Media Distributors R-Series Archive Station

Constellation VCM asset-management software included in the upgraded version. Price: $9,999 (purchase); $7,999 (special pre-order for purchase); $900 (weekly rental); $300 (daily rental)

Media Distributors (MD) is continuing its move from its traditional beginnings just more than a decade ago. The company, based out of Los Angeles but with offices in major production centers in the United States, began as a professional videotape, motion-picture film, and data media reseller and distributor.

The company recently announced that it became one of the newest systems integrators for the Red Rocket, the realtime 4K playback and processing card from Red Digital Cinema.

The Red Rocket is key to making MD's recently introduced R-Series Archive Station work. About the size of a small refrigerator on wheels, the Archive Station is a new class of devices you should expect to see on many future productions. The concept is simple: realtime backup. That's necessary since you no longer have tapes or even optical discs (à la Sony's XDCAM series) to hold onto, as the solid-state RAM or hard drive recorders are part of the latest camera systems.

The Red card, announced earlier this year but just now finding its way into products, is necessary to handle the Red One's massive 4K DPX output stream. You also need a fast RAID array (capable of a least 500MBps to 600MBps) to capture that flood of data, so the Archive Station includes a Line 1 Media Fusion RAID array (four 1TB drives). Data is then sent to either dual built-in Quantum LTO-4 tape backup drives, or split between an LTO and a built-in Blu-ray burner.

An Apple MacBook Pro, also part of the package, controls the setup.

Media Distributors The Archive Station




Media Distributors Named Official Red Rocket Systems