Beta Sight: Audio Production SAN from SAN Solutions

Built by a filmmaker for filmmakers, Skywalker Sound is one of the largest, most versatile full-service postproduction facilities in the world. While the greatest asset at Skywalker Sound is the caliber and creativity of our highly skilled artists, the technology that supports their work is critically important in developing the quality and type of sound design desired by each client. Housed within the 155,000-square-foot Technical Building at Skywalker Ranch, we offer six fully equipped mixing studios, a large variety of both picture and sound editing rooms, impressive foley/ADR stages, and complete audio and video transfer services.

We work on more than 30 feature films a year, and current projects inhouse at Skywalker Sound include Avatar, Where the Wild Things Are, How to Train Your Dragon, and A Christmas Carol. Most of the directors we work with are heavily involved in the sound editing process. Therefore, it''s vital that we can respond to their particular requirements quickly and produce a creative soundtrack very efficiently. A robust centralized media storage system, architected and implemented by SAN Solutions, helps us to achieve that level of service, even for our most challenging projects.

In a typical project, we start by ingesting all film material onto our SAN Solutions audio production SAN, which supports 110 Digidesign Pro Tools digital audio editing seats—very likely the largest ProTools SAN dedicated to audio postproduction and audio tracks. The SAN provides our operations with 60TB of production storage and another 30 TB of nearline storage. By centralizing all project audio on this network storage infrastructure, we eliminate the need to move media physically on drives or over a network to different areas of the facility. As a result, if the system is configured to allow it, anyone working on the project can access every bit of project data from any workstation.

Our 36 edit suites, equipped with Apple workstations running Pro Tools HD, are complemented by six mix rooms standardized on a hybrid system we engineered ourselves. To give our creative staff flexibility in how they work, we have modified our AMS Neve DFC Gemini digital mixing consoles to incorporate Digidesign Icon controllers for any or all of the mixers (dialogue, music, effects) that work together as one system, despite the fact that they''re two distinct platforms. We began nonlinear mixing a decade ago, and today we use a virtual VTR in the mix room to provide random access to media for playout on Christie2K-resolution projectors.

The editors working on the project prepare dialogue, perform initial edits, and record foley to set up against the picture. After premixing for effects and dialog to get it tidied up and in shape, the team tailors material to the client brief. Audio often is recorded here on site on our scoring stage, which can be adapted for everything from a solo performance to a 125-piece orchestra, and on our new foley and ADR stages. If necessary, we''ll send staff out to record sound effects specifically for the film.

Our use of centralized storage allows an editor to work on a session in a private suite using one of our Pro Tools systems while the exact same material is being mixed on a dubbing stage. Simultaneously, another editor can browse our proprietary library of more than 180,000 sound effects to find just the right sound. With these capabilities, we enable a more efficient collaborative workflow in which all participants can see the work their colleagues perform and the impact that different creative contributions will have on one other and on the final product.

The SAN approach makes it easy to locate, access, and back up audio elements, and to realize a higher degree of built-in data protection and security. Postproduction is a time-sensitive business, and we simply can''t afford the loss of data or time if the storage system lacks sufficient capacity, speed, or utility in handling media assets.

In building the system for Skywalker Sound, we worked closely with SAN Solutions to implement a storage infrastructure that ensures the availability and security of all the media required for every project. The SAN is designed to recover quickly from a drive failure, and we haven''t yet experienced significant down time due to specific hardware failure. The system has proved incredibly reliable. With SAN Solutions support and the company''s automated call-home service, we can be proactive in maintaining the health of this storage solution.

We complete a substantial volume and variety of projects here at Skywalker Sound, from blockbusters and documentaries to independent films, and every project we work on leverages media stored on our audio production SAN. Our reliance on the SAN gives us the ability to pull sound effects, dialogue, and music together and make the result available immediately for screening in our 300-seat Stag Theater. As we perform an increasing amount of digital intermediate work here, our ability to host the bulk of people involved and to provide comprehensive services—with the benefit of close collaboration and rapid results—in one highly refined environment is a real asset for us and our clients.

One of our convictions here at Skywalker Sound is that the true art lies in listening to the needs of our clients and making their greatest vision a reality. One reason we''re at the forefront of the industry in providing services for notable filmmakers is that our facility is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and systems designed specifically for our operations. For any project of any scale, we know that our audio SAN offers a high level of reliability and performance. With these critical benchmarks met and with the capacity to work collaboratively across different areas of postproduction, the artists at our facility can freely turn their skills and energies toward the creative process.