Audio post-production facility Wise Buddah Studios has upgraded its storage requirements to an EVO Shared Storage Server from Studio Network Solutions. The EVO is part of a plan of upgrades that has been in motion for the last few years with Scrub, the post-focused subsidiary of HHB Communications Ltd.

Wise Buddah Studios is a five-room facility focusing mainly on advertising and television, including recording voiceovers, mixing and sound design in stereo and 5.1. All studios are running Pro Tools 12 with HDX rigs.

You might consider that the use of centralised storage solutions like the EVO range from Studio Network Solutions is the territory of video post production houses, but more and more audio facilities and benefiting from the features of these systems.

Imagine not having to copy large files from servers or other systems to local storage and then back again when you have finished working on that project. Then there is the potential confusion of many copies and versions that this kind of workflow can produce as well as the lost time waiting for the copy process to complete.

Then there are the facilities that operate a 'sneakernet' solution where each project is assigned its own drive, which is booked out, and walked to the appropriate studio or edit suite, hence the name 'sneakernet. There is always the risk of the drive being dropped in transit and the complete project being lost.

Centralised storage designed with Pro Tools in mind, like the Evo System from Studio Network Solutions, can resolve all these issues and enable all media to be stored, and then backed up centrally.

Since the upgrade, Wise Buddah Studios has worked on a number of TV projects including the documentary Ian Brady: 50 Years Behind Bars for Channel 5, mini-series The Private Lives of the Tudors for UKTV and Take That: These Days on Tour for BBC One. On the advertising side, they have continued to work with brands such as Carlsberg, Barclays Premier League, Sainsbury's and Macmillan.

Wise Buddah Studios has a long history of working with SNS, and turned to one of its SAN solutions, globalSAN X-16, approximately seven years ago. Wise Buddah Studios upgraded to EVO to take advantage of Pro Tools being able run on a NAS solution in a shared environment, as well as to increase its storage capacity. Working on a NAS solution also helps Wise Buddah Studios to take any human error out of its backup system, where previously files had to be copied to shared volumes. The company has a working volume, nearline storage and also archives to LTO tape, ensuring that clients’ files are safe and secure at all times.

EVO is now the heart of all projects, so mixers and engineers are able to pick up work in any room quickly and efficiently. Every team is able to access EVO, and the transfer and bookings teams use the ShareBrowser file manager from SNS to send files directly to clients from designated delivery folders, negating the need for files to be copied to other volumes internally before being sent on.

The 16-bay EVO configuration enables room for expansion. Wise Buddah Studios is only using eight bays at the present time, so other parts of the company such as its Content and Jingles divisions could use the EVO in the future.

If this solution appeals to you then you can learn more on the special audio and Pro Tools pages on the Studio Network Solutions web site.

If you are based in the UK then do consider taking to the team at HHB as they have plenty of experience in this area.