IBC: Viacom International Selects EMC Isilon

Using storage solution for European distribution of multimedia content for MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/6/2012 7:23:50 PM

Complete Coverage: IBC 2012

EMC Corporation announced at IBC that Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) has standardized on EMC Isilon scale-out storage solution for all of its media content in Europe.

As part of the deployment, VIMN is using more than two petabytes of Isilon storage to improve the speed and delivery of its multimedia content across Europe.

Tim Bertioli, senior director, media & technology infrastructure, Viacom International Media Networks noted in a statement that "our international content workflow is now almost completely file-based -- access to content is streamlined for editing, compliance and desktop viewing. As a result, we've accelerated time-to-publication of new international content by 150 percent. By giving the channel teams more control over media content, Isilon has enabled us to execute on a completely new content publishing model in the broadcast industry."

EMC reports that VIMN began looking for a new solution after running into problems with the performance and difficulties in expanding its prior distributed storage environment. With media content growing by 600 terabytes annually, VIMN needed a centrally managed storage infrastructure that was integrated with its media asset management system in a way that would streamline and simplify content access, publishing and transmission.

VIMN chose EMC Isilon scale-out storage after evaluating a number of vendors and deployed Isilon NL-Series systems to consolidate media content from multiple sites across Europe to two primary media centers in London and Amsterdam.

An additional Isilon system is deployed in VIMN's London content production environment, which also enables content delivery to locations outside of Europe, including Australia.

Roderick Aal, VP of Technology, North and UK at VIMN adding in a statement that "the Isilon OneFS storage solution has not just reduced costs, but has allowed us to make video content, such as video on demand, instantly accessible to more people at a lower cost."