Zentropa Productions

Workspace Backup chosen as ‘no-nonsense’ Avid backup solution

Academy Award-winning production company, Zentropa in Denmark is one of the leading post-production companies in Europe, winning the most prestigious awards on the international film scene and producing over 200 films to date. The company has recently invested in Workspace Backup from Marquis Broadcast, to take backups of Avid work-in-progress as part of its disaster recovery plan. Although feature film work for both the national and international markets are its main focus, Zentropa also produces TV documentaries and series, along with music videos, so needed a simple automated backup system that could provide a daily backup of all projects and media files.

Peter Mygdal manages Zentropa’s IT infrastructure, taking care of workflow for the company’s eight edit suites and Avid NEXIS system. “We were using tape-based systems and hard drives for our backups but there was just too much manual work involved. Films sometimes have a fairly chaotic shooting and editing schedule and we needed to make sure we had everything backed up correctly. We often work on projects and collaborations with local production units in different European countries too, so we liked that Workspace Backup uniquely analyses projects and can back up any assets that are linked to that project. It was simple to install and configure too.”

Workspace Backup is a powerful disaster recovery and business continuity tool, designed specifically to protect Avid shared storage systems. It uses detailed analytics of Avid workspaces to ensure the highest levels of integrity of a backup, ensuring the most crucial projects can be immediately and individually recovered to production in any location that can see the backup. Workspace Backup is also Avid-certified, delivering the company’s seal of approval that it operates seamlessly within the Avid environment.

“We looked at a number of systems but really liked that Workspace Backup was certified by Avid, since we needed a no-nonsense solution that would sit nicely within our current workflow,” Peter continues. “I don’t want to ever have to use Workspace Backup, of course, but I like knowing it’s there! If we have a drive failure or if anything’s accidentally deleted, I know that we can trust the backup, since the system checks the data structure of all the files and can tell us if anything is wrong. Having Workspace Backup installed and supported by In-Site A/S has allowed us to just concentrate on the creative side of the business again.”

Read 3725 times