BlizzCon: Always Bigger Than Ever
The Challenge
With an event like BlizzCon, you can always expect that it’s going to be bigger, better, and more ambitious than the year before. The 2018 BlizzCon in Anaheim was no different. The event would host tens of thousands of fans and viewers onsite, 12 broadcast trucks, and over 200 broadcast streams. Rather than follow previous years with different stages performing separate post-production activities, BlizzCon decided to centralize post-production within the Post Hub.
The Solution
To accommodate this centralized post-production hub, Blizzard procured a 500 TB all-flash OpenDrives storage solution for the edit/post team to use. A separate OpenDrives hybrid NVMe solution was used for archival purposes. These storage solutions supported staff at the Post Hub including eight editors, two EVS operators, five MAM ops, and three CMS ops personnel.
The Result
In previous years, not only did the different stages perform their own post activities, but they actually physically shuttled storage drives with fresh content among and between all the trucks. The OpenDrives-powered Post Hub centralized all post activities within a single facility supported by a single OpenDrives solution, creating massive efficiencies in the entire process. The capacity proved to be more than enough for all post-production activities throughout the weekend.
