Tegile Systems, the leading provider of flash-driven storage arrays for databases, virtualized server and virtual desktop environments, today announced that United Center is implementing Tegile’s IntelliFlash HD to create an improved fan experience with real-time scores and analysis on the video scoreboard. As a result, United Center’s video production team is able to power a key aspect necessary to create a better stadium experience for more than 23,000 fans per game.
United Center, home to the Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bulls, is the largest arena in the United States. Video is a crucial aspect to the fan experience and is a tool used to rally fans, whether that’s showing a replay, providing past highlights of players, or amplifying halftime entertainment. The constant need to maintain and replace hard drives became cumbersome and unsustainable, hindering their ability to entertain an audience in real-time. Now, Tegile’s IntelliFlash HD acts as the “vault,” where raw video files are stored, allowing the production crew to work and edit video files in real-time, as opposed to having to copy the files on their own drives, drastically improving production time.
“Video adds a tremendous amount to the fan experience. For a venue that is almost a million square feet, with 23,000 seats, video is absolutely crucial for the ultimate sports experience,” said Rob Sheppard, Data Center Manager at the United Center. “Tegile blew us away with its speed and economics. Our video editors can work directly out of the vault allowing the team to edit videos in real time.”
Prior to using Tegile, United Center had implemented the HP X9270. The company experienced unreliability and slow speeds, with network shares disappearing randomly and the system dropping offline regularly. United Center chose Tegile’s IntelliFlash HD because it is fully redundant with no single point of failure and it delivers unprecedented levels of performance, data consolidation, simplicity and economics. IntelliFlash HD provides superior speed and economics, while enabling United Center to easily expand a single volume with a wide capacity and one file system. With the new array, United Center has seen a 30 percent data reduction – even while working with unstructured data that is already compressed with all the various codecs the team utilizes.
“When people think about the Chicago Bulls or the Chicago Blackhawks, they don’t realize that storage arrays actually power a key aspect of the in-person fan experience,” said Narayan Venkat, Chief Marketing Officer at Tegile. “In order to entertain an audience in real-time, having the right IT infrastructure is a necessity. Only all-flash arrays are equipped with the sustainability and speeds needed to process and store data instantly to power a video scoreboard.”
For more information about IntelliFlash HD, visit www.tegile.com/products/intelliflashhd or send an email to [email protected].
