that can be tied directly back to monetization and consumer satisfaction.

Putting these pieces in place can take many thoughtful discussions, and should. Working from home is a practice in trust. Trust works best when it’s supported, encouraged, and allowed to operate as designed. Learning from your user base will give you direction for what enables the team to be most productive – and Chesapeake Systems can help you with the rest.