Small Tree at Apple's WWDC 2009

Hey all,

It's been about a week or so since WWDC 2009 was going on. Although the information that can be given about WWDC is limited, we have outlined a few items that we feel are okay to mention, and that you'd like to know about.

1) The 64-bit kernel has greatly improved performance of function calls, memory copies, etc...

2) All network file systems will be noticeably faster in 10.6. (It is unclear if this is for 32bit and 64bit or just the 32bit kernal)

3) It was announced that OSX server will run the 64-bit kernel by default.

4) The developer tools are greatly improved. There are new code analysis tools to help generate cleaner code. The DTrace tools have been enhanced allowing greater focus on problems.

5) Small Tree even attended a few iPhone sessions. They are packed. We talked to multiple people whose companies have no macs - they are there just to learn about iPhone. Over half of the attendees are first timers.

As you can see Apple is giving us some insight to some exciting stuff coming down in 10.6. We're sure that even what we do not know about in detail is even more exciting then what we've mentioned here.

New O/S enhancments and Server performance improvments will mean that Small Tree is able to engineer and architecht even better solutions for your Video Editing over Ethernet needs.

Small Tree intends to incorporate every improvment possible to bring you the best performing ethernet solutions for Mac!

Sullivan Productions Acts Now on Shared Storage Technology to Improve Post-Production on Infomercials

Small Tree is at it some more!


Here's a new PR to hit the wire today June 1st!






(Tampa, Florida--June 1, 2009) A leading producer of the direct response infomercials we all know and love – Swivel Sweeper, OxiClean and Smart Chopper – as well as the subject of Discovery Channel’s popular “Pitchmen” series, Sullivan Productions recently took the Small Tree challenge to see if Small Tree’s scalable, cost-efficient shared storage technology was the right solution for their workflow needs.

After struggling with its workflow for months, Sullivan Productions is completing projects much more easily thanks to Small Tree’s Edge-corE ES4524D, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, along with its PEG6 6-port Ethernet card – both of which are a part of Small Tree’s new GraniteSTOR product line.

Prior to installing Small Tree’s technology, Sullivan Productions had a separate RAID for two of its three Final Cut Pro editing suites. Its third room was used to digitize onto a portable RAID, which would then have to be moved manually to one of the other suites. This slowed down the production team because it couldn’t share anything and didn’t have access to any footage. By installing Small Tree’s GraniteSTOR products, Sullivan Productions is now running in two rooms concurrently for 10 hours every day, and three rooms for 10 hours at least three days a week with real-time editing and no dropped frames.

“The difference in workflow since installation [of the Small Tree equipment] is night and day,” said Stephen Cain, post-production editor at Sullivan Productions. “Just the other day I was working in Suite 1 and needed b-roll footage for another project with a tight deadline. I was able to digitize the b-roll in Suite 3 so that when I was finished with the project I was working on in Suite 1 I could pull up the footage and immediately begin working on the next project. It’s incredible that we don’t have to stop, transfer materials onto a portable drive and then move it over. The seamless, real-time editing has made life so much easier for everyone on our team.”

Improved workflow? Check. Happier production and post-production teams? Check. But wait, there’s more.

Not only did Small Tree’s shared storage make life easier for Sullivan Productions, it did so at a fraction of the cost of a typical storage solution. “It was absolutely more cost-efficient than the system we were currently running and far less expensive than SAN solutions on the market today,” Cain continued. “Cutting the cost of our storage technology allowed us to address other pressing technology needs in our facility, such as adding more computers and software to maximize our services. I can’t think of a reason why a post-production facility wouldn’t go with this solution.”

About Small Tree
Small Tree is the Mac Networking Expert, making networking child’s play. Small Tree provides a complete portfolio of Ethernet-based networking and storage solutions for Apple Mac OS X customers. Small Tree’s team of networking developers has extensive experience in high performance computing, and knows how to achieve the demanding application requirements of Mac customers. Small Tree also provides contracted programming services for the Department of Defense. For more information about the company and its products, please call 1-866-STC4MAC (1-866-782-4622), or visit http://www.small-tree.com.

Shared storage solutions for Mac!

Hey all!

I hope you're doing well! Small Tree's GraniteSTOR Sure is Inspiring!

This is hot off the press!




Shared storage solutions for Mac
New Shared Storage Technology Means No Dropped Frames for DNP Studios

Joe DiBenedetto May 26th, 2009
As business continued to grow for DNP Studios (DNP), an industry leader in full-service film and high-definition video production/post-production, so too did the agency’s concerns about its workflow. With three fully stocked post-production suites in its new, custom-built, 10,000-square-foot facility featuring MAC Pro’s with 8 gigs of RAM, DNP needed a shared storage system capable of sharing HD footage in real time without dropping frames. To meet its technical requirements, the agency recently installed shared storage technology from Small Tree, designer of simple-to-install, inexpensive Mac-based networking and shared storage products for professional video and audio editors, and the results have been exceptional thus far.

To facilitate its workflow, DNP installed Small Tree’s Edge-corE ES4524D, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, along with its PEG4 4-port Ethernet card – both of which are a part of Small Tree’s new GraniteSTOR product line. According to Mike Florio, visual effects artist at DNP, the Small Tree system’s reliability has improved the production team’s productivity.

“The improved workflow we’ve experienced since implementing the Small Tree equipment has allowed us to complete projects more efficiently, as we’re not faced with the constant struggle for dataflow,” stated Florio. “We now have capabilities to play back DVCProHD footage, while other editors are pulling ProRes422HQ files from the drives simultaneously with no problems and no glitches. That fact that we don’t have to worry about dropped frames, play back or other typical technical snags that arise in post-production is comforting.”

From concept development and scriptwriting to state-of-the-art production and post-production services, as well as an exciting array of multimedia and web-based communications, DNP Studios develops solutions to effectively inform, inspire, educate and motivate. Among its impressive project roster is the popular feature film “Fireproof,” starring Kirk Cameron. During its theatrical run, “Fireproof” had a domestic gross of more than $33 million, placing it in the top five Christian films by box office sales.

Small Tree is the Mac Networking Expert, making networking child’s play. Small Tree provides a complete portfolio of Ethernet-based networking and storage solutions for Apple Mac OS X customers. Small Tree’s team of networking developers has extensive experience in high performance computing, and knows how to achieve the demanding application requirements of Mac customers. Small Tree also provides contracted programming services for the Department of Defense. For more information about the company and its products, please call 1-866-STC4MAC (1-866-782-4622), or visit www.small-tree.com.

Small Tree's New Residence!

The last few weeks Small Tree employees have been preparing for a move to a new facility. For the last few days everyone has been delving into moving!

This new office space will save our company money! (We're very big about doing more with less etc..) Previously we shared a lot of "commons" areas. As a result we were paying premiums for that space. It so happens that our new facility is in the same building. It has a front and a back door, both of which go outside (as opposed to an office building hallway / entryway).

Some of our new additions include a Delivery Dock as well as a Private Restroom.

Today was also busy and very tiring. It worked out so that all of the people were here together making sure our Phone and ISP were moved over. There was also the lugging of the back and forth of the lab machines that took place. What an endeavor. As we move forward there will be positive changes going on around us. Such as our growing lab!

The best news is at the end of the day everyone had worked hard and we were all satisfied. At the end of the day we've looked back. We can see ourselves progressing forward into the future and were on a roll!

Small Tree boasts GraniteSTOR, shared storage video editors can rely on

Small Tree's GraniteSTOR is not just Shared Storage, it's and entire Real Time Video Editing Solution that has been tuned by a world class team of engineers. Small Tree has done this to deliver Solution Providers and Video Editors something, that is very fast, very inexpensive, extremely reliable, and offers the best high performance to cost ratio, when compared to other Video Editing solutions available today. The Small Tree Product Support is world class too!

What's also true, is that people (video editors, you, me...) now more then ever are realizing the potential a company like Small Tree brings to the table. Introducing solutions like GraniteSTOR, among other possibilities, introduces the future in Video Editing Shared Storage work flows. More and more, we can hear people tell us how they are getting away from large expensive SAN type environments.

So, we challenge you to join the ranks and take advantage of new ways to Edit Video in Final Cut Pro using Shared Storage!

For those that visited us at NAB 2009, which was a really great show for Small Tree, took away one of our handouts with a Top 10 Quotes from some Small Tree users. Here's a peek of that handout...

“As a small post-production department with four systems, Small Tree offered us an
affordable and ideal shared storage solution for sharing media,” states David Piccolo, head of
the creative services team at FOX Sports Florida. “The Small Tree system allows us to access
any program at each of our workstations. This eliminates confusion surrounding multiple versions
of the same project being created. To date, we’re very pleased with the system’s performance.”

“We’ve been looking at SANs for a long time, but unfortunately, the majority of options fell
well outside our budget,” said Cody Skinner, director of video production for 8fish. “With
the Small Tree solution, we’ve been able to achieve the performance we were looking for at half the
cost. This technology makes a lot of sense for smaller facilities such as 8fish that aren’t working
with uncompressed HD, but are taking MPEG2 35Mbit streams straight off the camera. In the end,
we simply wanted our six workstations to be able to read, write, copy, digitize, play and render files
concurrently and we’ve been able to do that flawlessly with the Small Tree equipment.”


With that we leave you to ponder all this.

If you'd like the the rest of Small Tree's Top 10 Quote's, or other information about GraniteSTOR, Edge-corE Switches, or Small Tree's Intel Mac Networking product line, please email Small Tree Sales through the blog salesblog@small-tree.com, or info@small-tree.com. We'll be happy to help you.

GraniteSTOR Delivers at NAB 2009 (Final Cut Shared Storage)

This year at NAB 2009 was a big show for Small Tree. This year alone we had more press to the booth then most of our other years combined. It was fantastic and very heart warming to know Small Tree has a Shared Storage solution to meet the requirements of Post Houses abroad!

I'm talking about GraniteSTOR. Small Tree's GraniteSTOR Solutions are custom tailored Shared Storage for your Final Cut editing work flow. It really is possible to run Final Cut in a shared environment and have it work successfully.

Here's a glimpse of what we demonstrated at the show. This is a 16TB GraniteSTOR ST-RAID,
capable of feeding 12 x Pro Res HQ Streams at one time to 12 clients (1 stream each) or 6 clients (2 x streams each). It really is amazing!

We were getting a lot of traffic which was referred to us from other Vendors, our Current Partners, and Post facilities that have been following us, or reading about us on the Creative Cow Forums.


Maybe the even more amazing part about is, even though this truly
works, people still have that skepticism about it!


Our Shared Storage Solutions will show you how to edit multiple streams over your network without dropping frames. With many configurations to choose from, we can find a solution that will work for you.

Small Tree wants to share our GraniteSTOR with our Partners and our Customers to bring them an effective Video Editing solution which is affordable and premier in it's field.

Email us at thesalesblog@small-tree.com for more information and we'd be happy to share the fruits!!

Small Tree @ NAB with Award Winning GraniteSTOR

Yes - Small Tree will be at NAB 2009. We want you to come by and check out the Award Winning GraniteSTOR product line that debuted at Mac World 09.

The Small Tree booth will be located at SL10210

Perhaps our highlight is that we will be showing GraniteSTOR products in action! GraniteSTOR is becoming widely accepted for Video Editing project's both Large and Small across the United States and Canada and we want you to be a part of that!

We look forward to seeing you there.

If you'd would like additional information on GraniteSTOR and you read this article, please email salesblog@small-tree.com