Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc., this week announced that the company’s new StudioNet-FC, a high bandwidth Fibre-Channel workgroup solution, was recently installed at Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) in New York City.
MNN is responsible for administering public access cable television services throughout the New York City borough of Manhattan. Rorke’s reseller in New York, PWR Systems, facilitated the new installation, which provides a Fibre-Channel SAN solution to MNN’s need to cost-effectively network its Macintosh-based Final Cut Pro workstations.
Kenyatta Cheese, Producer, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, said MNN’s networking needs were unique. “Our user base isn’t made up of professional editors,” said Cheese, “it’s made up of the thousands of community producers and independent media-makers of Manhattan. They’re users of all ages, all walks of life, and all levels of production experience. We needed a solution where a person could just come in, sit down, click a few buttons, and gigs and gigs of storage space would magically appear on their desktop, ready to use. The StudioNet-FC system does that for us.
“Our criteria were simple: good value, easy access, and no anxiety,” said Cheese. “Rorke and PWR presented us with a solution that was easy to administer, emphasized workgroup collaboration, and fit within the project’s budget. Manhattan Neighborhood Network is all about providing the tools of media-making in ways that the community can use. Having the StudioNet-FC system helps us open up a whole new world of expression for our producer community.”
MNN’s StudioNet installation features the networking of eight Final Cut Pro workstations (Apple G4s), allowing the sharing of stored video content in the amount of 1 TB of Fibre-Channel RAID5 storage.