As I took off from Logan Airport in Boston, excitement, optimism, and anxiety were running through my veins: I flew to Las Vegas for the first NAB since 2019. So much has changed in the world over the last 2 years and the media and entertainment industry was impacted as much as any other. From production shutdowns to changes to workflows for remote access; storage challenges to handle the accelerating need for digital content storage; and merging of organizations, the industry was impacted at every level.
NAB Pre-Show
Like most vendors, the DataCore team started arriving days before. We had the great Pre-Show hosted by our distribution partner, Exertis Broadcast, as our first re-entry to NAB. It’s a show focused on the reseller community with a diverse group of vendors sharing valuable information in a relaxed setting. Partners used this forum to discuss the challenges their customers are facing and how we can all work together to provide complete solutions. See some of the highlights here: NAB Pre-Show
NAB Show 2022
As we walked from the monorail to day 1 of the show itself, it felt strange heading into the north hall vs our previous south hall location. I did notice the march from the platform seemed densely packed with exhibitors and attendees eager to learn. And the show floor didn’t disappoint. While the number of vendors and attendees were down, the enthusiasm was as high as previous years. In fact, we had more meaningful conversations with customers than ever before!
Overcoming Digital Content Storage Challenges
Common themes in our conversations were how DataCore Swarm object storage modernizes workflows with remote users, as well as replacing legacy tape as an archive target, and creating an on-demand digital content library. I can think of a conversation with a leading healthcare provider and their challenge about storing video recordings of procedures. They needed a way to distribute easily to internal and external end users via traditional devices. These recordings were going to be used in a few ways, as on-demand content for training, for long-term analysis, and potential to assist in diagnosis. And because it is healthcare related, they needed to make sure wherever the content was stored it was secure and met any regulations. Further discussion made them realize they needed flexibility to adapt to changing needs over time. When they ended our meeting and said, “I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I think this has made the trip to NAB worth it.”
The digital video on-demand use case continued to be a common conversation as we dove into the challenges that a public county in Florida was having with sharing content to the public. Since the recordings are considered public records, they needed to find a way that not only stores the recordings in a cost-effective manner. The fact that Swarm provided enough performance to stream content directly from the digital content archive, it creates options they hadn’t even thought of yet. They realized they could eliminate some of their planned workflow and simplify it by tying Swarm directly into their .gov website with just a couple of hours of effort!
One additional area that customers continued to discuss was our cloud integration with partners like Wasabi, BackBlaze, and LucidLink among others. In fact, some customers are looking at workflow that would combine Swarm and LucidLink to eliminate the traditional primary file system. The possibility of simplifying their architecture to a single storage platform able to provide high performance file and archive was a “game changer”.
The other part of NAB that gets less focus is the opportunity it provides for relationship building. After the last two years of web-based meetings, online trainings, and remote engagements, it was massively beneficial to get the chance to network with customers, partners, and teammates as our teamed joined with Seagate at Top Golf for one unforgettable night. And, of course, we carved out some time for a team dinner.
Infrastructure Modernization Pays Off
My lasting thought from NAB is that the industry is back. Maybe it’s not the same as it was, but there is more enthusiasm than ever. Covid forced organizations to modernize their approach to content storage, and they are understanding the benefits. Looking forward to NAB 2023. We hope to see you there.
To learn more about how DataCore can help, please check out the valuable resources listed below, or Contact DataCore today, and get one of our team of Solution Architects to provide you with a personalized demo of our Swarm object storage solution. Address your digital content growth challenges with cost-effective instantly accessing S3 storage.
