StudioBytes Q+A: Bill Berry, Dulce Systems

In just three years of existence, Dulce Systems has built a line-up of products aimed at bringing cost-effective direct-attached PCI-e storage to the content-creation market. Its Pro DI product, with removable DI Packs that each hold 16 2.5-inch drives, has been gaining traction in the digital-intermediate market. StudioBytes asked Bill Berry, executive sales manager at Dulce, to explain the enduring appeal of a sneakernet storage system in the Internet age.

Is the Pro DI product specific to the digital intermediate workflow, or are there other areas of post-production that are finding it useful?
It’s specific to the DI right now, although we’re finding new applications for it. But the original design goes back to our engineers, who have been in the disk drive industry since way back when and know a lot about the drives themselves. It goes back to requirements for studios who are looking to download a film and move it to another location for post-production, color, graphics, all of those things. It goes from the studio to the post-production house and then back to the studio. It fills a requirement for studios who need to allow other post-production companies to do work as needed and to finalize the picture.

So what is the reasoning for using a system like this, rather than loading the footage onto a SAN or delivering it electronically?
It’s mostly for security purposes. Studios want to make sure a movie doesn’t get in too many hands. They’re very cautious when it comes to their films, and this way they can keep track of what goes out. It’s almost like a security blanket for studios that want to make sure the right thing gets to the right people. At big post-production companies, you’ll have one person doing graphics, another person doing some editing. Several different departments will work on a project, and they’re very specialized in what each person does. They can easily move that pack from one department to another to get each particular job done instead of having one person do the whole thing.

Are there customers outside the entertainment industry who are interested in that same idea of physical security?
Customers in the government who are interested. They have a need for high security, where the data has to be on a specific disk and put into a vault and kept there until it’s needed again or moved to another department. So we’re finding an interest in high-security workflows, as well.

Will the Pro DI support a 2K or 4K DI?
Although production studios have been using the Pro DI for HD-format work, customers can run one stream of 2K if required. We’re in the process of building a product that will run 2K and 4K in the near future, but there has not been a requirement for 2K because our customers haven’t really gone that far yet.

Is the Pro DI product unique in the Dulce Systems product line, or are there other products that are used in the DI space?
It’s a unique product for DI applications. One of the features we’ve added to the Pro DI has been RAID-protection up to RAID 6. You have 16 2.5 inch drives inside a five-inch drive pack, and those 16 drives can be used with RAID 6. You could actually lose two drives in a drive pack and still have access to your movie – it would be a very low risk to move that pack from one place to another.