Key Code Media integrates EditShare NVMe storage, Archiware P5 archive and high-speed networking to support large-scale media preservation and digitization.
Overview
For decades, George Blood LP has helped broadcasters, musicians, sports teams, universities, libraries, government agencies, and cultural institutions preserve valuable audio, video, and film collections. Whether recovering historic concert recordings, digitizing aging videotapes, or restoring archival film, the company specializes in bringing legacy media into modern digital environments where it can be preserved, accessed, and shared with future generations.
Walking through George Blood LP’s facility is like stepping into a living museum of recording technology, with an extraordinary collection of working vintage tape machines, legacy playback equipment, and specialized film scanners maintained to support formats dating back decades. Behind this historic equipment, however, is a sophisticated digital infrastructure that must keep pace with increasingly demanding preservation workflows.
To support its expanding operations, George Blood LP partnered with Key Code Media to modernize its shared storage, expand its LTO tape archive infrastructure, and reconfigure critical network systems. The projects brought together EditShare Ultimate EFS NVMe storage, MagStor tape libraries, Archiware P5 Archive, and high-speed networking, supported by Key Code Media’s engineering expertise and ongoing Key Code Total Care services.
Together, these improvements provide the infrastructure needed to support high-volume digitization, demanding 2K and 4K film scanning workflows, and the long-term preservation of irreplaceable media collections.
The Challenge
Preserving Decades of Media While Keeping Up with Modern Demands
George Blood LP operates at the intersection of historic media preservation and modern digital production, helping organizations recover content from aging recordings, migrate obsolete data formats, convert legacy media into accessible digital files, and develop strategies to preserve and potentially monetize valuable archival assets.
The value of this work extends well beyond traditional archiving, as historic recordings can find new audiences when restored and made available through modern distribution platforms. Projects involving legendary artists such as the Grateful Dead illustrate how preservation can help bring decades-old performances back to life, creating new opportunities for content owners while ensuring culturally significant recordings remain accessible.
Delivering this level of preservation requires specialized equipment and expertise across an enormous range of recording formats. George Blood LP maintains an extensive collection of legacy playback devices alongside modern film scanning systems, including MWA and Lasergraphics scanners, enabling the company to handle everything from historic tape formats to high-resolution film transfers.
As demand for these services continued to grow, so did the volume of digital media moving through the facility. High-resolution scanning and large-scale audio and video digitization placed significant pressure on the company’s network and shared storage environment, which was increasingly struggling to deliver the sustained performance required for reliable operation.
“With our previous SAN, we were constantly dropping frames and struggling to keep up.” — Jared Gibson, Video Team Lead, George Blood LP
Beyond the immediate storage limitations, George Blood LP also needed to continue expanding its long-term archive capabilities while ensuring the network infrastructure connecting its systems could support the demands of modern media workflows. The challenge was not simply to increase storage capacity, but to strengthen the underlying technology environment without disrupting the specialized preservation processes that make the company unique.
The Solution
High-Performance Storage, Advanced Archiving, and Network Integration
Working closely with George Blood LP, Key Code Media delivered a series of infrastructure upgrades designed to support the company’s growing digitization and preservation requirements. Led by Key Code Media engineer Walter Viegas, the engagement included high-performance shared storage, expanded LTO tape archive systems, network reconfiguration, and ongoing technical support.
EditShare Ultimate EFS NVMe Shared Storage
At the center of the modernization was EditShare Ultimate EFS NVMe, a high-performance shared storage platform designed to handle the sustained data throughput required for demanding media workflows.
The solution included a 275TB NVMe storage node with 100Gb network connectivity, providing a high-speed foundation for George Blood LP’s large-scale digitization operations. With multiple scanning and transfer systems generating substantial volumes of media, the new storage environment needed to support continuous data transfers while maintaining the reliability required for preservation work.
The system was validated within George Blood LP’s specialized production infrastructure, including its MWA and Lasergrahics film scanners, where high-resolution image sequences and other large media files place substantial demands on storage performance.
During stress testing, the EditShare system sustained 16 gigabytes per second in write performance– with concurrent 9 gigabytes/sec in read — exceeding expectations while demonstrating the stability needed for continuous production.
“We pushed the system as hard as we could, and we couldn’t break it. In stress tests, we sustained 16 gigabytes per second in writes, well above our expectations, with total stability. To put that into perspective, we’re talking about supporting multiple uncompressed video streams, hundreds of high-resolution audio tracks, simultaneous tape backups, and active editing workstations—all at once.”— Jared Gibson, Video Team Lead, George Blood LP
By eliminating the storage bottlenecks that previously interrupted digitization workflows, the new EditShare infrastructure allows George Blood LP to process demanding media formats with greater confidence while supporting its continued growth. On a typical day they ingest 30TB of fresh data. Including rendering, backups and writing out to delivery media, the EditShare addresses 300TBs of read/write every day.
Expanding Long-Term Archiving with MagStor and Archiware
While high-performance shared storage is essential for active digitization, long-term preservation also requires dependable archive infrastructure capable of managing the growing volume of digital assets generated by these workflows.
Key Code Media supplied additional archive technology, including two MagStor M6000E tape library systems, LTO-9/LTO-10 drives, helping George Blood LP continue developing its long-term media preservation infrastructure. The upgrades included three LTO-9 and three LTO-10 SAS drives specified for each M6000E library, alongside other tape equipment supporting the company’s archive operations.
The environment also includes Archiware P5 Archive and Backup, which provides software tools for managing data across tape-based storage systems. Together, the tape hardware and archive software support George Blood LP’s need to maintain a growing collection of machines to digitize an ever-growing range of formats, while accommodating different storage and retention requirements.
For an organization responsible for preserving historically significant recordings, this combination of high-performance production storage and long-term tape infrastructure provides an important foundation for protecting digital assets beyond the initial digitization process.
Network Reconfiguration and Systems Integration
Supporting high-volume media transfers requires a reliable network architecture capable of moving substantial amounts of data between storage, scanning, and other connected systems.
As part of the broader modernization effort, Key Code Media provided dedicated engineering and project management services to reconfigure George Blood LP’s network infrastructure. The engagement also included Cisco Nexus networking equipment, high-speed connectivity components, configuration of VLANs and permissions, reprogramming every IP address in the facility, and additional network cabling, supporting the evolving technical requirements of the facility.
These improvements complemented the shared storage and archive investments while addressing the connectivity required for George Blood LP’s specialized operations. By working across multiple infrastructure systems, Key Code Media helped the organization continue modernizing its technology environment without losing sight of the workflows that depend on it.
Ongoing Support with Key Code Total Care
Because George Blood LP’s preservation operations rely on a combination of modern digital infrastructure and highly specialized legacy equipment, maintaining reliable technical systems is an ongoing priority.
Beyond the initial infrastructure upgrades, George Blood LP maintains a Key Code Total Care Gold support agreement, providing continued access to Key Code Media’s technical expertise and engineering services. Key Code Media’s New York team has also supported additional integration work as the company’s technology requirements have evolved.
This ongoing relationship allows George Blood LP to draw on specialized systems integration expertise while its internal team remains focused on the complex work of recovering, digitizing, and preserving valuable media collections.
The Results
With high-performance EditShare storage, expanded MagStor archive infrastructure, and network improvements, George Blood LP has strengthened the technology foundation supporting its large-scale preservation operations.
The EditShare Ultimate EFS NVMe system demonstrated sustained write performance of 16 GB/s during stress testing, eliminating the storage bottlenecks that had previously caused dropped frames and interrupted workflows. The infrastructure now supports operations digitizing up to 70TB of media daily, including demanding 2K and 4K film scanning alongside high-volume audio and video transfers.
The addition of MagStor LTO archive technology and Archiware P5 also expands the company’s infrastructure for managing and protecting growing collections of digital media, while network reconfiguration and ongoing Key Code Total Care support provide additional resources as its operations continue to evolve.
For George Blood, these investments support a larger mission of preserving historically significant recordings at scale without compromising the quality and attention to detail that customers expect.
“We can take on a semi-truck of media and still deliver at the highest quality. We’re proud to combine scale with the care these collections deserve, and EditShare has given us the infrastructure to keep growing.” — George Blood, President, George Blood LP
By combining modern shared storage, advanced archiving, network integration, and long-term technical support, Key Code Media is helping George Blood LP maintain the infrastructure necessary to preserve decades of media history while making these valuable recordings accessible to future generations.
Featured Technology & Solutions
Shared Storage & Media Infrastructure
- EditShare Ultimate EFS NVMe – 184TB High-Performance Shared Storage
- EditShare Dual 100Gb Ethernet Connectivity
Media Archiving & Preservation
- MagStor M6000E LTO Tape Library Systems
- MagStor LTO-10 SAS Tape Drives
- MagStor LTO-9
- Archiware P5 Archive
- SuperLogics Archive Workstation
Networking & Connectivity
- Cisco Nexus 93180YC-EX and 93108TC-EX Network Switches
- High-Speed 100Gb Ethernet Networking
- Fiber-Optic Connectivity and Network Cabling
Systems Integration & Support
- Key Code Media Network Design & Reconfiguration
- Key Code Media Systems Engineering & Integration
- Key Code Media Installation, Cabling & Commissioning
- Key Code Total Care Gold – Ongoing Technical Support
Key Code Media Lead Engineer: Walter Viegas