CHESA

It’s been said the job of a project manager is like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire. You’re on fire. Everything is on fire.

While, as someone who has completed more than 100 projects for Chesapeake Systems, I can certainly appreciate the challenges that come with the role of project manager. I also know that there are actions our clients, and we, can take that will set everyone up for success.

Here are three ways a client can help ensure the most efficient, effective project from Chesapeake Systems.

1. Be invested in the project both financially and emotionally.

A client that is really invested emotionally in what they’re about to buy, whether it’s $200 or $200K or $1 million, really sets themselves and Chesapeake Systems up for success. One of our clients, a media company, is simultaneously moving to a new facility and significantly upgrading its existing storage infrastructure. During the course of this company’s new facility buildout, they came to us and said that in addition to their electrical, plumbing and HVAC contractors, they also consider Chesapeake Systems as one of their primary contractors for the project. We were involved from the beginning in terms of facility planning. We had the opportunity to say, you’ll need this amount of electrical power, you’ll need this kind of cabling and you’ll require this amount of rack space. The fact that the client was willing to make that investment in involving us in project planning guaranteed as smooth a transition as possible and helped set them up for future success.

2. Know what you’re buying – and want it.

A lot of times clients will come to us looking for an asset management system or shared storage, and we will educate them and present them with multiple options, so they can see the benefits of various approaches. What we love to see from the organizations we work with, and what can help ensure success, is for them to want to understand how the product works.

We want our clients to:

Ask questions

Be available for demos and in-depth conversations

Make sure all key stakeholders are involved in the discussions, including managers and end users

Understand how the new technology will interact with their environment and impact their work style (How will it integrate with their existing infrastructure and workflow)

There are several reasons why we desire this, but one of the main ones is that once we walk away, the client will be responsible for this new system in their environment. We’ll show up, we’ll install it, and we’ll train them on it, but they’re responsible for the day-to-day interaction with this new product that they purchased. We want the client to have an emotional investment in what they’re buying and to appreciate it. After all, these systems will serve as the cornerstone of many aspects of their operation, and they will rely on them to help fulfill their responsibilities and do their job.

3. Be prepared.

Whether it’s making sure all the stakeholders have fully bought into the project before signing the contract, ensuring the right people in the company prioritize and are available for key project milestones, or simply ensuring all the items on our prerequisite list have been checked off before the project begins, being prepared makes all the difference.

It’s important to keep in mind that the project begins long before the customer signs on the dotted line. It begins with our first conversation.

Because the projects we’re involved with rely on our professional services team for their implementation, the quotes that we generate include labor line items that inform the projects’s scope of work. Our SOW outlines who you are as a client, what systems you currently have in place, what we’re selling and installing for you and how it’s going to integrate into your environment. Also included in that scope of work is a list of prerequisites that we expect the client to have performed ahead of the project, such as making sure adequate power and rack space for new equipment is available and logistics have been handled that will allow our staff timely access to facilities. We expect that our customers’ signature on this SOW document indicates they are aware of and have followed through on the prerequisites and have asked any pertinent questions to ensure the project runs smoothly.

It’s important to keep in mind that the project begins long before the customer signs on the dotted line. It begins with our first conversation. The more our customers invest in those pre-deployment phases, the more successful the project will be.

For every project, Chesapeake Systems really strives to understand what the needs are and to talk to the end users. If you don’t know what questions to ask, tell us. We’re professionals. You came to us for a reason – utilize us. If you’re not sure about what you’re buying, ask for a demo.

Another reason a successful project is beneficial is that, oftentimes, our relationship with our customers extends beyond the project as we segue into supporting the post deployment environment. The smoother the project runs, the more seamless this transition is to the day-to-day usage.

At Chesapeake Systems, we love nothing more than to educate and inform and empower our clients. Are you interested in speaking to another organization that was facing a similar challenge or made a similar transition? Ask us, we’ll put you in touch with them!

History of LTO
LTO tape is a data storage format our clients have been using for years for longer-term preservation of media files, and it continues to be as relevant as ever to the needs of video and rich media producers. The tapes are relatively inexpensive in terms of the price per terabyte they offer, relative to hard drives, and are similarly dense – they are a small, light media format that is easy to store and transport. Of course what makes LTO (which stands for linear tape open) particularly appealing is its characteristic data preservation capability. While certainly not infallible, LTO tapes are, as a technology, better at preserving data for longer periods without risk to the data being corrupted over time, or the media itself failing, than hard drives. It is what the tapes are designed for, after all.

We tell our clients that it’s always best to archive data onto a pair of LTO tapes than a single tape, in case you do experience a media failure. With that said, if kept in the proper environmental conditions, LTO tapes can work perfectly fine after being kept on the shelf for ten or more years. This is totally unlike, say, a pile of desktop hard drives sitting on a shelf, going unused for years at a time. Hard drives are particularly prone to failure after longer periods of inactivity, and any hard drive that’s been “shelved” is going to have very high odds of failing if you try to fire it up for the first time in five years, hoping to pull some files off for a new project. There is a high chance the hard drive will fail to spin up, and the read/write head may literally have stuck to the platter due to lubricants congealing over time. Hard drives are made to spin, and work better when they are spun up regularly.

A Different Way
We at Chesapeake Systems have long sought a more “approachable” entry into LTO technology, and a few ventures over the years have tried to bring a less expensive desktop implementation of the LTO tape drive to market, with less than total success. Most LTO tape systems come in the form of larger “library” units, which often feature a handful of LTO drives to read from and write to multiple tapes at once. Tapes are stored in these libraries by the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, and automated robotics (controlled by one of a handful of tape archive software packages, such as Archiware P5 Archive or Quantum’s Storage Manager) handle the job of moving tapes between inactive “slots” and the actual tape drives which the tapes need to be inserted into in order for their content to be accessible, or for the tape to be available to have more data written to it. Libraries can fill half a server rack, be the size of one or more server racks, or even fill an entire data center. These sophisticated tape library systems are fantastic, but out of the budget for smaller shops. Some folks also look to LTO as a useful format for, say, sending data from a shoot back to the post-production operation, or to send a completed program from post over to a broadcaster for delivery (it is quite common these days for broadcasters to request LTFS-formatted LTO tapes as a file-based delivery master format replacement for the video tapes of yore). For these more basic data transport scenarios, a large tape library system managed by third-party archive management middleware is just too “big” a solution.

Tabletop LTO drives have been a reality for a number of years, but have not been embraced by many media producers due to, I believe, the complexity of their setup and use. First, you need to connect the LTO drive to your computer system, and that up until recently has required putting a SAS (serial-attached SCSI) PCIe card into your desktop computer, and then connecting the interface card to the tabletop drive. That’s a practically old-school SCSI level of annoyance for today’s users, many of whom have “come up” in the era of USB, Firewire and Thunderbolt interface standards. Many media producers are on the Mac platform, and no Mac has shipped for at least 3 years that even offers an internal PCIe slot that could accommodate a SAS card.

Additionally, the software used to control these tabletop LTO drives has been a mixed bag, with some people using third-party archive software to control even a single drive tabletop LTO system, while others used LTO drive control software that was more “native” to the drive itself, and available directly from the manufacturer for use under either macOS or Windows. These simplified software packages, which typically format LTO tapes as LTFS (linear tape file system), were the most promising approach we’d yet seen to controlling tabletop LTO drives. LTFS is a neat format – it involves keeping an index of all the files on a tape immediately available on the tape itself, which can be read by a system, thus allowing it to provide a list of files on the tape to an operating system. With the right software, the operating system can be essentially “tricked” into thinking of the LTO tape as a “drive,” and can display it as a file path in Mac’s Finder or Windows’ Windows Explorer filesystem navigation applications. Files can be dragged onto the tape “drive” that appears to be mounted to copy data onto it, and dragged off to copy data off. Essentially a desktop hard drive-like workflow, with a data tape. You can’t play a file directly off of the tape, because that requires actually pulling data from tape back to a file system, which the tape is not (it is only masquerading as one, via the LTO tape drive software). All in all this has worked well, but again, these days, most media producers don’t have a ton of use for a tape drive solution that requires a PCIe SAS card.

New Solution
We became aware of a solution to this problem last year that we finally had the chance to test out toward the end of 2016 that I would like to share. We learned about a new manufacturer of tabletop LTO drives, aimed at media professionals, called mLogic, and they were kind enough to send one of their tabletop LTO drives to us to test this past autumn. mLogic’s tabletop drives were similar to others we’d worked with in the past that used SAS to connect to a host system, with one major difference: They feature a native Thunderbolt interface! It seemed like the right solution for a customer we were considering it for, but we wanted to test it out in the shop to make sure it would work as expected. I spoke with Roger Mabon, mLogic’s CEO, and he was willing to send us a loaner unit to evaluate for our prospective customer, and for our customer base in general. What we found was encouraging.

Like the tabletop LTO drives that use SAS interfaces, mLogic’s drives use Mac or Windows software that allow LTO tapes to be formatted as LTFS, and basically treated like a mounted filesystem, even though they are really not, and the same limitations I described above apply – you cannot work with data directly from the tape, as it must first be copied back to a real filesystem, which your applications are designed to work off of.

You plug the drive in via a single Thunderbolt cable, which of course couldn’t be easier. mLogic’s Thunderbolt 2 devices can work with the latest Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac and Windows machines, so long as you use a Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter cable – no big deal. You install the Mac or Windows software, pop in a tape, format it, tell your computer how you’d like to pseudo-mount the tape as a volume or directory, and there it appears, ready for data. Pop a tape with data into another computer with an mLogic drive (or nearly any setup that can read LTFS-formatted LTO tapes), and you will be able to see your files and pull them off to disk. It really is that easy.

I asked Roger at mLogic what inspired him to release their line of products (they have a few models, including a rackmount dual-drive unit that allows you to clone data to two tapes at once – which can also be done by daisy-chaining two of the single drive desktop drives together, and enabling the feature in their software). Roger reminded me of something that had totally skipped my mind – he was the guy who founded G-Technology! Who in the world of media hasn’t used G-Tech drives at some point over the years? Chesapeake had sold probably thousands of them, and I told Roger I had missed this connection. He went on to tell me that when he would visit various production shops, and see stacks of his G-RAID drives on shelves or in closets, it would kill him, because he knew that it was not a reliable long-term data storage medium, as this is not what desktop hard drives are for. “So I decided to do something about it,” Roger said, and he founded mLogic to improve access to the much more appropriate longer-term storage technology of LTO. I thought this anecdote was hilarious, as I have had the experience of terror when seeing such stacks of desktop drives. For Roger it must have been quite visceral, as they were more often than not, stacks of his own drives! I have to give credit to the guy for really seeing the need, and doing something about it.

“We’ve never before had such a compelling desktop archive, and even desktop archive plus MAM, solution in our portfolio until now.”

A workflow we will be implementing soon using the mLogic drive will also involve another piece of software, the MAM CatDV, and specifically its “archive plugin” that is built into some versions of the desktop CatDV client application. CatDV’s archive option was originally developed for another tabletop LTO solution from a number of years ago that never achieved its promise, but we found that it works very well with the mLogic drive and its software and LTFS-formatted LTO tapes. The archive plugin basically takes an asset or assets from CatDV, and while keeping their metadata (and proxy, if you generated one) on disk, basically shuffles the full resolution assets back and forth between their original disk path as tracked by CatDV, and essentially any other external “file path” location. The good news is, LTFS tapes that are mimicking a file path, when using the mLogic software, work fine as a destination for these archive operations! And of course, the CatDV archive plugin is used to restore the data as well. This is a nice extra layer, again for people who want to tag assets with searchable rich metadata, and perhaps keep viewing proxies available online, even when the bigger original media files are offline on tape. What’s even more interesting is, even a purely desktop implementation of CatDV (with no back-end database residing on a separate server) should be able to handle this workflow with an mLogic drive. This brings MAM down to a truly desktop technology, with an all-in cost of less than $10K for hardware, software, and some time for setup and basic training. Even better, if your needs expand, metadata captured to the desktop version of CatDV can be migrated to the full database version of the software down the road. We’ve never before had such a compelling desktop archive, and even desktop archive plus MAM, solution in our portfolio until now. We plan to make sure to let our customers know about the mLogic drives, and that it’s never been nearly so easy, or cheap, to embrace the fantastic medium of LTFS-formatted LTO tapes. A tabletop LTO-7 drive from mLogic, which can hold roughly 6TB of data per tape, runs around $5K. If this is something that’s interesting to you and you’d like to learn more, please be in touch!

With all the dozens of codecs complicating video operations and workflows, why would anyone want another one? Quite simply, bandwidth is money. Video now accounts for most Internet traffic, with consumer appetite continuing to grow. Expectations of video quality are also growing. Users have little patience for buffering delays, and HD is rapidly becoming the minimum expected resolution, with Ultra-HD on the horizon. Netflix, for example, already requires original content it purchases to be shot and delivered in 4K Ultra-HD, signaling future intentions. More and more video is being served. As you can see in the infographic below from Statista based on a study by Sandvine, just Netflix and YouTube alone account for about half of all US Internet traffic.

To enable new services like Ultra HD and HD over 4G, three new video codecs are vying to become the successor to the current MPEG-2 and H.264 standards. The High Efficiency Video Coding, (HEVC, or H.265), VP9 and AV1. The Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) ratified the specification for HEVC in 2013, and it promises to reduce bandwidth for a given video quality by about 50%. The 50% increase is a crucial improvement. It means being able to deliver 720p HD over 4G networks. And even with the increase, Ultra HD still requires about double the bandwidth of HD. Google has a competitor to HEVC called VP9. While not as efficient as HEVC, it comes at a very compelling price—free. VP9 is distributed as open source using a BSD-style license. While Google was working on VP10, the successor to VP9, it was decided to join forces with Amazon, Cisco, Intel, Netflix, Mozilla and Microsoft. The collaborative effort is called the Alliance for Open Media, and the new codec, AV1, includes work done on VP10 as well as Cisco’s Thor and Mozilla’s Daala codecs. The AV1 license will be open source, with no requirement that licensors disclose their own code. The initial release is expected in 2017.

A Brief History

The first MPEG standard, MPEG-1, was created to be able to deliver video on CDs. It was approved in 1992, and was widely adopted for many digital video applications. It remains popular due to its universality.

MPEG-2 first approved in 1995, is similar to MPEG-1 but added some key features. MPEG-2 adds support for interlaced television video and better audio. The ubiquitous MP3 audio format comes from MPEG-2 section 3. The MPEG-2 standard is used for DVDs and is widely used for broadcast applications, cable television and the Internet.

H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) came out in 2003, and was designed to halve the bitrate needed by MPEG-2 for a given video quality. It provides other features, as well, such as provisions for Digital Rights Management for protecting content. H.264 is incorporated into modern Blu-ray discs (MPEG-2 is also supported), and is widely used in Internet applications such as YouTube and the iTunes store, as well as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Apple QuickTime.

VP8 was released by On2 Technologies in 2008. Google acquired On2 in 2010, and subsequently released VP8 under a modified BSD open source license. Performance is generally considered to be comparable to H.264. Despite being open sourced, adoption was slowed by its being released after H.264, as well as for competitive reasons.

VP9 was finalized in June, 2013. Its first commercial use was in the Chrome browser.

HEVC was released as a final draft standard in January, 2013.

Adoption

Early adopters of the new codecs will be the services that have some control over both ends. With PCs, tablets and mobile devices that perform video decoding in software, only a software update is needed. Google now supports VP9 in Chrome and on YouTube. Netflix is still extensively testing both HECV and VP9. Even with the bandwidth savings of HEVC, Ultra HD would use more than twice the bandwidth of the current Netflix ‘Super HD’ streaming format.

Another major factor potentially slowing HEVC adoption is licensing. Many companies with patents on the underlying technology, 25 at last count, have joined the MPEG LA patent pool to provide licensees with one-stop shopping and predictable fees. Notable patent holders not yet in the pool include Microsoft, Nokia, AT&T and Motorola. In March, 2015, a new patent pool was created. HEVC Advance included GE, Dolby, Philips, Mitsubishi and Technicolor. Technicolor has since left, deciding to license independently.

Both HEVC and VP9 have lined up considerable vendor support. Google partners include ARM, Broadcom, Intel, LG, Marvell, MediaTek, Nvidia, Panasonic, Philips, Qualcomm, RealTek, Samsung, Sigma, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba. HEVC has much broader support, with decoders in silicon from Broadcom, Entropic, MediaTek, MStar, Qualcomm, Sigma and ViXS targeted at STBs, DTV and consumer products. Other HEVC partners include Elemental, Harmonic, ATEME, Envivio and Rovi, Samsung, LG, Sharp and Sony.

I love standards. There are so many to choose from!

The old saying certainly holds true for video codecs. While the promise of an efficient, open codec is certainly alluring, vendors and services seem resigned to having to support HEVC despite the continuing licensing questions. As a joint standard, HEVC has a head start in hardware support for encoding and playback. And then there are the strategic considerations. Apple is a member of MPEG LA, putting native VP9 or AV1 support in iOS and Safari in doubt. But because AV1 has Google and other powerful companies behind it, clearly neither standard can win it all. Many vendors and engineering departments will end up supporting both.

To try out VP9 for yourself, run Chrome from the command line with the switch: –enable-VP9-playback, then search in YouTube for various VP9 test videos.

 

 

References

iphome.hhi.de/marpe/download/Performance_HEVC_VP9_X264_PCS_2013_preprint.pdf

files.meetup.com/9842252/Overview-VP9.pdf

www.webmproject.org/vp9/

www.mpegla.com/main/PID/HEVC/default.aspx

hevc.hhi.fraunhofer.de/

ngcodec.com/news/2014/1/12/current-status-of-hevch265-hardware-support

https://www.tysoco.com/bandwidth-requirements.html#ultra

Workplace culture. It’s something many companies invest a lot of time thinking about. At Chesapeake Systems, we’re thankful to have built a team of talented, intelligent, dedicated, funny employees. They’re energized by what they do and they work hard to provide an exceptional client experience. I personally am thankful that every single person on the team has strong values and ethics along with the wisdom to apply these values to help our clients achieve their goals. I really couldn’t be more proud of our team.

This holiday season, we wanted to give employees the chance to share, in their own words, why they’re thankful for the Chesapeake Systems Family.

“I am very thankful to be a part of who Chesapeake Systems has become in my tenure. I consider it an honor and privilege to be able to share my life with the guys and gals here. It’s often baffling to me what these techies have been able to accomplish. cat[filename] (This is an inside joke for my esteemed colleagues.)”

– Saphrone Blade

 

“Chesapeake Systems isn’t just the name of an IT company, it’s the name of a family. We laugh, we cry, and we fight (not physically) but it’s all because we care, not only about each other, but about our clients, our work, and our future. I couldn’t be more thankful for being a part of the Chesapeake Systems family.”

– Marina Blandino

 

“I’m new to Chesapeake Systems. Before I joined, I spoke with colleagues who were customers, and all were uniformly enthusiastic about the company. Now onboard, I find the work ethic, esprit-de-corps and dedication to customer satisfaction to be fantastic. I’m very grateful to be part of this wonderful team!”

– David Garland

 

“Chesapeake is special in that a lot of us have been working for the company for 10 years or more. We really retain some of the brightest people in the industry, Mark has been amazing in that he has had a lot of savvy and fantastic luck in hiring great people. What’s kept me here is that we take care of each other. There have been hundreds of times where, in the thick of it, I’ve needed help with a given problem and have reached out to my coworkers and they immediately have the answer. We’re a young company and everyone is fun to be around. We have done amazing things. The most important takeaway is that we take care of each other and in many ways are a family.

I think something else that makes us special is that we understand the complexities of our relationships with each other. We work together in some semblance of a traditional hierarchy but we also respect and honor our friendships as we respect and honor our working relationships. We work closely, and candidly, and share knowledge openly to make everyone on the team better. I’ve worked at Chesapeake longer than I have worked anywhere else in my professional life and feel proud to be both part of the team and to have contributed to it’s growth and success.”

– Ben Kilburg

 

“Why I’m thankful to be part of the Chesapeake team:

-I am thankful for a competent and knowledgeable Chesapeake team that backs me up. They give me confidence in our ability to deliver to customers.

-I am thankful that Chesapeake took a chance on me and offered me a position that I was not entirely qualified for, experience-wise. I am thankful for the challenges availing me as I grow into this new role and autonomy as I figure it all out.

-I am thankful for the broad range of personalities, environments, and technology I’m exposed to working at Chesapeake. Our clientele engages in such disparate, yet ultimately similar, work.

-I’m thankful that my Chesapeake colleagues are willing to be my personal troubleshooting concierges to assist with any tech issue, from finding a good TV to rejiggering the calendar settings on my phone.

– Louise Gebel

 

“As Chesapeake Personal Services, I am thankful to be continuing a 15-year tradition of empowering our home and small office customers. Our commitment to this service yielded our Best of Baltimore honor this year. Makes me smile to know that our customers are likewise thankful.”

– Clark Riley

 

“In today’s society I can’t help but think first about our company’s diversity, both internally and that of our customers. Each employee’s own expertise, uniqueness, and approach, influenced by their own personal and professional backgrounds, leads us to great collaboration and a culture of respect for each other and our customers. After diversity comes that culture of collaboration, again both internally and with our customers. This culture welcomes a high level of learning that must always be at the forefront of a successful technology company, while also encouraging team and client collaboration that pushes people to perform at the highest level for their peers and our clients. This diversity and culture makes Chesapeake Systems a fun and fulfilling company for which I am thankful to be a part of.”

– Jason Paquin

 

“As a former Chesapeake customer I’m thankful that I now get to provide the same level of support to our current customers. The fact that I get to work with a multitude of new and exciting technologies is a plus, too!”

– Ethan Hansen

 

“I’m thankful to Chesapeake Systems for so many reasons. I’m glad that after over twelve years, every day I still wake up knowing that I work with my adoptive family (I’m originally from Massachusetts, so my actual family is a little ways away). My colleagues at Chesapeake are some of my closest pals, and so are many (most?) of the clientele I have the joy of working with. Every day brings something novel, with new technologies and media workflow challenges emerging constantly. We continue to redefine ourselves, and it is such a rare thing to work for a company that can continue to reinvent itself, and constantly be innovating.”

– Nick Gold

 

“I am thankful for the opportunity to work with some of the most interesting people on the planet. That includes the clients, vendors and my colleagues. I am thankful for the opportunities to grow and expand my skills. You never lose when you reach for knowledge.”

– Brian Summa

 

Ready to work with our team? Contact us at prosales@chesa.com or call 410-752-7729.

Years ago, I was meeting with a longterm Chesapeake Systems client and a storage vendor we commonly resell, integrate and support. The vendor was appreciative of the client’s business so he asked, “Why have you guys stuck with us so long and been so loyal?” The immediate response, without hesitation, was “We like to have one throat to choke!”

A new angle to an old argument
In the technology industry, we hear the phrase, “one throat to choke” all too often. Clients want a turnkey solution – a prepackaged solution, typically from the same vendor. They want one person to call if things go awry. But there are fundamental flaws to this approach.

For one, instead of focusing on success, your company is operating from the get-go as if the system is going to fail. Second, a storage company that includes asset management software might offer a turnkey solution, but once you do anything with it other than exactly what they built it for, you lose support, and who wants that? Third, you’re assuming that a single-vendor solution actually exists.

We get that on the surface, you may see value in having one support number to call, one support center that understands every need and guarantees they are met. But as a company that spends the vast majority of our time spec’ing solutions that meet our clients’ needs, budgets and growth plans, we know the reality is that behind every solution are multiple vendors, manufacturers, development firms, etc. For example, a storage vendor selling a storage appliance is reliant on an operating system they didn’t write to run it on; a RAID manufacturer’s controller that they commonly don’t develop or maintain; a SuperMicro, Dell, HP, AIC, or other server chassis and mother board; and the list can go on and on. Commonly, entire product lines from one vendor are rebranded products from a third party manufacturer under partnerships and license agreements. Even Avid, often thought of as the example of the “single vendor vertical solution provider” relies on many third party components in their overall ecosystem (which may or may not be obvious when looking at their quotes).

So what does this mean for you?

Synergy between the client and vendors is still the ultimate goal. Accountability still matters. But rather than looking at your relationship with your vendor as “one throat to choke,” take a more positive perspective. Don’t assume failure. Instead focus on achieving meaningful business results and the successful outcomes that are possible. View your vendor as “one person to hug.”

Having someone who focuses on the entire puzzle is possible. But inviting tiers of support, where any single manufacturer or development firm focuses on and supports their piece of the puzzle, is a positive aspect of integration.

What makes Chesapeake Systems a good partner is that we bring the right manufacturers and vendors to the table and represent you to make sure you’re getting the best out of them. To us the very definition of a Systems Integrator is the party that can take true responsibility over multiple solutions and mixed environments. It is not our opinion that manufacturers are often the right party to be the one taking responsibility of the environment in the same way.

We look at:
How do they talk to each other?
How are they compatible with each other?
How do they meet your unique needs in the first place?
Does each piece of the puzzle represent the best balance of value and functionality for the customer?

How the collaborative approach works
An open collaboration means each party knows what piece of the puzzle they are responsible for and how they all come together. We call these partners on your behalf for any support, and they understand how they fit into your puzzle.

Benefits of a collaborative approach include:

A better review of ideas – it’s a melding of the minds.
More ideas, and vendors pushing one another to do better, leads to growth.
Bringing multiple pieces together can help you meet your business goals.
Every partner is focused on their piece and works to make that piece better, support that piece better or integrate that piece better.
Nobody is in it alone. Support tends to be quicker and more reliable when manufacturers are focusing on their piece and not the whole puzzle.

The reality is, Chesapeake Systems doesn’t know everything. But we do know the right people to call and we develop the partnerships to get it done right.

Ready to see how Chesapeake Systems can help you achieve your business goals? Contact us at prosales@chesa.com or call 410-752-7729.

I remember seeing a T-shirt for Solutions Architects that read, “We do precision guess work based upon unreliable data provided by those with questionable knowledge.”

While that is a somewhat comical take on the role of a Solutions Architect (SA), I can tell you that the precision part is on point. Being an SA involves work of an extremely tedious, detail-oriented and time-consuming nature. At the end of the day, I’m the “behind the scenes guy who makes it all happen.”

How I got here
My path to the SA role is probably a bit unconventional. While attending college at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, I met a young student by the name of Jason Paquin who would go on to become my esteemed colleague here at Chesapeake Systems. We were both members of the Society of Recording Technology Students and even started a small record label, Stepping Stone Records.

In my previous house, where I constructed a decently isolated project recording studio, I would often socialize with another Chesapeake Systems colleague, Nick Gold, who attended college with my wife.

Through these contacts, and because of my technology skills and passion for media and entertainment, I found a home at Chesapeake Systems. I began work nine years ago as a systems engineer and eventually evolved into the role of SA.

What does an SA do?
The SA typically begins by gathering all the technical details from a client’s environment such as:
What tools do they use?
What cabling, servers and storage they are running?
What is their nonlinear editor of choice?
What version of software they are running on workstations?

Then we identify the problem
Do you need help with a storage system?
Do you need help with media asset management?
Do you need helping building out a new studio?

Finally, we architect a solution
Sometimes the “problem” may be as simple as a system refresh, or it may be as complex as “What do we do with these 1,000 tapes because we want to provide them to people as quickly as we can?”
Once this preliminary work is complete, we generate a concrete parts list, a statement of work and a Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) chart that helps us make accurate labor predictions. I think about everything that needs to happen to deploy the system correctly and how long it will take us to do that.

What does it take to be an SA?
1. Blend of business and technical skills. Designing and dreaming up a system that will work best for clients involves a lot of negotiating with the account executive, where you both advocate on behalf of the client, working to achieve a balance that both meets the client’s needs and fits within their budget.
2. Ability to analyze and assess. Utilizing PERT, I have to be able to advise clients on how long a project will take. We then generate a well-written statement of work that delves into the nitty gritty of prerequisites for the company, such as ensuring they have a floor in place that will support a 900-pound system.
3. Ability to flesh out solutions. One of the major aspects of an SA job is having a vision and creating the plan to execute it. You are charged with presenting a realistic path forward that will work best for your client.
4. A great team. As we mentioned above I work closely with our AEs, but I think it’s also important to call attention to all the folks who lend me their strengths and are a big part what makes Chesapeake special. Our Sales Manager, Project Coordinator, and Chief Technology officer are my trusted allies and advisors. Our Systems Engineers and workflow masterminds, and of course some fantastic vendor SEs, help me work out the complexities while we design and plan our projects. I couldn’t do my job effectively without them, and a big part of being an SA is bringing everyone together and distilling their contributions into the right solution.

Why I love it
The work I do requires a lot of attention to detail, but paying attention to the little things leads to big things happening. I also have the opportunity to work with the coolest technology around and the smartest guys in the room. You’re at your best when the people around you are better than you. Even though sometimes that’s daunting, you profit from it every minute and hour of the day and it hopefully makes you better, smarter and kinder.

Furthermore, at Chesapeake Systems, we have access to some of the smartest people in the world doing the coolest things in the world. Sometimes a client is working on a project that you get to see before anyone else ever does or perhaps you have the chance to watch some behind the scenes shenanigans nobody will ever see. We have longstanding relationships with many of our customers and have the opportunity to walk shoulder to shoulder with some of the biggest media creators in the world.

Interested in how Chesapeake Systems can help you with your projects? Email prosales@chesa.com, visit chesa.com or call 410-752-7729.

Software. Digital Media. IT Architecture. Digital Workflow. Project management.

These are just some of the areas of expertise David Garland brings to his new position as Director of Business Development for Chesapeake Systems.

A senior IT executive who has worked for organizations such as Bertelsmann, A&E Television Network and FTI Consulting, David brings a wealth of media and technology experience to his position, which became effective Sept. 19.

In this business development role, Chesapeake Systems was seeking someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, and David has a proven track record in this area. In addition to co-inventing patents for several multimedia and content distribution systems, David cofounded his own consulting business, Digital Dawn, LLC,  in 2009 focusing on media and entertainment clients.

David’s expertise and connections will be invaluable to Chesapeake Systems as we work to grow and strengthen our industry presence as experts in producing shared storage, media management and workflow automation systems for numerous industries.

David will be working primarily out of New York, one of the largest media production hubs in the U.S.

“I think Chesa has done an amazing job with growing slowly and carefully and putting together a culture that allows them to scale,” David said. “I’m excited to work for a company that gets the job done and does it well.”

He said he enjoys both the consulting aspect and the “people side” of the business.

“The Internet has disrupted the media enormously and it’s created all sorts of opportunities and also all sorts of pitfalls for companies, and helping to navigate them through that is really fun,” he said.

A husband and father, David enjoys a variety of interests such as jogging, bicycling, playing the guitar, making wine and brewing beer. He also enjoys cultivating his love of languages, trying his hand at Spanish, French and German in addition to English.

As we continue to grow our company, we are very much looking to David to leverage his networking skills and proficiency in media and technology to highlight the value of working with the experts at Chesapeake Systems.

You came to the right place.

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Our e-book will outline:

• How a MAM frees you up to get more media to more distribution outlets
• How a MAM can tie into your existing workflow
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• What you should know before choosing a vendor
• How to gauge the right MAM for your organization
• Simply fill in your email address below and our free e-book will be on its way!

Wil Smith was not a typical Bowdoin College student. He matriculated to the Maine school at the age of 28 after first enlisting in the U.S. Navy and serving in the first Gulf War.

That wasn’t the only thing that set him apart.

In an emotional audio interview recorded through an independently funded organization known as StoryCorps, Smith recounted how he secretly came to the school as a single parent and told nobody of his infant daughter, Olivia. He spoke of how he would take his daughter with him to his night job at Staples as he tried to provide for them both. Eventually, the school community did find out about his secret, and formed a support group for Smith and Olivia.

As he spoke with his now adult daughter in the interview, Smith became noticeably emotional as he recounted his graduation in 2000.

“My graduation day from Bowdoin is a day I’ll never forget,” said Smith, who walked across stage with his diploma in one hand and Olivia in the other. “All of my classmates, they stood up and gave me the only standing ovation.”

Smith, who graduated from law school and went on to serve as associate dean of multicultural student programs at Bowdoin, told his daughter, “I draw my strength from you. I always have.”

Smith died in 2015 at the age of 46 after battling colon cancer.

While nobody knew at the time of the StoryCorps recording what Smith’s future would hold, because this interview between father and daughter was recorded and preserved, it will be a special piece of history that both she and anyone who hears it will be able to treasure.

Since its inception more than a dozen years ago, StoryCorps has captured more than 100,000 such conversations from Americans of all walks of life. Like StoryCorps, many of our clients at Chesapeake Systems also capture and store important content every day, whether it be powerful news stories, video interviews, performances, speeches, game day highlights, etc.

In 2015, StoryCorps’ founder and executive director Dave Isay, a former radio journalist, won the TED prize and used the million-dollar prize to create a StoryCorps mobile application. Users of the free app record 11-12 minute interviews and then upload them to the Library of Congress.

Over Thanksgiving of 2015, StoryCorps invited students across the country to record an interview with an elder through the “Great Thanksgiving Listen” project. You can read (or listen) to more about the project in this NPR interview with Diane Rehm.

At Chesapeake Systems, my colleagues and I are very connected to this notion of preservation. We work with organizations all over the commercial spectrum, in non-commercial areas and with various types of interest groups representing a broad extreme of perspectives, attitudes, opinions and agendas. In the same way that StoryCorps captures everyday experiences and shines a very brilliant light on the humanity behind them, we at Chesapeake Systems want to help our clients with the tools that will enable them to record their own slices of reality from various perspectives.

We’re still very much at the beginning of the Internet era, and things are not only going to change in the 21st Century, they are going to change drastically. As quickly as technology changes, we have to pay close attention to not only saving our content, but how we preserve it. The file formats we use today can easily become obsolete in a decade, putting them into what’s known as the digital dark age.

We want to help our clients understand the historical significance of the content they create every day and its potential educational impact down the line. Whether they are conducting a humanitarian interview such as StoryCorps, writing an online article about law enforcement and the black community, or recording an amazing sports feat, all of it will help to give people 100 years from now a glimpse into our early 21st Century lives. Even our most banal videos may prove to be of value beyond what we’re capable of understanding today.

To learn more about how Chesapeake Systems can help your organization with preservation, call 410-752-7729.

If there’s any place that’s all about community, it’s Chesapeake Systems’ customer Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, LA. For more than 20 years, Healing Place Church has strived to fulfill its mission to be “a healing place for a hurting world.”

That mission was tested this summer when south Louisiana saw an unprecedented amount of rainfall Aug. 8-14 that dumped an estimated 6.9 trillion gallons of water on the community. Homes and businesses were flooded and more than 20,000 people had to be rescued. According to USA Today, 13 lives were lost, the area endured an estimated $110 million in agricultural losses and 40,000 homes were damaged.

Even though the church’s “Dream Center” in the heart of Baton Rouge sustained flooding damage, volunteers came together to transform the site into a distribution center filled with clothing and supplies. Overall, Healing Placed Church served 28,000 meals to displaced families as well as staffing distribution centers to help people meet their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.

To see videos of how Healing Place Church has helped make a difference, click here.

Chesapeake System stands in solidarity with our client during this particularly challenging time.

I have visited a Healing Place Church and have seen firsthand the dedication they have to serving not only their own community, but the community at large. The level of enthusiasm and energy they put forth is just inspiring, and something I know south Louisiana can really benefit from during the rebuilding process. Though the flood waters have subsided, great challenges and work remain for this community, and much support is needed. To consider donating to assist with disaster relief, please visit Healing Place Church’s website.