As the latest in its ongoing Digital Town Square series, the Entertainment Technology Center at USC held a symposium on “Rethinking Digital Archiving and Storage” on June 9 at Amazon’s Santa Monica facilities. Approximately 80 people from all the major Hollywood studios, archivists and post production professionals participated in the interactive forum that examined the challenges in current archiving and storage practices, the pressures to change those practices, and emerging solutions.

“Our membership of Hollywood motion picture studios and broadcast networks are facing significant issues with regard to how to manage and protect their growing assets,” said ETC executive director Ken Williams. “Holding a Digital Town Square is an opportunity to hear from top experts in the field and openly discuss the issues affecting the entire community.”

Pacific Interface consultant Laurin Herr set the stage by describing the current landscape faced by archivists and content creators and owners. Storage/data authority Tom Coughlin detailed the exploding archive content, and Amazon Web Services product manager Henry Zhang described how his company’s services aim to create efficiencies and offer solutions.

Among the topics of focus were the impact of the increased amount of data flooding today’s media and entertainment archive, how to define tiers or levels of storage, nascent technologies that offer the promise of better solutions (including the cloud, DOTS, DNA and optical media), and how several studios and archives are planning for the future. Coca-Cola and Universal Pictures also presented case studies.

Amazon Web Services (Ben Masek and Ian McPherson) hosted the event, with participating sponsor Fujifilm and its Dternity digital archiving solution. The event was also sponsored by DigitalFilm Tree.

Speakers:

1. Guillaume Aubuchon, CTO, DigitalFilm Tree
2. Jean Bolot, VP, Research & Innovation, Technicolor
3. Brian Campanotti, Director, Business Development, Oracle
4. Annie Chang, VP, Technology Standards & Strategy, The Walt Disney Company
5. Tom Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates
6. Daniel De La Rosa, Director, Film Production Technologies, Universal Pictures
7. Nick Felder, Group Director, Film & Music Production, Coca-Cola
8. Laurin Herr, President, Pacific Interface
9. Andrea Kalas, President, Association of Moving Images (AMIA)
10. Joshua Kolden, Founder, Avalanche
11. Denis Leconte, Director, Technology, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services
12. Josh Rizzo, VP, Technology, 24p Dailies Lab — Sony Pictures Entertainment
13. Dan Rosen, CTO/Partner, Group 47
14. Erik Weaver, Project Manager, Cloud, ETC@USC
15. Konstantin Wilms, Specialist Solution Architect, Amazon Web Services
16. Henry Zhang, Senior Product Manager, Amazon Web Services