Founded in 1984, NESN is owned by the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins, and is available throughout the six-state New England region, as well as nationally via NESN National. NESN is New England’s largest television network, reaching 4 million homes. NESN.com is the most visited regional sports website in the U.S. and is committed to creating and distributing New England sports content that entertains, informs, and enriches people’s lives.
If an editor needs a clip from 1985, they can find it, restore it, and air it fast. Our Spectra system allows us to tell stories without worrying whether the footage is going to come back or not.
The Challenge
With its Sony ODA system approaching end-of-life, NESN needed a new archive that offered “set it and forget it” migration and storage capabilities for content from sports teams like the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins. The system also had to be scalable enough to support NESN’s 4K UHD content initiatives, which can generate up to 700 GB per game.
The Solution
NESN partnered with Spectra Logic to design and deploy a custom archive and migration system capable of storing up to 4 PB of media, purpose-built for long-term scalability, reliability, and affordability.
The Result
NESN now operates with a robust, high-density archive that protects decades of legendary sports footage. By switching from disk to tape, the team unlocked 7x more storage per cartridge. The integration between Spectra Logic and BitCentral software allows editors to retrieve historical content and transform it into compelling narratives for fans.
Environment Snapshot
- Spectra Stack tape library, 240-slots
- LTO-9 SAS tape drives, 4 qty
- BlackPearl Nearline Media Gateway
- MediaEngine software
- Partial File Restore (PFR) software
- Oasis MAM by BitCentral
