The Media District and the vendors around it
Burbank's Media District, around West Olive and West Alameda avenues, is home to Warner Bros. Studios and the headquarters of The Walt Disney Company. Nickelodeon, Netflix and the entertainment payroll firm Cast & Crew also rank among the city's largest employers, and the City of Burbank counts more than 39,000 local jobs in media. For every studio there are dozens of smaller companies that work for it: editors, sound and color houses, visual effects shops, equipment rental, payroll and business management firms.
Those smaller vendors are where IT gets hard. Studios expect them to protect unreleased content, and many ask vendors to complete a Trusted Partner Network (TPN) assessment, the Motion Picture Association's content security program, measured against the MPA Content Security Best Practices. TPN doesn't hand out a pass or fail grade, but studios read the results. Getting ready means knowing where every file lives, who can reach it, how it's backed up and how access ends when a project wraps. Our guide on IT for media and entertainment covers the full picture.
Big files, fixed deadlines and crews that change
A single project can mean many terabytes of camera files and renders, moved between edit bays, shared storage and the cloud on a deadline written into a contract. A slow storage server or a failing switch costs real money in that week. We plan network management and storage around those file sizes, keep the edit network apart from guest Wi-Fi and front-office computers, and test backups by restoring real project folders, not just by reading a log.
Crews change every show. Freelance editors and assistants need accounts on day one and need them gone on the last day. Access control with multi-factor sign-in, shared drives split by project, and a short checklist for the day someone leaves keep a former contractor from walking away with footage. Our guide to employee offboarding lists the steps.
Burbank's own power and fiber
Burbank is one of the few cities in the region with its own utility. Burbank Water and Power supplies the city's electricity and water, and it also runs a fiber network called ONE Burbank. BWP began leasing spare fiber to studios and other businesses in the 1990s and now sells business internet service over it. For a vendor that moves large files to a studio across town, a dedicated fiber line is worth pricing out.
Even good fiber goes down, and one line is one point of failure. We usually pair the main connection with a backup internet line from a different provider or a cellular link, put the firewall and switches on battery backup, and set the network to switch over on its own. When a construction crew cuts a cable on your street, the office keeps working.
Downtown Burbank, Magnolia Park and the medical offices
Away from the studios, Burbank is a city of small businesses. Downtown Burbank along San Fernando Boulevard has offices, restaurants and shops, and Magnolia Park has independent stores and small creative studios along Magnolia Boulevard. Many take card payments, run on a few laptops and one internet line, and have nobody whose job is IT. For them the basics matter most: a managed firewall, protected email, updates that install on their own, and PCI DSS basics for card payments.
Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, one of Burbank's largest employers, has physician, imaging and therapy offices around it. These practices work under HIPAA and share records with the hospital and with each other. For them, HIPAA compliance means a current risk analysis, encrypted laptops, secure messaging and backups that keep the schedule running. See our page on IT for healthcare practices.
How we work with Burbank businesses
GlobeVM is based in Los Angeles and comes to you. Most problems are fixed remotely within minutes, which matters on a deadline: an editor who can't reach shared storage at 9 p.m. needs help now, not a visit tomorrow. When something needs hands, such as a new edit bay, a failed switch or an office move, an engineer comes on site.
Many Burbank companies also have people in Glendale, North Hollywood or elsewhere in the Valley. We run every location as one setup with one number to call. Our Glendale and San Fernando Valley pages cover the neighbors.
