IBM to Intro Digital Video System For Broadcasters at NAB 2003

WHITE PLAINS, N. Y. -- At the 2003 National Association ofBroadcasters trade show and convention, IBM is set to debut a digitalmedia infrastructure for broadcasting and entertainment that features adigital video storage system that is centralized, operations-based,built on open standards, and allows for communications between a numberof applications.

By using powerful storage and digital video file systems previouslyused with IBM's work in supercomputing, IBM's Digital Media Center forBroadcaster (DMC) enables broadcasters to manage video and digitalcontent more efficiently. The system helps transform broadcastingproduction environments from today's analog- and videotape- basedformats to a centralized, scalable, open operation that provides allusers access to all video all the time.

Customer Examples

Among the first customers to use IBM's Digital Media Center (DMC)have been large broadcasters and law enforcement. Seoul BroadcastingSystem (SBS) is the first major broadcaster in the world to automateits programming systems that digitalize news program productionprocesses, using IBM DMC technology. Using key IBM storage and databasetechnologies, SBS is able to store and archive news programming on anall digital, centralized storage system without the wear and tear oftraditional storage systems (videotape). Users are able to easilysearch, retrieve and edit contents on a high-speed digital networkreplacing the need for papers and videotapes.

In law enforcement, not unlike broadcasting, there is also a need toaccess, retrieve and review video quickly. IBM DMC has been used byboth National Car Parks and the Yorkshire Police Department, in the UK,serving as a central registry, and helping to make the tracking ofsurveillance cameras and large amounts of video much easier.

Gone are the days when police have to run to the videotape closet tolook for surveillance tapes. The IBM infrastructure establishes adigital platform that is operated in real-time. Working togetherPinnacle Systems, IBM, and IBM business partner Sagitta PerformanceSystems have built and delivered a video editing and broadcast ITinfrastructure that has been projected by the UK Home Office to save inexcess of £7 million, and the IBM Digital Media Center supports 24Pinnacle Liquid Silver editors, for post production.

"What we are announcing today is our moving into the market fordigital media infrastructure to support heterogeneous broadcastoperations environments," said Dick Anderson, general manager, IBMDigital Media. "We have taken expertise we have mastered in otherareas, and applying it to the market for IT infrastructure to supportbroadcast operations environments, which is rapidly growing. We cansave our broadcast customers money and offer them greater leverage overtheir video assets, we have the track record."

Technology Backbone

Comprised of a set of core products and technologies from IBM andkey technology partner technologies including servers, storage,hierarchical storage management software and file system software, IBMhas designed its infrastructure to be open, centralized, standardsbased, scalable storage system that supports a wide array of productionand management systems found in today's broadcast video operationenvironments.

By facilitating connectivity between varied broadcastingtechnologies, IBM's DMC allows broadcasters to take the first stepstowards centralized, open, scalable storage, in which video filemovement will become unnecessary, thereby, eliminating the need tophysically "move" files from one functional area to the next. Basicconnectivity, enables effective video asset management, and sets thestage for the implementation of common file formats, like MXF.

Benefits of IBM's DMC include the ability to support alreadyinstalled video production operations, including ingest and encodingsystems, non-linear editing systems, news systems, and playout systems,including specialized content management software. The system addressreal-time access to incoming video, ease of sharing content amongusers, improve workflow, and allow content to be accessed by multipleclients as soon as the first bytes of content are being recorded on adisk The Infrastructure also offers interoperability, huge capacity,simultaneous realtime read/write of files, and simultaneous access tofiles.

The Digital Media Center (DMC) includes IBM FAStTStorage, IBMeServer pSeries severs running on AIX, IBM eServer xSeries serversrunning on Linux, IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS), and IBMGlobal Services Integration services to install and manage new digitalbroadcasting environments.

IBM's line of FAStT disk storage servers allow customers to createsmall Storage Area Networks at a fraction of the cost of the investmentin a large enterprise storage server. Besides high bandwidth, the FAStTstorage servers support a variety of operating systems that facilitatestorage consolidation. The FAStT storage servers are designed to behighly flexible and are scaleable up to 30TBs for easy growth. Thereare significant opportunities for investment protection within theFAStT family of storage servers, suitable for mid-market to enterprisecustomers that need a lower entry/price point product for selected UNIXand/or Intel platforms.

At NAB 2003, IBM will showcase the DMC, built with technologyintegration from several high profile, broadcast industry technologyproviders. Pinnacle Liquid Solutions, for example, will be used tosupport and optimize digital editing. Pinnacle's suite of postproduction tools include effects such as 2D and 3D, advanced colorcorrection, and other key post production capabilities.

At NAB 2003, IBM will showcase its new digital video infrastructure:The Digital Media Center booth # SU7237.