Martin Edström

Background

Through impressive and immersive stories, Swedish journalist and photographer Martin Edström has made a name for himself. Together with his team he creates experiences spanning from the heights of Mount Everest to the river deltas of Ganges; landscapes captured in detail with terabytes of pictures. The storyteller transforms them into captivating, digital environments for anyone to explore – often using virtual reality to provide the full experience.

Challenges

Martin’s storytelling has evolved from 360° video to interactive, 3D-scanned experiences that let the user fully walk around his stories. This technical leap has enabled him to not only create films, but now game-like experiences. Together with National Geographic, this interactivity has for example been used in 3D scans of Stonehenge.

The technology is not only for sharing epic locations. In a science project in Kyrgyzstan, Martin and the team managed to accelerate new scientific progress through their technology. By creating 3D models of scans of cave systems and entire mountains, the scientists could identify new caves and further explore the geology of the country. At the same time, the story of their work and progress was brought to life.

Drones and helicopters are often utilized to capture tens of thousands of images in every direction, with the 360° videos created from footage of eight to twelve cameras working in sync. The steps to realize the 3D models are photogrammetry or the more avant-garde methods of Gaussian Splatting, resulting in good-looking and realistic models. Input and output are both vast amounts of data; irreplaceable data that must be accessible during the editing process. The team’s collaborative editing further pushes the technical requirements.

Solution

To manage the growing data volumes, the capabilities of the QNAP TVS-h1288X are a necessity. Its snappy, six core Intel® Xeon® processor and inclusion of dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet built-in enables the team of five to simultaneously access the data. Compared to the 1 Gigabit standards of the past, Martin praises how much of the editing is now possible directly from the NAS.

A single project can start from 5 terabytes of raw data, growing beyond 20 terabytes with the in-progress 3D files and 360° videos. The primary NAS is thus accompanied by a TS-873A to fulfill all storage needs, and here Martin highlights the upgrade potential as a benefit. For the latter, he has upgraded to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, while the TVS-h1288X just received some extra RAM.

On the software side, the QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync function has been a lifesaver on multiple occasions. With regular intervals the project files are backed up from the TVS-h1288X to the TS-873A, to allow Martin and his team to roll back the work in case of mistakes or unwanted edits. As the team experiments with the technology of tomorrow, this feature is especially helpful. Such work is further supported by the QNAP Container Station, running custom scripts to sort data, or prototypes of code for experiencing their stories on the web.

Result

With QNAP TVS-h1288X and TS-873A, Martin Edström and his team can rapidly transfer and manage terabytes of raw data from their 3D scanning field expeditions. The hardware and software then allow for safe experimentation and a smooth editing experience, to make their interactive stories come to life.