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Blackbird Studio: A state-of-the-art redesign in more ways than one

After rebuilding Creative Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, John and Martina McBride launched the internationally renowned Blackbird Studio in August of 2002. Motivated to offer the highest quality recording experience for their clients, Blackbird Studio was designed with state-of-the-art facilities and technologies, and in turn has been the studio of choice by artists ranging from Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jewel and Dolly Parton. In just a few years, the facilities now comprise seven studios, including the acclaimed Studio C designed by producer, recording engineer, audio equipment designer, and multiple Grammy award and TEC winner, George Massenburg.

“In these most challenging times for professional recording, there’s nothing worse than unreliability. SNS hardware and software has consistently risen to every challenge in Blackbird studio; it is 100% reliable, and it consistently outperforms our expectations in hard capability (track count) and just plain good software design.”

George Massenburg

blackbird

With the building of an optimal recording, mixing, listening and editing facility came the challenge of providing the best available post-production technology to store all of the music in the works, and it was the storage technology from Studio Network Solutions’ that fit the bill.

“SNS has been here with us since day one. Studio Network Solutions’ SAN has grown with us from a one room semi-private studio to a 7 room world-class facility. Tech support and service has been fast and furious, and although we rarely ever need to call, it’s great that SNS is there with answers when we need them. We currently have 11 seat licenses, 30 143 gig Fibre Channel drives and an X-4 iSCSI SAN in use everyday.” – Vance Powell, Blackbird Studio’s General Manager/Chief Engineer

“Not one single incident of data loss or client downtime because of the SAN, in 4 years of operation. That is what I call solid! Period.”

The storage technology Blackbird Studio selected was Studio Network Solutions’ A/V SAN PRO and globalSAN X-4. These audio/visual storage technologies were uniquely developed for the entertainment and media industry and offered Blackbird highly accelerated and secure post-production editing capabilities for workgroups both on and off site.

“We use our SNS SAN everyday for centralized storage for the 7 studios here at Blackbird.”

A/V SAN PRO is a shared storage solution using up to 4Gb Fibre Channel technology that provides multiple digital audio/video workstations concurrent access to centralized storage at extraordinary speed.

globalSAN X-4 is a compact, multi-user storage area network for production studios offering four 500GB SATA drives (2.0TB) and two client licenses of iSANmp software. Workstations can connect directly to the X-4 over Gigabit Ethernet and share RAID-protected storage. Other products in the globalSAN family include the X-8, X-16, and X-24, offering additional video storage and licenses for larger workgroups.

Company: Blackbird Studio, Nashville, Tennessee

About SNS

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) specializes in the development of shared storage hardware and software solutions for the Media and Entertainment industry. Since day one we’ve applied unmatched ingenuity and experience to create outstanding products that exceed industry expectations while providing outstanding support to our customers.

Our customers range in size from individual freelance engineers to multinational media powerhouses. Our solutions are used to produce everything from books on tape to full track scoring for major Hollywood films. Our products have been at the technical core of the music you listen to, the games you play, the shows you watch and the movies you see.

We have a valued network of resellers located throughout the United States… and the world. Whether you have a product question or you’re ready to place an order, we encourage you to contact us today.