Stokes Twins

Background

The Stokes Twins, renowned for their high-output YouTube presence, specialize in long-form videos, short-form content, and large-scale shows. As their popularity grew, so did the demands on their production team, which is tasked with managing massive volumes of 4K content daily. With plans to expand into 8K and beyond, the team recognized the need for a scalable, centralized storage platform capable of supporting their creative growth.

Challenge

The Stokes Twins’ existing storage environment was reaching its limits, with only 70 TB of usable capacity. Slow transfer speeds and reliance on flash drives and external storage devices made editing workflows inefficient. Collaborating with editors from around the world was cumbersome, and the risk of data loss loomed large. Scalability was limited, and any downtime directly affected their publishing schedules and overall productivity, jeopardizing timely content releases.

Solution

To transform their workflow, the Stokes Twins deployed the QNAP TS-h2477AXU-RP-R7-32G as the foundation of a centralized storage system. This powerful NAS offers three key benefits for media creation:

• Fast access to large files: With plenty of storage space and quick access speeds, editors can easily handle 4K and future 8K content.
• Super-fast file transfers: Built-in high-speed connections ensure fast movement of large video files, speeding up the editing process.
• Reliable data protection and scalability: The system’s ZFS-based architecture provides robust data protection and system reliability. Plus, it grows with the team’s needs, keeping workflows smooth as they expand.

Connected over 10GbE fiber and Ethernet and configured with RAID 6, the new system supports up to ten editors working concurrently on Adobe® based workflows. QNAP’s synchronization and remote access features also help editors and founders securely access, review, and manage content from anywhere — improving collaboration across locations.

Result

The switch to QNAP has been a game-changer for the Stokes Twins. The new system has enabled the team to scale up to 500 TB of usable storage without compromising on performance or data security. Editing workflows have been optimized, and collaboration among local and remote teams is now seamless. Faster file transfers and uploads have significantly reduced downtime, ensuring more consistent release schedules and providing peace of mind as their production needs continue to grow.