From plateau to hard drives: documentary tests NAS technology

When editors began stitching together footage shot above 5,000 meters on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the challenge was not only artistic but technical.

Temperatures plunged, air pressure thinned and data volumes surged as crews filmed Beyond the Frozen Horizon, a feature-length documentary that premiered nationwide in China earlier this month.

During filming, conventional storage devices failed repeatedly. What ultimately worked was a network-attached storage system from the Shenzhen-based Ugreen Group. The film's post-production team ran Ugreen's NAS continuously for more than 4,300 hours without a single failure, safeguarding terabytes of high-definition 8K in one of the harshest environments filmmakers are likely to encounter.

Lion Chen, senior brand marketing director, said that the episode has become a defining case study, not just for a product line, but for China's broader ambitions in core digital infrastructure.

"If you lose data, you lose history," Chen said.

"What happened on the plateau shows that domestic technology can already meet, and in some cases exceed, the most demanding professional standards."

China's NAS, or network-attached storage, market is still in an early growth phase, but momentum is building. Globally, the NAS private cloud market was worth about $5.4 billion in 2023 and is expected to more than double by 2030.

That gap, Chen believes, represents opportunity.

"Data volumes are exploding — photos, videos, work files, creative content," he added.

"People need a place where data can be stored centrally, securely and accessed anytime. NAS is essentially the data center for individuals, families and small studios."

Beyond the Frozen Horizon highlighted what Chen describes as "engineering for extremes". At high altitude, storage systems must cope with low pressure, cold temperatures and unstable power conditions, all while handling large video files and supporting multi-user collaboration.

Ugreen entered into the NAS business in 2018, expanding beyond its core charging and connectivity accessories. The company posted operating revenue of 3.86 billion yuan ($552 million) in the first half of the year, up 40.60 percent year-on-year, while net profit attributable to shareholders rose 32.74 percent to 275 million yuan.

Notably, growth was led by its storage products business, which surged 125.13 percent from a year earlier, driven by the launch of new NAS products.

The company's push also aligns with China's emphasis on data security and technological self-reliance. Chen said that NAS products have passed multiple security certifications, with encryption, access controls and real-time threat monitoring built into the system.

One of the industry's persistent challenges is perception. NAS devices are often seen as expensive, complex tools for specialists. Ugreen's strategy has been to simplify both hardware installation and software operation.

Chen called such a technology a "what you see is what you get" experience, closer to a smartphone interface than a traditional enterprise server. AI features help users search and classify photos and videos automatically, reducing manual effort.

For Chen, the latest film is also about social value. By ensuring the safety of footage documenting life and landscapes on the plateau, Ugreen played a role in preserving minority culture and enabling its wider dissemination.

"Technology should serve culture, not overshadow it. We provided tools, but the story belongs to the filmmakers,"he said.

Looking ahead, the company sees NAS evolving into what it calls the "AI-NAS era", where storage systems integrate greater computing power, artificial intelligence and collaboration tools.

Ugreen plans to continue investing heavily in software development, with more than 800 technical staff already dedicated to its operating system.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn