How a Video Pro Protects Drone Data, On the Fly

  • Drone footage by Sam Lin

Sam Lin has streamlined his workflow with Seagate IronWolf HDDs and a QNAP NASAs a pioneer in the use of 4K aerial videography in Taiwan, Sam Lin is often commissioned by the government to capture both the gorgeous landscapes, as well as the darker elements of nature’s impact on the island nation.

“Every time I see news reports about landslides or floods, I know I’m about to take off for work,” said Lin. “The government uses the footage I capture to evaluate the extent of the destruction caused by natural disasters in order to plan next steps and activate recovery plans.”

Lin uses a 4K camera to capture every detail and ensure high quality video output. Each of his projects can take up to 100GB worth of storage space, even after the video is compressed. “It can be tricky to control a drone in different environmental situations,” he explained, “so I usually need to take a large amount of footage even for a short video.”

Moreover, after a project is done, the raw footage and the final production piece will have to be saved for at least six months, Lin added, “in case our client requires us to go through additional raw footage for further investigative purposes.”

Check out this recent drone footage recorded by Lin:

Data Security is Critical

Lin recalls one occasion that taught him the importance of storing data using a reliable multi-drive backup process. “We stored all the raw footage we filmed in the mountains over a few days on one drive, which failed unexpectedly,” he said. “Unfortunately, we managed to rescue only 80 percent of the data. It was a painful lesson for us.”

That lesson led to Lin copying and storing each of his files on several portable hard drives. In the past, he had to spend a tremendous amount of time on data management, including backing up, moving the footage between his portable drives, PC, and laptop and deleting redundant files.

Seagate and QNAP to the Rescue

QNAP’s TVS-682T system enables centralized storage and remote file accessA year ago, a friend introduced Lin to NAS systems, which soon streamlined his workflow considerably. Today, Lin uses QNAP’s TVS-682T six-bay NAS system equipped with Seagate’s IronWolf hard drives — storage that’s built specifically for NAS systems. The holistic storage solution has not only facilitated his file-management routine, but also dramatically improved his work efficiency.

“With Seagate’s and QNAP’s combined storage solution, I’m able to work in a smarter way,” Lin said. “I’ve reduced my time spent on data management by about 30 percent.”

With the new set-up, Lin now has a central management system and the storage capacity he needs for his huge files. With capacities of up to 10TB, Seagate’s IronWolf drives is optimized for NAS with our unique AgileArray technology, to help enhance performance for file-sharing, backup and private cloud environments. AgileArray delivers drive balancing by using dual-plane balance and rotational vibration (RV) sensors to mitigate against vibration in multi-drive NAS systems, along with multi-user technology for a rugged 180TB-per-year user workload rating.

“With IronWolf, you can simply do more with a NAS for years to come,” said Jason Bonoan, Seagate product marketing manager. “Professionals like Sam, who are capturing enormous amounts of data in their work each day, can push more data through the NAS, letting them go even further with their digital assets.”

Soaring Storage Growth in Drones

The global market for commercial drone technology is flying high. Consulting firm PWC estimates the market (which includes software and other services) could reach $127 billion by 2020, up from some $2 billion in 2016. An estimated 10 exabytes of data will be captured by drones in 2020.

DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer, said some 560 million photos and videos were captured by users of its products last year.

Soaring Storage Growth in DronesGoodbye to Stacks of Drives

The solution has helped Sam get rid of his stacks of hard drives, and it’s now a lot easier for him to access, share, transfer, and manage his databases on the go. QNAP’s TVS-682T system delivers the incredible power of Thunderbolt™ 2 technology to double the transfer speed potential to 20 Gb/s, which supports smooth 4K video transfer, and is a perfect match for Thunderbolt-equipped Mac users like Lin, who rely on speed for 4K workflows, file storage and quick sharing.

Moreover, the Seagate IronWolf drive’s RAID optimization enhances performance and reliability with error-recovery control that meet videographers’ needs for better data integrity. The drive’s high reliability has freed Lin from worrying about the potential of data loss. That gives him time to tackle more pressing issues.

“My team and I can now quickly access files without any delay, even when we connect the system remotely in the field,” Lin said. “The sense of security and increased work efficiency offered by the solution allows me to focus on the most important thing for me, which is to capture the best footage and show people how I see the world from a different perspective.”

2017-12-06T15:31:54+00:00

About the Author:

John Paulsen
John Paulsen is a "Data for Good" advocate, with more than 20 years in the data storage industry. He's helped launch many industry-firsts including HAMR technology, 10K-rpm and 15K-rpm hard drives, drives designed specifically for video and for gaming, Serial ATA drives, fluid dynamic HDD motors, 60TB SSDs, and MACH.2 multi-actuator technology.