FIRSTLAPSE

Background

FIRSTLAPSE is a professional timelapse production company which aims to be among the best timelapse photographers in the world. Since 2013, they have been delivering movies and content to companies across the globe. While they are aware of their need to optimize tools, their old storage methods were holding them back.

Challenges

As a specialized timelapse production company, FIRSTLAPSE needs a lot of capacity to store and backup timelapses. With constant business growth, they had to bring a lot of external HDDs on location for multiple backups, and this raised fears of drives being lost or stolen. Besides, since they prefer having the full control over their data, they realized that they need to seek a much more economic and efficient solution instead having to pay for a cloud service.

Solution

The high-capacity TVS-h1288X features a powerful Intel® Xeon® W processor and built-in 10GbE connectivity supporting Port Trunking. Running the reliable ZFS-based QuTS hero operating system, the TVS-h1288X helps FIRSTLAPSE form creative workflows, a file server, to efficient file backup/recovery.

The TVS-h1288X has four 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s drive bays for SSDs and two M.2 NVMe Gen 3 x4 SSD slots that allow FIRSTLAPSE to flexibly configure SSD caching to increase IOPS performance, reduce storage volume latency, and optimize 2.5GbE/10GbE performance. So far FIRSTLAPSE have set up drives with 4 bays occupied and left 4 slots open for expansion. They also set up the M.2 cache to accelerate workflows when working with hundreds of digital images in each timelapse.

Result

The TVS-h1288X provides FIRSTLAPSE with a more efficient workflow and data security. Its high capacity and scalability to meet future demands provide certainty for content creators. Now it is installed in the studio and directly connected via 10GbE to their PC. Instead of carrying external HDDs for backups, they have everything centralized in one place and can edit directly on the NAS via 10GbE. They can also connect via VPN to the NAS and get to work no matter where they are, while clients can securely connect to the NAS to download the content that FIRSTLAPSE have created for them.

Even better, with QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync, they can ensure their files are backed up and protected. FIRSTLAPSE also take advantage of QNAP’s companion mobile apps including Qmanager and Authenticator. FIRSTLAPSE can see the performance and the capacity remotely plus it has the 2-factor security enabled to prevent unwelcome guests from logging in.

With the TVS-h1288X and its apps, FIRSTLAPSE now can always have a remote backup by uploading data on the go to the QNAP NAS back home in the office without worrying about losing files, and the best part is, with SSD cache, a powerful CPU and 10GbE, everything is smooth when working and rendering 4K/5K content.