RTL II

Scality shifts video archive into hyperscale, boosting transfer speeds tenfold

With its active video archive growing 200 terabytes per year, German TV station RTL II needed a more efficient way to scale — now it enjoys petabyte-level scalability and peace of mind

Today’s TV viewers have high expectations — programming must be constant and current. A key player in Europe’s reality TV and docu-series market, the German TV station RTL II is stepping up to that challenge.

With in-house production and high-quality content licensing, it generates hundreds of terabytes of movie and TV programming each year. Editing and curating that content to deliver to its audience over broadcast and streaming access channels in near-real-time is the goal of RTL II.

Case Study

RTL II

RTL II shifts video archive into hyperscale with HPE and Scality. German TV station boosts transfer speeds tenfold with HPE Servers and Scality RING.

The challenge

To succeed in meeting its objective, the company knew it would need to modify its content storage infrastructure. RTL II’s VP of IT & Services Reinhard Görtner realized their system was not fast enough, nor could it scale to reach this target.

Using the existing system, editors faced a constant uphill battle to finalize their broadcast. Upload times were slow, restricting editing work to no later than six hours before the scheduled broadcast time. Any last-minute change to information just could not make it. Because the system did not scale well, archived content was not easily accessible, further complicating editing work.

With its active video archive growing 200 terabytes per year, RTL II needed a more efficient way to scale, and the new system had to be fast and furious. Upload speeds had to increase by orders of magnitude, and the system had to scale easily to nearly any size. In addition, it needed to be completely reliable — and affordable to boot.

“Our ultimate goal is having one storage platform for everything. That’s what Scality and ProLiant SL4540 offer. They bring efficiency, performance and virtually limitless scalability.”

Reinhard Görtner

Vice President IT & Services, RTL II

The outcome

By deploying HPE ProLiant SL4540 Gen8 servers with Scality RING object storage software, the station gained petabyte-level scalability while accelerating video transfer speeds tenfold.

Reinhard and his team managed to deliver on all requirements. With the Scality RING deployed, content growth is no longer a problem. Editing is possible in near real-time, with upload times dramatically reduced. A typical 40 GB movie that used to take 60–70 minutes to transfer using the previous archive now takes just 6.5 minutes. RTL II’s multi-petabyte content archive is not only accessible in full for the editors, access speed is getting faster as more content is uploaded.

Deployed in a geographically diverse structure, the RING also virtually guarantees that the TV station will never miss a broadcast. RTL II is now ready for even more reality. Programming is always current, and editors can actually find time for a well-deserved break.

“I would recommend Scality because the system is very stable, and the experience we have with the support is that it’s very quick, friendly, and absolutely qualified.”

Hans-Josef Lauer

IT Operations Manager, RTL II

Solution Sheet

Video on Demand

Storage is at the heart of successful Video on Demand (VoD) service. Profitability and performance go hand-in-hand. Store more for less. Scality’s Media & Entertainment Solutions deliver.

EBOOK

Cisco and Scality Video on Demand eBook

Storage is at the heart of every successful Media & Entertainment distribution network.

Solution Sheet

RING Hybrid Cloud Data Management

The combination of on-premises storage and the public cloud enables hybrid cloud use cases that are changing the way enterprise IT leaders think about data management and data protection.

INDUSTRY

Media and entertainment

Content distribution with optimized media workflows

USE CASE

Media content delivery

How you can stream media at hyperscale

APPLICATION PARTNER

HPE and Scality

Work in sync with your storage solution

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy