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 became a cornerstone of the relationship, with VAST engineers collaborating directly with the NHL.
This successful collaboration led to an expanded relationship and the NHL moved its footage archive, consisting of over 20 petabytes of data, onto the VAST Data Platform. This decision not only ensured the longevity of their archival content, but also set the stage for future AI-driven innovation. As Kennedy put it, “We have set ourselves up for future AI and machine learning workloads that will benefit the content generation business later down the line.”
After the successful archive implementation, the NHL turned to VAST to support their in-arena game footage content and data needs. The goal was to modernize and streamline the way game footage was captured and transferred from all 32 NHL arenas to NHL headquarters in New York City. “We had great success with VAST in the past,” Kennedy explains, “so when we needed to replace storage in the arenas, we decided to future-proof ourselves by implementing VAST in all 32 arenas.”
In response to the NHL’s needs, the VAST Research and Development team tested this workflow and collaborated with the NHL on the rollout of all arena systems to ensure content was flowing efficiently to the NHL headquarters in New York City. “VAST replication expands up to 36 sites and now each one of the 32 different NHL arenas sends digital content to a single platform. We've set the table to create a content platform that exists at the edge, where the game is being played,” says Kennedy.
Enabled by the VAST DataSpace, this real-time replication significantly reduces the time it takes for game footage to become available for post-production and distribution among teams and media partners. This operational speed is critical for modern media workflows, where there is a high demand for quick turnaround times. With footage stored locally at each venue and made quickly available at the NHL NYC headquarters, editors and production teams in different locations can work on game highlights and other content without needing to be on-site.
Moving forward, the NHL is equipped to explore new content creation workflows that leverage data and footage directly from the arenas. With the required data capacity at each venue, the League can run real-time AI-driven workflows to generate highlights or unique content that wouldn’t be possible in a cloud-based solution. As Kennedy described, “We can create a localized content generation engine by utilizing our exclusive camera angles, game and tracking data, and merging them together on the VAST Data Platform at the arenas. This opens up new possibilities for creating and distributing more engaging and innovative content for fans.”
