SSD Case Study

SANDISK SSDS MAKE STORING THE COLDEST JOURNEY VIDEO POSSIBLE

SSDs to store and backup the anticipated 47 Terabyte video record of the year-long attempt to cross the Antarctic in
winter - the last true remaining polar challenge.

THE COLDEST JOURNEY

Conceived by Sir Ranulph Fiennes in 2005 as the last great Antarctic
challenge, The Coldest Journey is the first ever attempt to cross the
Southern continent in winter. On the six month, 2000 mile trek,
the five man Ice Team will experience 24-hour darkness with
temperatures plunging below -70C (-94F). The Coldest Journey
will not only be the ultimate test of human endurance but also
provide unique and invaluable scientific research and form the basis
for an education programme that will reach up to 100,000 schools

Its hard to convey just

how extreme crossing the
Antarctic in winter is going
to be. Im really glad that
the unique record of The
Coldest Journey is going to
be stored and backed up on
SanDisk SSDs.

around the globe. The expedition also hopes to raise $10m for Seeing

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

video record of the expedition is similarly no small challenge.

Expedition Co-Leader

is Believing to help fight preventable blindness.

THE DATA STORAGE CHALLENGE

For the team, undertaking The Coldest Journey is a daunting task
- the expedition has only been made possible thanks to the advent
of highly specialist equipment like heated clothing and high-tech
communications technology. Storing and backing up the invaluable

Over the full year of the expedition, the team will shoot Raw video
for an average of an hour a day, recording nearly 400 hours of
broadcast quality footage. To make doubly sure that the record is
secure, this will need to be duplicated, creating a 47TB data archive.

Our unique requirements

meant we needed a robust and
reliable data storage solution
to keep content safe for over
a year. Solid state media, and
in particular, SanDisks highperformance SSDs, are ideal.
Tristam Kaye
Operations Manager

To store this on the same recordable media used by the camcorders

would be prohibitively expensive and, with the expedition cabooses
being dragged over 2000 miles across ice and rock for months
on end, storing it on conventional, mechanical hard drives that are
highly susceptible to shock was deemed risky.

THE SOLUTION
Given the cost constraints of specialist recording media and, in the
extreme environment, concerns over the reliability of mechanical
hard drives, The Coldest Journey team turned to SanDisk for the
one form of storage media thats both cost-effective and robust

We copy and back-up hours

of broadcast-quality video
content daily. The SanDisk
Extreme SSDs are very fast,
meaning we spend less
time copying and our whole
work flow is manageable.
Ian Prickett
Ice Team Member

enough to take on rigours of an Antarctic expedition of this scale.

During the year long expedition, all the broadcast quality video
being shot on Panasonic AG-HPX250 professional camcorders
will be stored and backed up onto 240GB1 and 480GB SanDisk
Extreme SSDs. Supporting video captured with Panasonic
HC-X900 camcorders and GoPro HERO 2 action cameras, as well as
still photography shot on Panasonic Lumix G cameras, will use 16GB
SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I cards (tested to operate up to
-25C/-13F), and will also backed up on the SanDisk Extreme SSDs.
Given the amount of material to be stored and the frequency with
which it will have to be added to the archive, the SSDs are not
installed in the expeditions Panasonic Toughbook 53 mobile PCs.
Each SSD will in fact function like a high capacity USB storage
device with all the advantages of an SSD; super fast read write
speeds, high reliability and large capacity.

SanDisk Extreme SSDs store The Coldest Journey video & photography content in the relative warmth of over 10C inside the caboose

THE TECHNOLOGY

Each days video will be first downloaded onto a mobile PC

Having to operate faultlessly while being dragged more than

Team, where the temperatures are a more comfortable 15C -

2000 miles over ice and rock in one of the worlds most

then transferred to a SanDisk Extreme SSD via a USB 3.0 SSD

punishing environments means equipment choice is critical.

docking station. The SSD is then duplicated to create a mirrored

To ensure that the video and image record survives intact, The

back-up.

inside the caboose the working and living quarters for the Ice

Coldest Journey team have chosen SanDisk Extreme SSDs

not only because flash memory is the most reliable storage

Another advantage of using SSDs as opposed to conventional

media available SanDisk Extreme SSDs are designed to

hard drives is that the exceptionally fast read/write speed

withstand shock and vibration, and rated at 1.4 to 2.5 million

of SanDisk Extreme SSDs will allow the team to make

hours mean time before failure (MTBF)2 - but because they

the

video

transfers

and

create

back-ups

very

quickly.

know, from having previously used SanDisk products in the

Antarctic, they can trust SanDisk products to perform.

Minimising the time spent on routine administration helps

conserve the teams energy for more important tasks.

Its for this reason that the expedition will also be using
16 GB SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC UHS-I cards in the teams
GoPro HERO 2 action cameras, Panasonic DMC-GH2 and
DMC-FT4 cameras and Panasonic HC-X900 camcorders.

SanDisk Extreme SSDs were selected by The Coldest

Journey as they provide:

High levels of Reliability content will truly be oncein-a-lifetime

Durable SSDs can withstand more shock & vibration

than HDDs

Trust the team have previously used SanDisk products

successfully in harsh conditions

Exceptional read/write Speeds fast read/write

performance will allow team to transfer daily shoots,
and create back-ups quickly - for faster workflow

Capacity & Cost SanDisk Extreme SSDs enabled the

team to store hundreds of hours of video at a fraction of
the cost of recording and storing video directly onto the
in-camera recordable media

The Coldest Journey expedition and documentary

filming is currently in progress, due to end in
September 2013

TheColdestJourney.org
SeeingIsBelieving.org.uk
More about SanDisk SSDs;
SanDisk.com

1 gigabyte (GB) = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Actual user storage less. 2 Based on internal testing using Telcordia stress part testing. SanDisk, SanDisk Extreme and SanDisk
Extreme Pro are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. The SDHC mark and logo are trademarks of SD-3C, LLC. GOPRO
and HERO are trademarks or registered trademarks of Woodman Labs, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Panasonic is a registered trademark of Panasonic
Corporation. Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective holder(s).
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