HUDSON, MA (November 25th, 2019) – Facilis, a leading international supplier of cost-effective, high performance shared storage solutions for collaborative media production networks, today announced that Texas-based CRM Studios recently added a new Facilis Shared storage system to support its continued growth. Founded in 1994, CRM began as Circle R Media, the production department of Circle R Group, the in-house advertising agency for RadioShack Corporation. In 2003, Circle R Media divested from RadioShack and became a wholly independent company, taking the new name, CRM Studios. By 2008, CRM Studios had moved from its location in Fort Worth, TX to its present facilities at the historic Studios at Las Colinas in Irving, TX. This large complex was home to some rather famous movies and TV shows including Silkwood, JFK, Robocop, Prison Break, and Walker Texas Ranger. Building one changed names in 2013 when it was sold to Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of TheBlaze, conservative television commentator Glenn Beck's news, opinion, and entertainment network.
Michael Murray has been with CRM since 2002 and has worn many hats. Today he is CRM’s, Director of IT and Broadcast Engineering. “In the early days, CRM had a services contract with RadioShack to do about 20 hours of satellite broadcasting a month, plus we were doing all their toy commercials and some cell phone commercials,” says Murray.
“In 2005, CRM was completely Avid-based. We had Avid Unity for our editor storage originally. We shot on tape, edited on Unity, and then spat it back out to tape. That was our old SD workflow. Once we switched over to HD, Avid shared storage became way out of our price range, so we looked for alternatives. After a thorough search, we finally settled on Facilis.”
CRM purchased its first Facilis system, a 24TB 24D, in 2006. It was one of the earlier systems with a fairly low serial number according to Murray. “The reason Facilis was chosen over others was because it was fast enough for our performance needs, had ample capacity, and it was easily expandable if required by adding more servers or bigger drives.”
Fast forward through the years, and CRM has replaced and upgraded their Facilis shared storage systems a few times. “We’re on our 4th and 5th Facilis servers now. Facilis was always great when doing trade outs if we needed more capacity,” says Murray.
Opportunity knocked when Glenn Beck needed a new home for his show. “I moved Glenn Beck to the Las Colinas studios from New York, building his broadcast network hub including a 15000sq ft Stage A, 3200sq ft Stage C and Control Rooms. CRM then had a services contract with Glenn to do all his production work starting in 2012.” The Las Colinas studio complex covers 9.89 Acres. Building One, Glenn’s Stage A, is big enough to hold 5 different sets. CRM currently occupies the middle stage, which is about 4500 sq. ft, and one of the control rooms. Once Glenn started doing production at the studio, it became the largest TV news studio in the US doing daily broadcasts. Glenn bought and renamed the Studios of Las Colinas to Mercury Studios in 2013. CRM did production for Beck and his Blaze Media company for 4.5 years until Glenn decided to take production and post in house. As of 2017, CRM Studios is now a tenant at Mercury Studios doing a wide variety of work for a large list of clients.
Michael Murray has been with CRM since 2002 and has worn many hats. Today he is CRM’s, Director of IT and Broadcast Engineering. “In the early days, CRM had a services contract with RadioShack to do about 20 hours of satellite broadcasting a month, plus we were doing all their toy commercials and some cell phone commercials,” says Murray.
“In 2005, CRM was completely Avid-based. We had Avid Unity for our editor storage originally. We shot on tape, edited on Unity, and then spat it back out to tape. That was our old SD workflow. Once we switched over to HD, Avid shared storage became way out of our price range, so we looked for alternatives. After a thorough search, we finally settled on Facilis.”
CRM purchased its first Facilis system, a 24TB 24D, in 2006. It was one of the earlier systems with a fairly low serial number according to Murray. “The reason Facilis was chosen over others was because it was fast enough for our performance needs, had ample capacity, and it was easily expandable if required by adding more servers or bigger drives.”
Fast forward through the years, and CRM has replaced and upgraded their Facilis shared storage systems a few times. “We’re on our 4th and 5th Facilis servers now. Facilis was always great when doing trade outs if we needed more capacity,” says Murray.
Opportunity knocked when Glenn Beck needed a new home for his show. “I moved Glenn Beck to the Las Colinas studios from New York, building his broadcast network hub including a 15000sq ft Stage A, 3200sq ft Stage C and Control Rooms. CRM then had a services contract with Glenn to do all his production work starting in 2012.” The Las Colinas studio complex covers 9.89 Acres. Building One, Glenn’s Stage A, is big enough to hold 5 different sets. CRM currently occupies the middle stage, which is about 4500 sq. ft, and one of the control rooms. Once Glenn started doing production at the studio, it became the largest TV news studio in the US doing daily broadcasts. Glenn bought and renamed the Studios of Las Colinas to Mercury Studios in 2013. CRM did production for Beck and his Blaze Media company for 4.5 years until Glenn decided to take production and post in house. As of 2017, CRM Studios is now a tenant at Mercury Studios doing a wide variety of work for a large list of clients.