Storage: Hardware & Software

Storage, fast becoming a commodity business, might look like a poorprospect for new product rollout. But ingenious software along withless pricey hardware multiplies user options far beyond yesterday'sJBODs. Now, new vendors jump into the growing storage market, harddisk-based video decks vie to replace tape decks, and a terabyte ofsecure storage drops to the lowest prices ever.

Accom touts its WSD/HDi as the lowest-cost, uncompressed HDrecording system out there. With an interior videodisk array, theWSD/HDi provides the same robust feature set as the company's popularWSD/HDX digital disk recorder.

Accom designed the WSD/HDi specifically for highly networkedproduction environments. Anyone on the network can gain control of thedevice through its unique, browser-based NetPanel interface. TheWSD/HDi offers 4:2:2:4 video plus key, as well as 4:4:4 RGB, with anoptional key channel and expandable disk storage. The device providesrecording and playback of both video and key, in either SD or HD. Fortelecine applications, the company says this same 4:2:2:4 video pluskey I/O can be easily reconfigured with the click of a mouse for"dual-wire" 4:4:4 RGB recording and playback.

At the show, Accom also demonstrated a portable digitalcinematography solution based on the WSD/HDi. The company says thisuncompressed RGB data handling chain offers a "convenient portablemedium for storing footage and delivering to post facilities, a remoteproduction review capability for digital dailies, and an encodingplatform for the creation of high-resolution previews, trailers, andDVD content." The WSD/HDi records in 10-bit log 4:4:4 and provides truecolor, log-corrected HD monitoring of the camera output. During therecording of camera output to the WSD/HDi's internal storage, footageis simultaneously converted and exported as DPX format files toportable external drives via a high-speed USB link. Up to 25 minutes ofHD 24p uncompressed RGB can be stored on each portable disk.

Apple presented its server product, Xserve RAID, which pullstogether a number of key features that Final Cut Pro-based facilitieswill find attractive: the 3U rack storage system expands up to 2.5TB,dual 2Gb Fibre Channel networking delivers performance up to anaggregate 400MBps, and a price point of just over $4 per gigabyte.

"We now have all the pieces, all the necessary hardware andsoftware, to create an edit suite for an individual or a group," saysDoug Brooks, Apple's product manager of server hardware. "We've nowadded a cluster node capability to enable the Xserve to function as arender farm. That's something that Shake users can take advantage of byusing our QMaster rendering software." Shake's bundled Qmaster networkrender management software is available only under OS X, not theWindows or Linux versions. The software allows for an unlimited numberof network rendering licenses across a cluster of Xserve 1U rackservers or desktop Power Mac G4s.

Prices stay low since Apple doesn't use SCSI to achieve speedythroughput. Instead, Xserve RAID employs PC-style ATA/100 IDE drives.By placing each drive on its own dedicated drive channel-instead ofganging two per channel as in standard PCs-Apple is able to maximizethroughput while cutting costs. And, in what Apple calls an industryfirst, Xserve RAID provides RAID level 5 throughput that supports"affordable" realtime HD 1080i video editing.

The engineering team that created Transoft's FibreNet and StudioBOSSintroduced a new company, CommandSoft, and new SAN software,FibreJet, at the show. FibreJet targets the pro markets for digitalvideo, audio, and graphics creation. What's so unique about that? Well,CommandSoft says FibreJet is the first SAN network that places editorsand content creators, not technicians, at the center of the system.

FibreJet features workflow advantages such as allowing multipleeditors to simultaneously access identical source materials withoutaltering or copying the original files-a key element in managingcomplex projects. The software's file system management protects datafrom unauthorized alteration even when multiple editors access the samematerial and write to the shared storage. FibreJet is also said toprovide seamless integration with leading apps such as Final Cut Pro,Media 100, major Avid and Adobe products, and virtually all 1 or 2GbpsFibre Channel hardware installations. Current support for Macintosh OSX and OS 8-9 operating systems will be joined by a Windows 2000version, now under development.

Since HP no longer sells FibreNet products, HP and Transoft systemowners may now turn to CommandSoft for their SAN technology needs, saysJim Wolff, president and CEO of CommandSoft.

Thomson/Grass Valley's new PVS 3000 Profile XP Media PlatformSD/HD server might be the company's most versatile design yet. Fittinginto just about any topology, the server supports standalone,distributed, and SAN configurations. Besides its use in post and newsoperations, the device offers ancillary data support in HD forcaptioning and interactive TV applications. The PVS 3000 includes othernew enhancements that expand its channel count, storage capacity, andbandwidth. Existing Profile XP Media Platform users aren't left out.They can buy an upgrade package to gain these new capabilities. Oneuseful ability: the 3000 automatically handles the necessary aspectratio conversion.

At an NAB press conference, Marc Valentin, president of ThomsonBroadcast & Media Solutions, said the company expected the newProfile to pull in many more orders "because of its unrivaled abilityto support SD and HD materials in the same server and on the sametimeline."

Also new is the Grass Valley Open SAN System, which provides WindowsNT access to content stored on Profile XP Media Platform systems. Itsupports multiple compression formats, including MPEG and DVCPRO, aswell as SD and HD formats. The realtime Open SAN architecture handlesup to 48 video channels, while supporting standard and high-definitionvideo to 80Mbps.

One Grass Valley introduction represents a totally new product line.The M-series iVDR (Intelligent Video Disk Recorder) won raves for itsmulti-function but easy-to-use front panel, which includes integratedvideo monitoring in the soft-key-style readout. An MPEG-2-basedrecorder, the M-Series iVDR is being positioned as a direct replacementfor VTRs.

The M-Series iVDR line "out of the box" experience is plug-and-play.As a VTR replacement, the deck supports traditional VTR capabilities,including playback, record, removable media, and the ability to ingestdirectly from a camera. Yet the iVDR goes beyond traditional VTR chopsby its support of multiple channels, simultaneous playout andrecording, network support, clip editing and trimming, playlistcreation, and the ability to exchange materials with a variety ofapplications using standard video file protocols.

Huge Systems introduced the SanStream 6-480 and SanStream12-720, out of the box SAN systems that employ Gigabit Ethernet. Thenumbering explains the basic design: the 6-480 offers six GigabitEthernet ports and 480GB of RAID protected storage, while the 12-720comes with 12 dedicated Gigabit Ethernet ports and 720GB of RAIDstorage. The SanStream supports a wide range of OSs, delivering filesharing for OS 9 and OS X; Win NT, 2000 and XP; Linux; Irix; andSolaris. There's an easy-to-use GUI to help simplify administration.Other features including hot swappable disk drives and power suppliesthat make servicing the array straightforward.

The company keeps pace with the drop in hard drive prices, too. Forstarters, Huge Systems claims users save some 30% to 60% by buyingdirectly from them, and not a reseller. Maybe that's why the companyannounced 1TB systems for less than $5,000. These include the singleU160 channel RAID 0/3 HugeMediaVault MAX (with burst data capability upto 160MBps) and HugeMediaVault DUALMAX, another plug-and- play RAID 0/3disk array that uses dual U160 channels to deliver burst data at320MBps.

In a hotel suite, Isilon Systems presented its distributedstorage technology, the basis for a networked storage product optimizedfor the "new era of content-driven applications," says theSeattle-based company. Isilon's co-founders got their chops astechnologists at streaming media leader RealNetworks. That's where theysaw that storing and managing new types of content were the mostfrustrating and expensive problems for that company's customers.

Isilon says its approach doesn't use that of current, traditionalmedia storage, such as DAS/JBOD, NAS, SAN, or tape systems. Rather,Isilon's "intelligent software" drives down both acquisition andmanagement costs for storing rich content via deployment of its OneFSdistributed file system.

Isilon's "intelligent" IQ hardware delivers a starter system that'sa three-node device with 4.3TB capacity, running over Gigabit Ethernet.A single OneFS file system spans the entire storage cluster, with userstaking direct control of placing their data wherever they want on thecluster, rather than being forced into a standard file system'sstructure. The simplified OneFS setup allows aggregating huge amountsof memory into a globally coherent cache, which in turn means systemscan scale to hundreds of terabytes of capacity and deliver 10Gbpsthroughput.

Thomson/Grass Valley isn't alone in wanting to replacing aging VTRs.At the show, Leitch Technology launched NEO VR, a modulardigital video recorder. Packaged in a single module, the NEO VRintegrates into Leitch's already extensive NEO interface and conversionplatform. Leitch spots NEO VR as a cost-effective, high-quality choicefor record and playback of content in a variety of applications,including news and mobile sports production, as well as clip playbackin news edit suites. The company says that networked,application-intensive video servers have long overshadowed basic VTRfunctionality; the industry also needs simpler-to-use gear. (Of course,Leitch itself makes the VR series video servers, but such sophisticatedsystems range far beyond the capabilities needed in many day-to-dayoperations.)

The argument here? Since it's part of the NEO platform, NEO VR canbe packaged into a custom modular solution to maximize efficiency,lower operating costs, and optimize facility space. A basic NEO VR,equipped with dual fixed onboard hard drives, can record a total offour hours of programming. Since NEO VR employs the same stylehigh-density packaging as the other NEO products, this allows up to 12units to be housed in a single frame. NEO VR also supportsindustry-standard control protocols, so it operates side-by-side withexisting VTR control panels in the machine room.

At the show, storage provider Maximum Throughput andDiscreet announced a marketing deal. Discreet will now sell anddistribute both the Sledgehammer NAS and Sledgehammer HD!O storagearrays in the United States and western Canada. Discreet marketingstorage arrays? That's right. The company's recently launched Sparksinfrastructure program is designed to foster partnerships that "allowleading manufacturers to collaborate with Discreet to offerbest-of-breed infrastructure solutions" to support their clients'various creative processes and workflows.

In its two main product lines, Maximum Throughput--or Max-T as thecompany refers to itself informally--employs a combination of customsoftware and commodity hardware optimized for the speedy moving ofdigital content onto or off of IP-based networks, one of the comingtrends in storage networks. The Sledgehammer HD!O employs a NetworkAttached Media Bridge, a make-everything-work-together approach thatenables just about any facility, running any OS, to accept and work onHD projects. Describing Sledgehammer HD!O as the "first storageappliance to sit squarely between digital video and digital computeinfrastructures," Max-T is basically in the business of creating high-performance conduits that happen to attach storage.

The device, a high-throughput NAS optimized for HD, creates acentralized storage pool for facility clients (including renderingclusters). But the software just as easily allows Sledgehammer HD!O towork as a virtual DDR for 2D and 3D artists. Sequences of images (TGA,TIF, SGI, etc.) of any resolution (up to 2K) can be immediately playedback to a broadcast monitor at full frame rate with no formatconversion. The company says this shaves hours off the time normallyrequired to review material rendered from "clients and clusters."Another nice touch: To add more storage, customers need only purchasetheir own new hardware at prevailing commodity prices.

Medéa introduced two fail-safe VideoRaid disk arrays;each features a 2Gb Fibre Channel interface. The VideoRaid FCR2 andVideoRaid FCRX2 disk arrays theoretically offer data transfer rates upto 200MBps per channel. Besides the 2Gbps interfaces, both theVideoRaid FCR2 and FCRX2 include realtime RAID controllers, built-infour- or eight-port FC hub with HSSDC connectors, optional optical FCports, removable disk drive modules, RAID controllers, and powersupplies.

Worried about saving your work? Background array reconstruction goeson without any user fuss. The arrays work with Mac OS, Linux, andWindows, and are SAN-ready. VideoRaid FCR2 disk arrays, housed in acompact five-drive desktop tower, range up to 720GB capacity. VideoRaidFCRX2 features a 3U rackmountable design. Populate it with five or tendisk drive modules for capacities to 1440GB per rack. Dual, redundantload-sharing power supplies ship standard with VideoRaid FCRX2.

With the falling prices of hard drive technology, Medéacontinues to push down price points on slightly older models in itsestablished VideoRaid line. While not officially announced until afterthe show, the Calabasas, Calif.-based company dropped pricing in theseries by up to 37%. You can now get almost a terabyte of storage forless than $5,000.

Such falling prices have made storage a price-sensitive commodityitem. So how do you turn a profit? How about using those inexpensivedrives, but configure them into a 24/7 server? Medéa introducedthe StreamRAID family of server class disk arrays at the show. Designedto support rich media and streaming applications, the company spots thefault-tolerant storage systems for broadcast video servers, webservers, SANs, closed circuit television (CCTV), and disk-to-disk (D2D)backup. "(The 24/7 fault tolerant server market) is where we expect tosee a lot of growth for the company," says Roger Mabon, vice presidentof channel marketing at Medéa. It just might happen, as thecompany's partner in this endeavor is Hitachi Global StorageTechnologies. A worldwide leader in all sorts of storage, HGST wasfounded earlier this year from the combination of Hitachi's and IBM'sstorage technology businesses.

The StreamRAID family consists of StreamRAID 12 and StreamRAID 48,incorporating 12 and 48 Hitachi Deskstar disk drives respectively, in asingle rackmountable chassis. Everything is hot swappable, as you mightimagine, with 2Gbps Fibre Channel built-in. Systems run from 3TB tomore than 15TB.

SpectSoft and Appro demonstrated DDR/EDIT, a set ofLinux software and hardware tools and storage. The software, created bySpectSoft, runs on Appro servers. The combo imports and exports 10-bitSD and HD video. Features include RGB color correction, 2:3 pulldown,RS-422 control, and multi-user management/quota control. Also includedis a network-wide asset management system. The video exists on astandard XFS file system as individual DPX, TGA, BMP, or RAW images,which allows integration with current video pipelines.

Studio Network Solutions presented SANmp, a multi-platformsoftware program that allows workstations with different operatingsystems to concurrently access information from a SAN. The company saysSANmp allows users the freedom to upgrade to the latest OS or to addWindows workstations to their Mac environment.

Eric Newbauer, SNS director of operations, says SANmp is crucial tostorage system platform compatibility, since users face such a widearray of pro audio and video software. "Facilities are finding that itis nearly impossible to commit to a single OS version or platform,"says Newbauer, who noted that the software worked well with thecompany's A/V SAN and A/V SAN PRO hardware to provide a multi-platformsolution that isn't proprietarily tied to a specific DAW, NLE, oroperating system.

SANmp doesn't even require a server or Ethernet connection. AmongSANmp's features: the ability to configure, manage, share and accessSAN resources; create RAID sets; and set access privileges at the userlevel. For most, the overwhelming benefit will be the ability tointegrate Mac OS and Windows workstations, regardless of whether thesystems are running Nuendo, Sonic HD, Final Cut Pro, Pyramix, Avid, ProTools, or just about any other software, according to the company.