Suppliers are required to complete the questions in the attached Expression of Interest document, "TMRICT25124 - Expression of Interest - Fast Storage v1.0 Final"

Question:
Questions:

1. What is “G drive”? Is it Google Drive?

2. Confirm the Creative Services Team has 4 team members?

3. Are the 4 team members located in the same office? (I do notice the requirement “allow secure remote access for team members working offsite, ensuring continuity of work regardless of location”)

4. Other than these 4 team members, are there any other staff that requires access to the footage and project files?

5. TMR has prefers on-prem deployment of the proposed system in their Data Centre, or cloud (TMR’s AWS / Azure account) deployment?

6. Does TMR’s Data Centre have VM farm/infrastructure that can be used to install our proposed system’s VMs?

Answered on 03/Jun/2025 03:01 PM:


1. G:drive is a partition of the TMR secure server that the creative services team currently use for all data storage

2. Yes, the team has 4 members

3. Yes, the team are located in the same office part of the week, with work from home arrangements. Each team member has a desktop and a laptop, The desktop remains in the same office, when working from home the team can connected to the desktop remotely. The laptops are for working remotely offsite.

4. Yes, occasionally other staff may need access

5. TMR does not have a preference at this stage and seeks to understand the current offerings in the market to help determine a strategy for this solution.

6.TMR uses AWS & Azure for its cloud environments, VM Farm/infrastructure would need to be compatible with these environments.

Question:
Can i please request clarication responses for the following questions.

1. We recognize the need to support large volumes of video and photo files, as well as the associated storage capacity demands. Could TMR provide details on the typical and maximum individual file sizes currently being stored? Additionally, what are your projections for growth in both individual file size and overall volume in the future? Understanding these trends will help us ensure our solutions can effectively accommodate your evolving requirements.

2. We understand the current network requirements and the need to scale beyond 1Gbps to support your projects. Could you share details on the typical and peak data transfer rates required for your largest projects today? Additionally, what are your expectations regarding the growth of these transfer requirements in terms of both bandwidth and project size in the foreseeable future? This information will help us ensure our solutions align with your evolving network and performance needs.

3. We understand there are currently four team members involved. To ensure our solutions are properly scaled, could you clarify if this is also the maximum number of simultaneous network connections at any given time? Are there any additional users or systems accessing these projects concurrently while work is in progress? Furthermore, do you anticipate an increase in the number of concurrent or total connections in the future as your team or workflows grow?

Answered on 03/Jun/2025 11:15 AM:


1. Individual media files are expected to range in size from 10 MB to 100 GB. It is anticipated that the size of individual files will not increase significantly in the future. The overall storage requirement includes a minimum initial capacity of 50 TB, with scalability to at least 100 TB or more to accommodate future growth.

2. Team members are currently utilising external SSDs connected via USB 3.0 ports, achieving an approximate peak data transfer rate of 600 MB/s. The proposed solution is expected to deliver improved data transfer speeds while maintaining consistent performance, even with up to four simultaneous users.

3. Currently, the system is intended to support four primary users. While additional staff may occasionally require access to the data, there are no immediate plans to increase the number of concurrent users beyond four. However, the proposed solution should be designed to ensure that data speed and bandwidth are not significantly impacted should a small number of additional users need to be accommodated in the future.

Question:
Are DTMR considering increasing the network from 1Gb to 10\25GB to decrease the chance of a performance bottleneck? Should respondents include networking options to increase this capacity or is it considered Out of Scope for this EOI process.

Thank you

Answered on 04/Jun/2025 12:42 PM:


TMR advise that increasing network capacity would likely fall outside the scope of the EOI. However, there are solutions available that do not require significant network upgrades. The suitability of these solutions would depend on the type of device and its physical location:

• NAS stored locally with the team: Requires the NAS device, short 10Gb Ethernet cables, PCI cards, and converter dongles.

• DAS stored locally with the team: Requires the DAS device, high-speed data cables, and PCI cards for desktops.

• NAS stored securely on the same floor as the team: Requires NAS devices, PCI cards, and converter dongles. Plus, additional network hardware installed in our area of the office from the device to the computers (TMR at this stage is unsure if that would come under the EOI or would be additional request with TMR)

• NAS stored externally (off-site): TMR offices currently lack the necessary network infrastructure to support this setup. As such, this option may not be covered under the EOI.

Additionally, please note at this stage TMR is assessing what is currently available in the market to form a strategy for this initiative, therefore at this stage does not want to impose any restriction of the offerings available in the market.

Question:
Q1: Do the existing desktop assets have the ability have 10G networking, if unknown what is the make and model of the assets?

Q2: Is the existing TMR network infrastructure able to provide 10G from the local floor distribution to the desktops? Should this be provided as part of the response or will ITB provide the required connectivty to the desktops?

Answered on 04/Jun/2025 12:45 PM:


Q1: The desktops currently do not have 10gbe ethernet ports; there are options for both desktops & laptops i.e. adding 10Gbpe PCIe cards, or ethernet to thunderbolt converter dongles. This may fall out of scope of the EOI or may be an additional requirement for TMR.

Q2: No, the network is 1Gb, the work around would depend on the type of solution and where its physically located.

Question:
1. What are the codecs the users are working in for shooting and editing?

2. When you require multiple 10 Gb ports, can you confirm a number (4 or more) and if these are of SFP+ or RJ45 Copper type?

Answered on 04/Jun/2025 12:48 PM:


Q1. File Formats: Support for large video file formats, including 4K and higher resolutions, and common codecs such as ProRes, MXF, DNG, DNxHD/HR, H.264, and H.265.

2. TMR does not have 10gb network cabling in our office, and the desktops currently do not have 10gbe ethernet ports; there are options for both desktops & laptops for example, adding 10Gbpe PCIe cards, or ethernet to thunderbolt converter dongles.

TMR at this stage don’t know if that would be in the scope of the EOI or if it would be an additional requirement for TMR.

TMR need to connect the storage to a minimum of four computers simultaneously, weather that’s directly connected to the device or all computers connected through a switch to the device.

Question:
What software (Adobe suite, DaVinci Resolve, etc) and what operating system are the editors using?

Answered on 06/Jun/2025 03:08 PM:


TMR currently use the Adobe suite and DaVinci Resolve software, and we are currently using Windows 10 however we are currently transitioning to windows 11.

Question:
Can you please advise the exact resolution, bit rate, frame rate, for each codec and number of streams per workstation. Thank you

Answered on 10/Jun/2025 10:30 AM:


TMR assumption is this question assumes that we do live streaming with multiple cameras? We don’t do any live broadcasting scenarios. The storage will be used for offline non-linear video editing.

Resolution: up to 6k

Bit rate: N/A

Frame rate: 25fps, 50fps, 120fps

# of streams: N/A

Question:
1) Can we assume the supplier will be able to leverage TMR’s existing VM resources on AWS and Azure?

2) Should the supplier only outline the VM Cloud resource requirements in the response, or are we expected to include cost estimates as well?

3) For the four TMR teams, what is the average size of video files (in TB/GB), and how many files are typically accessed concurrently by a user?



4) Does the TMR office have any available rack cabinets to accommodate additional appliances 4U ?

Answered on 18/Jun/2025 01:55 PM:


1)Can we assume the supplier will be able to leverage TMR’s existing VM resources on AWS and Azure?

At this stage, we are only seeking to understand the solutions available in the market. Please propose a solution for TMR to consider, including potentially alternative options. If leveraging TMR’s existing VM resources on AWS and Azure is feasible, we would appreciate insights into how this could be achieved. However, we are not specifying this as a requirement at this time.

2) Should the supplier only outline the VM Cloud resource requirements in the response, or are we expected to include cost estimates as well?

We are currently seeking high-level responses to help inform our future strategy. At this stage, we are primarily interested in understanding the VM Cloud resource requirements. While cost estimates are not mandatory at this point, if suppliers can provide indicative or high-level cost considerations, it would be helpful for our strategic planning.

3) For the four TMR teams, what is the average size of video files (in TB/GB), and how many files are typically accessed concurrently by a user?

A single video file can range from 100Mb to 100Gb depending on the length, codec, resolution it was required to be recorded in. The majority of projects are in the 50-100GB range, with a few long form projects (roughly 10 a year) that go over 1TB per project

4) Does the TMR office have any available rack cabinets to accommodate additional appliances (4U)?

At this stage, we are only exploring potential solutions in the market and are not specifying detailed requirements. Suppliers are encouraged to propose solutions, including any infrastructure considerations such as rack cabinets. If additional appliances (4U) are required, please outline this as part of your high-level response, noting any dependencies or alternative options.

Question:
Can you please advise if there is a target or minimum throughput, IOPS and/or latency for the shared storage?

Answered on 18/Jun/2025 01:56 PM:


At this stage, we are only seeking to understand the solutions available in the market and are not specifying detailed performance requirements. Suppliers are encouraged to propose solutions for TMR to consider, including indicative throughput, IOPS, and latency metrics for shared storage. If there are alternative approaches or configurations that could optimise performance, we welcome these insights as part of your high-level response