Horsecross Arts Ltd
A single NAS server from Synology solved a myriad of problems across a diverse set of departments. Collaboration is now easier, management is centralised and simplified. Setting up the Synology NAS was very easy, the integration into a mixed Macintosh and Windows environment with Microsoft Active Directory was very smooth. IT Administrator David Smout
The Company
The Challenge
The Solution
The Benefits
Horsecross Arts now has a Synology NAS server with four 2TB disks giving 5.5 TB of storage using Synology Hybrid RAID. Installation was very smooth. Using 4 disks they were able to deploy a RAID with 1 redundant disk and maximise the storage with the Synology Hybrid RAID.
Set Up and Management - The web interface gives the impression of a desktop with different applications. Everything is easily managed with a good help file system accessed from the application you are working in. Joining the device to a domain, setting up shared folders on the volume and assigning permissions using the Active Domain Groups was simple. Setting up the features needed was just a case of enabling them and putting in a few pieces of network specific information. The access to the web management interface can be set to HTTPS only for extra security.
iTunes Server
Centralising the music and SFx into the Synology NAS server was very simple. The iTunes service was enabled and a name was given to the service on the network. The libraries of all the editing computers were copied to the default shared music folder on the Synology NAS server. About 350gb of data was copied over a gb network in a few hours, once that was complete the Synology NAS server appeared in iTunes as a shared Library, a password was set to allow only authorised access. It is fully searchable within iTunes which dramatically cuts down the amount of time creating sound tracks and with mapped drives for windows users or mounted drives at log on for Mac users it also can be added as a Library folder in iTunes. This makes the shared library available to all applications on the client computer. Removing the huge library off the client editing computers allows them to run the editing software much faster than before. Creative Learning and Community teams previously had to wait until a sound engineer was available to create their sound tracks, now they can do this job themselves. They have greater flexibility and lower costs per project.
Camera Surveillance
The internal IP cameras across both sites were mainly Axis PTZ213, Synology Camera Surveillance supports the function of these cameras and many others. Adding extra Camera licences was a quick and cost effective method as was configuration of the cameras into the system. PTZ is fully supported as is patrol function and the image settings of each individual camera. Storage quotas can be set for each camera too. A separate secure web control panel has also been set up for operators for easy administration and control of the system. This is centrally accessed in any building the safety and monitoring of has been improved as well as now having the ability to analyse events using the footage stored on the Synology NAS server.
Conclusion
The Synology NAS server was the perfect fit for Horsecross Arts. It has all the functionality required in a single device. It is cost effective, meets the requirements of the Green Policies, simple administration and secure set up and integration within the current network system. Dual network ports means a good through put of data, dual USB ports and eSATA gives expansion potential as well as disaster recovery planning using off site external drives. In the near future the RSync function will be used to back up to cloud based servers as an alternative to the external drives.
Recommended Models
- RS409+
Recommended Features
- Back up Storage
- Surveillance
- iTunes