overview
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the oldest and sole public service broadcaster in Hong Kong. As a department under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, RTHK’s educational, entertainment, and public affairs programs are broadcast on its seven radio channels and three television channels, as well as commercial television channels.
We needed a solution that could accommodate our expected annual growth and future needs. The fact that we can seamlessly replicate our data to a second BlackPearl system offsite for disaster recovery means our data is always available and adds another layer of protection.
The Challenge
Radio Television Hong Kong provides radio, TV and online broadcasting services to the public. RTHK generates around 100GB of archive data daily, amassing nearly 50TB of digital assets for long-term preservation in a single year. RTHK previously used a shared NAS storage from GBLabs as a primary data repository, also storing assets to a Dell EMC Isilon through ITMAM. Projecting an annual data growth of five percent, the company went searching for a new solution that could accommodate their future needs.
The Solution
RTHK implemented two BlackPearl® Hybrid Storage Platforms, each with a supporting BlackPearl® Object Storage Disk solution. To migrate their data, RTHK wrote a Java SDK software that scans a designated folder on the Isilon primary store. When they pull data from ITMAM and place it in this folder, the software automatically moves it to the Spectra architecture. Both BlackPearl® solutions were installed next to each other for the duration of the initial integration and data migration, facilitating the necessary data replication between the units. The BlackPearls are replicated for redundancy; replication improves the availability and shareability of all data stored in their Spectra solution. After completion, one of the systems was taken to an offsite location 12 miles away for disaster recovery purposes.
Environment Snapshot
- Two BlackPearl Hybrid Storage Platforms, each with 10 x 4TB Cache Drives and 2 x 400GB Solid State Disk Drives for the database
- 10Ge network connection
- Two Spectra BlackPearl Object Storage Disk solutions, each with 48 x 8TB SATA Disk Drives and 48 x 12TB SATA Disk Drives
- Avid Interplay MAM
- PFR server
- Custom software in JavaSDK
