The decline of printed newspapers and magazines has coincided with an explosion in online and video reportage which has fundamentally changed the way in which news is created, delivered and consumed.   Journalists and publishers keen to find a point of differentiation in the exceptionally fast moving market now need to be able to source the background information, images and video footage at rapid speed.

Australian freelance photographer, journalist and videographer Munir Kotadia, is well aware of the issues having worked as a journalist for more than 10 years with most global technology publishers and focused on video content creation for the past five years for CBS Interactive, Haymarket Publishing Australia and various commercial clients.  So in early 2010 some months after he’d established his new business TechTV Productions, Kotadia sought a technology solution that would remove any potential bottlenecks.

Kotadia opted to place an 8TB Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 storage system at the heart of his small business and five months on he’s delighted with his decision as it provides him with reliable, instant access to many gigabytes of high definition video footage which allows him to turn around his video reports for clients in a timely fashion. 

According to Kotadia, without a fast, reliable storage system his business “simply couldn’t exist”

“Online news sites are very demanding when it comes to setting deadlines -- especially when compared to TV or movie schedules.  Finished video reports are required a matter of minutes, rather than hours or days after an event  so if a story breaks I have to be sure I can access my archive footage or shots for his report in seconds. 

“If news lands that Facebook is updating its privacy settings, I have to be able to immediately pull together a story or even a video report using clips I have on file of the social networking site, shots of Mark Zuckerberg and people using Facebook on their laptops and phones.  The Seagate BlackArmor is now my centralised media library for all my digital assets so whether I need a shot of a supercomputer, a shot of a beach or even a giraffe, I can find it,” he said.

Prior to the installation of the BlackArmor, TechTV’s media files were stored on an ever expanding number of external hard drives ranging from 320GB to 2TB.  The system was far from efficient and according to Kotadia, it was “a disaster waiting to happen”.

“Unless I knew which hard drive I’d stored the images from a specific shoot, I would have to plug in each hard drive and manually look for the required files.  Sometimes I got lucky and found the image quickly but often it was a slow process.  I was also paranoid about losing work due to hardware failure, so I’d make numerous backups. Within a couple of months the system was completely unworkable and I had serious data duplication issues,” said Kotadia.

TechTV now runs an impressive media library on his BlackArmor storage system and its 8TB capacity is more than enough to cope with heavy demands of files sizes.

“Most of our footage is shot on 21 megapixel DSLRs, so every photograph takes up over 20MB, while three minutes of high-definition digital video uses up 1GB.  Each shoot usually produces between five and 50 GB of raw photo and each of these video and audio files is categorised, tagged, renamed and filed to make it searchable.  When I come back from a shoot, my BlackArmor automatically backs up my PC and all its files so I no longer have to worry about anything but getting the story done,” said Kotadia.

While there is no doubt the BlackArmor has improved TechTarget’s ability to meet deadlines more efficiently, the storage system has also come into its own in terms of protecting what Kotadia describes as his business “most valuable assets” – its photo and video files.

“Reliability is critical in this business, and this is where the BlackArmor solution really pulls its weight,” said Kotadia.

“The unit is preconfigured with RAID 5 protection so even if one of the drives fails completely I know my media and backup files will remain safe and the SafetyDrill utility that’s also included is a kind of insurance policy as far as I’m concerned.”

“The fear of losing media files meant that I previously spent a significant amount of my time making backups and then backups of backups.  The tech smarts of the BlackAmor is definitely making me more efficient and I sleep far easier than I used to,” said Kotadia.

Looking to the future, Kotadia said his continued creation of large media files means the current 8TB BlackArmor NAS is likely to be full within six months. However, the ability to swap any of the system’s 2TB hard drives for larger capacities mean that with very little effort and zero downtime, the device will easily be expanded to 12TB and more.

“It’s unlikely my demand for additional storage is going to reduce anytime in the foreseeable future, so it’s essential that I can expand the capacity of the NAS easily and quickly.”

“When we installed the BlackArmor we knew it would be a good addition to our tech set up, but I definitely underestimated just how valuable it would be,” said Kotadia. 

“It really is growing into the lifeblood of my business.”

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com