CASE STUDY
Over the past five years , the National Hockey League and VAST Data have collaborated to innovate and transform the way the NHL manages , stores and distributes its media .
This has helped enhance the League ’ s archival workflows , expanded into real-time game footage operations and enabled future advancements in AIpowered content discovery .
At the forefront of this transformation are Grant Nodine , NHL Senior Vice President , Technology and Derek Kennedy , NHL Vice President , Media Operations and DevOps . Together , they led the architectural vision to preserve the League ’ s vast historical assets and make them accessible for future generations . They also brought this vision to life by streamlining media operations and implementing advanced data and replication solutions across NHL arenas .
Background
The collaboration between the NHL and VAST began five years ago when the NHL sought a data platform for its production workflows . At the time , the League was looking for a data platform capable of managing their growing media content , which included live games and archival footage . According to Derek Kennedy : “ We weren ’ t looking necessarily for solutions for our data ; we were looking for a platform for our production arm .”
Initially , VAST didn ’ t have the SMB protocol the NHL required for desktop user access . However , VAST committed to co-developing the protocol to meet this need . As Kennedy recalls : “ We took a risk and did an engineering exercise to build the SMB protocol . Three months later , it was in production for the NHL to leverage and for all other VAST customers to use .” This commitment to partnership and co-innovation
IF DATA IS THE FUEL OF AI , THE SPORTS MEDIA
INDUSTRY HOLDS THE KEYS TO ONE OF THE WORLD ’ S
GREATEST RESERVES .
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