Brocade Intelligent IP Solutions Enable High Speed Digital Film Distribution at Shaw Studios

Deploying BigIron RX Series, the new Shaw Studios campus now has one of the most powerful Ethernet switches in the industry, scalable to over two billion packets per second from the enterprise edge to the core.

HONG KONG, April 15 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD) announces that Shaw Studios have deployed BigIron RX and FastIron Edge series to extend Shaw Studios' current high performance computing (HPC) environment to support bandwidth-intensive applications and deliver excellent quality of service (QoS) at its new advanced film production and digital post-production facility. The new US$200 million deployment at Shaw Studios comprises one of the largest film studios in Asia, featuring fully air-conditioned and sound- and vibration-insulated soundstages, 18 dubbing studios and post suites, a full service film lab and digital intermediate center and a 400-seat theatre -all in over 1 million square feet of digitally-enabled film production and post-production facilities.

Shaw Studios is already running on a Brocade IP network throughout the studios, and will increase the campus network to connect all buildings and rooms on the entire campus to a single, converged Brocade IP network for greater manageability.

"The premises have a lot of human traffic moving from movie sets to different post-production suites. We also accommodate producers who are using the facility for short term post-production work on the campus," said Eric Stark, Director of Technical Operations at Shaw Studios. "Some projects require multiple 10 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) connection to their respective sound stages and post production suites so that video images and data can move seamlessly to and from the sound stages and post suites for review by directors on set to producers or film management teams. Directors and cinematographers can now view, in real time and while they're on set, fresh shot digital images in 4k with Colour Grading, CG and EFX layered and combined from multiple sources from around the campus. As film production adheres very strictly to schedules with complete data security/privacy and operates around the clock, we asked Brocade to provide a solution that is highly reliable, secure and scalable for our present needs, but which would be ready to accommodate our growing operational challenges well into the future."

Shaw Studios chose high-performance Brocade BigIron RX-16 switches for their two data centers, for directing user traffic across applications and storage servers. These feature-rich platforms offer 64 wire-speed 10GbE ports in a single system and high service flexibility.

Serving as both a capable service provider and heavy duty enterprise product, the BigIron RX Series allows network designers to standardize on a single product family for aggregation and backbone switching. This is ideal for Shaw Studios, as they want central network control spanning across the two data centers, full-service color laboratories and digital imaging facilities.

The deployment also includes Brocade FastIron Edge X switches to aggregate data traffic from more than 1000 applications, desktops and servers. They also provide small-network backbone-connectivity with intelligent network services, including superior QoS, predictable performance, advanced security and comprehensive management.

"Prior experience with Brocade, in addition to the fact that Brocade IP/Ethernet solutions are already widely deployed in the leading media entertainment production houses around the world, gave Shaw Studios the confidence to engage with us for this project," said Edward Joe, regional manager, Brocade Taiwan, HK and Macau. "It was a true partnership from the beginning, with Brocade dedicating system engineering resources to work closely with Shaw Studios' network managers to complete the project in a timely and efficient manner."

More information

Brocade IP Networking Solutions:

http://www.brocade.com/products-solutions/products/ethernet-switches-routers/index.page

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Brocade(R) (Nasdaq: BRCD) develops extraordinary networking solutions that enable today's complex, data-intensive businesses to optimize information connectivity and maximize the business value of their data. For more information, visit http://www.brocade.com .

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