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WHITEBOARD / FILE 10
data flowrestore pathattacker / B2 nodes

10. Whiteboard: media workflows

Archive that you can actually use is not an archive. It is a library. Sell the library.

Whiteboard outcome

Camera to edit to archive to delivery on one board, with B2 as the always-online library in the middle, the MAM as the brain, and the CDN as the free exit.

Before you draw

  1. Cameras, codecs, TB per week?
  2. MAM/PAM and NLE?
  3. LTO generation and tape count?
  4. Who pulls from archive and how often?

Draw it in 10 steps

  1. Far left: camera icon “Ingest: RED / BRAW / MXF”. Write their TB/week.
  2. Next: “On-prem NAS / SAN (edit storage)” box. Arrow from camera. Say: “Your edit bays keep working on fast local storage.”
  3. Above NAS: “MAM” box (iconik, Mimir, axle ai, CuttingRoom, Backlight). Dotted line to NAS: “indexes, proxies”.
  4. Center: big “Backblaze B2” rectangle labeled “Always-online library”. Arrow NAS → B2: “sync / archive policy (Synology Cloud Sync, Hyper Backup, Archiware P5, Tiger Bridge, etc.)”.
  5. Arrow MAM → B2: “MAM writes proxies and originals; keeps search”. Say: “Search in the MAM, click, and the original comes back in minutes, not a tape robot queue.”
  6. Below B2: tape stack with an X: “LTO: retire”. Arrow tape → B2 labeled “Universal Data Migration / Fireball”. Say: “Backblaze helps fund and run the tape migration on a qualifying commitment.”
  7. Right of B2: “Remote editors” stick figures. Arrow labeled “presigned URLs / Suite Studios mount / LucidLink”.
  8. Further right: “CDN (Cloudflare / Fastly / bunny.net)” cloud. Arrow B2 → CDN labeled “$0 egress (partner)”. Then CDN → “Viewers / OTT / social”.
  9. Small box under B2: “Event Notifications → transcode / QC”. Say: “Upload triggers a webhook. Your transcoder picks it up. No polling.”
  10. Write the money line at bottom: “Archive reads: free up to 3x stored/month. Delivery via partner CDN: $0 egress.” And for live: “Live Read: start editing while the file is still uploading.”
flowchart LR
  CAM[Cameras<br/>RED / BRAW / MXF] --> NAS[On-prem NAS / SAN<br/>edit storage]
  MAM[MAM: iconik / Mimir / axle ai] -. index, proxies .- NAS
  NAS -- archive / sync policy --> B2[(Backblaze B2<br/>always-online library)]
  MAM -- originals + proxies --> B2
  TAPE[LTO tapes] -- UDM / Fireball --> B2
  B2 -- presigned URLs / mount --> RE[Remote editors]
  B2 -- event notification --> TX[Transcode / QC]
  B2 -- $0 partner egress --> CDN[Cloudflare / Fastly / bunny.net]
  CDN --> V[Viewers / OTT]
Whiteboard diagram (rendered from the source mermaid)

Proof points to use

  • Philadelphia Eagles: 800 TB under management, retired LTO-6, 100% geographic redundancy, Mimir MAM, Quantum QXS, Cloud Replication, UDM. Quote: “We went from frequent LTO crashes and long restore times to near-instant access for every stored clip.”
  • Austin City Limits: 40+ years of content, 4,000+ hours of tape migrated, Fireball, UDM.
  • Jazz at Lincoln Center: 1.3 PB archived, 3x cost savings, 400+ hard drives migrated.
  • Bell Bank (Bell Studios): 100% automated backups, 400+ hours saved per year, replaced LTO.
  • TPN Blue Shield status aligned with MPA Content Security Best Practices: answer for studio work.

Sizing notes

  • 1 hour of 8K RED RAW can be hundreds of GB depending on compression [codec-dependent; get their numbers].
  • Ask for proxy-to-original ratio. Proxies may live on the NAS and in B2.
  • Estimate monthly archive pulls as percent of stored. Most libraries read well under 3x.

Landmines

  • No object tagging in S3 API: if a MAM relies on S3 tags for metadata, test it.
  • Many MAMs and NAS sync tools use the Native B2 API or S3. Check which and whether Object Lock is needed.
  • Live Read may require enablement and supported tools. Do not promise without checking.