Easier than ever: How to export Silverstack projects and camera footage to LTO

On set, media management depends on fast, portable SSDs and seamless cloud uploads to keep workflows moving quickly. But once filming wraps, priorities for storage shift: the demand for speed and flexibility is replaced by the need for durability and cost-efficient long-term storage. So, how can productions ensure every frame and file is preserved for years to come?

For decades, LTO tape has been the industry’s go-to solution for secure and economical archiving at the facility – and for good reason, as we’ll see later on. Yet, outside major studios with dedicated archiving teams and infrastructure, LTO can feel out of reach or intimidating, especially for smaller production companies or full-service agencies that manage archiving in-house. But it doesn’t have to be. 

If your footage has already been managed in Silverstack XT or Silverstack Lab (e.g. by a DIT on set or during ingest at a facility), archiving to LTO is now more accessible than ever. In partnership with Archiware and their P5 Archive solution, Silverstack now integrates an LTO workflow that’s as intuitive as sending files to the cloud. Let’s see how it works!

What’s the difference between an archive and a backup?

But first things first! Before we dive into the workflow, let’s get a few definitions straight. In this article, we only focus on LTO in the context of archiving. While LTO can also be used for backup in certain cases, that’s outside the scope of this discussion. So, to avoid confusion, let’s quickly establish the distinction between these two storage strategies: 

A backup is meant for short- to medium-term protection of your active projects. It serves as a safety net: if a drive fails, a file is accidentally deleted, or ransomware hits, the production’s work is not lost. Backups are updated frequently (daily or weekly) and must be fast to access so you can quickly restore yesterday’s edits or even a full project if needed. On set, immediate backups created by the DIT are therefore stored on RAIDs, SSDs, or in the cloud – not on LTO.  In fact, industry specifications, such as Netflix’s data management guidelines, also recommend using local media or cloud storage as part of the 3-2-1 backup strategy^[1]. 

An archive, by contrast, is about long-term preservation. It also holds copies of your data, but the purpose is not fast recovery – it’s secure, reliable storage of material you won’t access every day but cannot afford to lose. In production, this often means raw film footage. The original recordings must be kept safely for years or decades. These archives protect your creative assets for future re-use, remastering, or re-releases, and they often fulfill legal and contractual requirements that demand long-term retention of original material. LTO is one of several archiving options, along with cloud and custom file server solutions, and the right choice always depends on the project and production needs. Still, LTO is a widely adopted option, for reasons we will explore in the next section.

Why is LTO tape so good for archiving?

Before diving into how LTO archiving works with Silverstack and Archiware, let’s start with a quick overview of the benefits of LTO for large data archives. An added advantage is that these benefits increase as your archive grows.

• Cheaper than normal hard drives for large data sets: LTO offers a significantly lower cost per terabyte, making it ideal for archiving large amounts of data over time, once the initial investment in an LTO drive is made.
• Longevity: Properly stored LTO tapes can last up to 30 years, ensuring reliable long-term preservation of valuable production assets. In comparison, SSDs typically last 5–10 years and HDDs only 3–5 years.
• Less energy consumption:  Unlike servers or spinning disks, tape libraries don’t require constant power to maintain stored data – tapes consume no energy when idle. This significantly lowers energy costs and makes them a far more environmentally friendly storage option for long-term archiving.
• Cybersecurity: As an offline storage medium, LTO tapes are inherently protected from ransomware and other cyber attacks.

For a deeper dive into the benefits of LTO archiving, explore more articles on the Archiware Blog. 

Silverstack x Archiware: What makes the new workflow special?

a) It integrates well. 

We set out to provide a mechanism that integrates seamlessly into Silverstack’s workflow concept and can be added as just another simple step alongside everything else you’re working on. To enable this smooth connection between Silverstack and Archiware’s P5 Archive, we are leveraging the widely used Amazon S3 API (Simple Storage Service). While the S3 service was originally designed for transferring data to the cloud, its API can also be used to link local systems. In practice, this means you can define custom S3 endpoints that allow different software tools to transfer data without any involvement of a cloud service.

Starting with version 7.2, P5 Archive implements the S3 API. Within the P5 interface, you can create S3 storage containers inside P5, called buckets, that hold your data. These P5 buckets can then be accessed as custom URL endpoints by other applications – such as Silverstack. Since Silverstack can upload to custom S3 endpoints, you can now transfer project data to P5 just as easily as uploading to a cloud service. The key difference is that, on the receiving end, the data is securely stored on a local LTO drive (or even across multiple drives) instead of in a cloud center. 

b) It’s easy to set up.

Thanks to P5’s browser-based interface, setting up and accessing your LTO archive has become much more user-friendly. While the LTFS (Linear Tape File System) open standard allows you to view the tape as a regular file system in Finder, LTO is not well-suited for browsing or searching through files directly, because the tape must physically spin to the location of the data before it can be accessed. This means that opening a file located at the opposite end of your tape can take significant time. This is where P5 Archive offers a true advantage compared to LTFS by creating a database of your LTO data with optional metadata, thumbnails, proxies, and search functionality. This allows you to browse your archive before actually reading data from the tape, saving time and improving efficiency. On the hardware side, using LTO drives in small setups has become much easier since they can be connected via Thunderbolt to your Mac, eliminating the need for SAS data cables that require an extra expansion card.

Enough theory! Let’s find out how to actually upload your data from Silverstack to P5 using S3.

Step-by-step setup guide

This guide explains how to use Silverstack to upload your library or bins via an S3 endpoint URL to the Archiware P5 server. Please note: The described process is available for preview in Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab v9.1, already accessible on request and scheduled for full release in mid-September.

So let’s get into it! To successfully upload your data to the Archiware server and onto the LTO tape, you’ll need a properly configured and running P5 server with an existing S3 bucket, as well as an LTO drive with a mounted tape ready for writing. In the first part of this guide, we’ll briefly show you how to install the P5 server and point you to detailed setup instructions on the Archiware website. If your P5 archive is already set up, you can skip ahead to the second part, where we walk you through the upload process in Silverstack.

1. P5 installation and setup

To set up Archiware P5, please follow the steps below:

• Visit the Archiware website and download the P5 installer.
• Follow the instructions of the installer. 
• After the installation, P5 will open automatically in your browser.
• Log in with the admin credentials.
• In the home section (pictured below), you can enter your license key or start a trial version of P5.

Now, you can switch to the “Archive” tab and click on “Getting Started” in the left sidebar. Click on “Start Setup Assistant,” and you’ll be guided through the application.

For more information on P5 and detailed user manuals, check out further resources on the Archiware website.

As mentioned before, getting the software in place is only part of the necessary preparations. You also need to connect your LTO drives and set them up according to the manufacturer’s specifications. In our example, we’re working with an LTO drive from Symply, so head to their website for more info about their devices and setup guides.

2. Silverstack project

Alright, let’s jump into Silverstack and work through all the steps of the process. We’re starting by selecting the library that you want to upload. From the toolbar, select “Media -> Upload Clips to S3 Bucket”, as pictured below.

This will will open the upload workflow window for further configurations. Firstly, you will be asked to enter your S3 credentials, and the corresponding account will be added. (You can find the S3 credentials in P5 when you double-clicking on the created bucket.)

In the Resource Selection, you can further select or deselect single clips. In the “S3 Upload” tab, you can choose the Account you just created. Select “Custom Endpoint” and enter the Endpoint URL of the server. Be sure to include the target bucket as the final part of the URL, for example “…/p5_archive”.

The region is not important for this upload; the only important thing is that it needs to be lowercase. As always, you’re able to add reports as a post-step to your workflow. After that, you can click on „upload“ and watch the progress in Silverstack’s job view.

3. Additional features

In the Silverstack settings, you’re able to manage S3 Credentials as Accounts so you can easily reuse them.

You can add S3 uploads as an additional activity in your workflows by clicking the “Add Activity” button.

4. Data arriving at the P5 Server

When you open the P5 interface, you can now watch the data arriving at the staging area of the P5 Server in the Job Monitor. After the upload is complete, P5 will start writing the files to the LTO tape.

Conclusion

Through the integration with Archiware P5, Silverstack offers a data archive workflow that lowers the barrier to entering the LTO world and makes daily use as simple as possible. With modern Thunderbolt LTO drives, the hassle of finding the right drivers and figuring out how to mount a drive is a thing of the past. P5 helps you to easily browse and manage your archive. As a result, common challenges are resolved, enabling production facilities, in-house teams, or full-service agencies to fully leverage LTO as part of their archival strategy.

Working in the film industry always generates large amounts of data that need to be stored. In that case, LTO is a viable option for long-term storage and archives. It can be cost-effective when you need a lot of storage and reduce your energy costs. It also offers greater protection against random hardware failures and cyber attacks. With this solution, we’re creating an opportunity for everyone – from users with a single tape drive to those managing large archives and tape libraries.

[1] Netflix Partner Help Center, “Production Assets: Data Management” (last accessed, 10 Sep. 2025)