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Industry · Media & Entertainment

Shared Storage That Keeps Up with Production

TrueNAS delivers multi-stream 4K/8K throughput, simultaneous SMB and NFS access, and the data integrity guarantees that broadcast and post-production workflows demand — without per-seat licensing.

TrueNAS media and entertainment storage

The Challenge

Media workflows are unforgiving: dropped frames during ingest, stuttering timelines during edit, and corrupted renders mean missed deadlines and expensive re-shoots. Most storage vendors solve this by locking you into proprietary protocols or high-margin licensed clients for every workstation in the facility.

TrueNAS uses SMB and NFS — the same protocols that every NLE, color suite, and audio workstation already speaks. The OpenZFS self-healing file system guarantees bit-for-bit data integrity on every frame. And with TrueNAS F-Series delivering up to 20 GB/s of all-flash NVMe throughput, there is no bottleneck between your storage and your editors.

How TrueNAS Supports Media Production

From ingest through archive, a single TrueNAS platform handles every stage of the media workflow.

Throughput and Protocol Support

Simultaneous SMB + NFS — Every NLE Connects Without a Client

TrueNAS serves SMB v3 (Windows, DaVinci Resolve, Premiere on Windows) and NFSv4 (macOS Final Cut Pro, Linux Flame) simultaneously from the same storage pool. No per-seat storage client licensing, no protocol conversion appliances, and no latency penalty from bridging. Every editor accesses the same media directly.

Multi-Stream 4K/8K Throughput

TrueNAS F-Series delivers up to 20 GB/s aggregate throughput and TrueNAS R60 up to 60 GB/s — enough for dozens of simultaneous 4K ProRes 4444 or 8K RAW streams from a single appliance with headroom to spare.

High-Speed Ethernet & Fibre Channel

TrueNAS supports 10, 25, 40, 100, and 400 GbE networking alongside Fibre Channel block access. Fabric-attach editing workstations via 10/25 GbE while connecting render farms via 100 GbE — all from the same appliance.

Data Integrity and Protection

01

Self-Healing ZFS

OpenZFS checksums every block end-to-end. Corrupted frames are detected immediately and repaired from redundant copies before they reach the editing workstation — silent corruption is impossible.
02

Project Snapshots

Snapshot an entire project directory before a major edit or color pass in milliseconds. Roll back any dataset to a prior state instantly if a conform goes wrong — no restore from backup required.
03

Automated Off-Site Replication

Replicate finished projects or dailies to a remote TrueNAS system or cloud provider automatically after wrap — satisfying M&E production insurance requirements without manual copying.
04

Archive to Cloud or Tape-Equivalent

Push completed project archives to Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, or Azure Blob at scheduler-controlled bandwidth — deep archive tiers bring long-term storage costs down to tape-comparable levels without the restore latency.

Workflow Integration

Active Directory & Permissions

Join TrueNAS to your Windows Active Directory domain. Editor and colorist permissions on project shares are controlled through existing AD groups — no separate storage user management.

Quota Management per Project

Set per-dataset storage quotas so a runaway transcode job on one project cannot consume capacity allocated to another. Alerts notify storage admins before quotas are exceeded.

Online Capacity Expansion

Add drives or expansion shelves to a TrueNAS pool while production continues. No downtime, no migration, no data movement — capacity and performance grow in place.

VMware & Render Farm Integration

TrueNAS is VMware VAAI certified and supports ESXi snapshot integration, making it suitable as shared datastore storage for render VMs alongside direct-attached editing workstations.

Trusted by leading organizations

Disney Marvel Entertainment Warner Bros. Discovery Comcast Skywalker Sound Fox Adobe

Recommended TrueNAS Systems for Post-Production & Broadcast

Models commonly chosen for this workload, with reasoning.

V-Series

TrueNAS V160

4U tri-mode · 24+4 bay · 400 GbE

Hyperconverged NVMe at 60 GB/s and 400 GbE — the shared store for 4K and 8K editorial, color, and VFX with NVMe-oF over RDMA.

View V160 →
F-Series

TrueNAS F100

2U all-flash · 48-core · 20 PB

All-NVMe flash for editorial bays that need raw IOPS without HA-cluster complexity. Dual-controller for non-stop edit rooms.

View F100 →
R-Series

TrueNAS R60

12-bay all-NVMe · 60 GB/s

All-NVMe single-controller rackmount — same 60 GB/s ceiling at lower price than V160. Good fit for studio-scale workflows.

View R60 →
Authorized TrueNAS Reseller

Size your media storage correctly

Tell us your concurrent stream count, codec, edit seat count, and project archive requirements — we’ll configure the right TrueNAS and stay on the order until it ships.

Recommended Hardware for Media & Entertainment

Small Studio / Post House

TrueNAS H-Series

Hybrid NAS with NVMe caching for small post-production suites. Up to 8 GB/s, 3 PB raw, optional 40/100 GbE. Cost-effective for 4-8 simultaneous edit seats.

View H-Series
Mid-Size Facility / Broadcast

TrueNAS F-Series

All-flash NVMe storage delivering up to 20 GB/s and 9 PB effective capacity. Ideal for 4K/8K shared edit environments, color suites, and live broadcast ingest.

View F-Series
Large Facility / AI-Assisted Post

TrueNAS R60

PCIe Gen5 all-flash with 60 GB/s throughput and 400 GbE networking. Built for AI-assisted post-production, large-scale ingest, and GPU render farm connectivity.

View R60
Find Your Fit

Not sure which series fits your workload?

Four deployment paths. Pick the one that fits.

Home, Office & Remote Site

Quiet, compact ZFS storage for creators, home labs, and branch offices. ECC RAM, 10 GbE, and IPMI in a desktop or 1U chassis.

Explore Mini Series

SMB & Mid-Market Rackmount

High-density hybrid and all-NVMe rackmount NAS. From 3.4 PB hybrid up to 60 GB/s NVMe.

Explore R-Series

Enterprise HA & High-IOPS

Dual-controller failover with TrueCache NVDIMM, hybrid or all-flash, and 25/100 GbE. Built for VMware, SAP, and 24/7 business-critical workloads.

Compare Enterprise

AI/ML & Petabyte Scale

Tri-mode SAS + Gen4 NVMe with 400 GbE fabric and 60 GB/s system bandwidth. MinIO AIStor object storage for GPU clusters and AI/ML pipelines.

Explore V-Series
Authorized TrueNAS Reseller OpenStorageNAS · a division of BlueAlly
Enterprise NAS & Server Hardware TrueNAS · Enterprise Storage Solutions
Expert Pre-Sales Support Call us · 877-352-0547