NAB 2004: Storage & Networking

Epochal Change at NAB '04
Graphics, Effects, and Animation
Editing
Storage and Networking
Sidebar: In Japan with Sony

RackSaver introduces the DAW64, one of the first 64-bit digital audio workstations. Built around dual 64-bit AMD Opteron CPUs, the DAW64 runs under Windows XP Pro, holds up to 16GB of DDR RAM, and includes both RAID and removable storage options.

Great changes continue to course through storage and networking as
plunging hardware costs combine with technology advances such as
increased areal densities (the amount of data that can be packed onto a
storage medium) to deliver storage that nears an astonishing $1,000 per
terabyte.

Earlier this year, Pinnacle Systems announced it had
qualified Advanced Technology and Systems (ADTX) L Series RAID
system for use with Pinnacle's CinéWave series cards for the Mac.
ADTX's RAID system combines a 2Gb Fibre Channel interface with SATA
drives to offer enough throughput for SD and HD editing, says the
company, while keeping system prices below comparably speedy SCSI and
Fibre Channel hard drive-based arrays.

The ADTX L Series also features hardware-based Instant Copy and
Remote Mirroring, along with Path Cruise (a path failover firmware
capability) — options that provide enhanced capability and
reliability.

L Series RAID solutions include two models: a single RAID controller
version and dual active/active RAID controller one. The L Series gains
its high throughput, says the company, by using large amounts of
high-speed memory and a design that incorporates a parity generating
co-processor.

With the launch of Xserve RAID in 2003, Apple began an
aggressive move into a market beyond its traditional one. The
enthusiastic response for this easy-to-deploy and use storage array
— Apple quickly exceeded sales estimates — demonstrated a
convincing argument for networked OS X gear when it's so competitively
priced.

This past January, Apple introduced a reconfigured Xserve RAID
storage system. Fitting into 3RU, the array holds up to 3.5TB and
performs with up to 210MBs throughput, claims the product manager.
Offering the industry's most “aggressive price for
storage,” the array prices at just over $3 per gigabyte.

ATTO's Celerity FC-22XH dual-channel Fibre Channel adapter features the company's unique, integrated onboard hub design, which can eliminate the need for additional FC fabric hubs or switches.

Besides a lower price point, the upgraded Xserve RAID improves
support for workstations running Windows and Linux, and includes the
new industry standard Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) connectors,
which are hot-swappable input/output devices that plug into a Gigabit
Ethernet port or slot. Meanwhile, third-party products now come from 11
companies including Microsoft, Veritas, Red Hat, Brocade, and
QLogic.

Pricing, interoperability, and ease of use will set the new storage
apart from the competition, says Dean Rally, senior director of Apple's
Information Systems and Technology Group. In his keynote talk during
the annual Macworld Conference & Expo, Rally also cited Xserve RAID
advantages: easy deployment and support, along with a stable, virtually
virus-free OS. Xserve RAID connects to any Xserve or Power Mac using
the dual-channel 2GB Apple Fibre Channel PCI card, which prices at a
modest $499. The new array costs between $5,999 (720GB) and $10,999
(2.52TB).

Ciprico won a STAR “best-of-show” award at the
IBC 2003 for its next generation DiMeda 1700 NAS (Network Attached
Storage) array. Making its U.S. debut at NAB, the device combines
Ciprico's high-performance NAS software with the latest SATA (serial
ATA) drive technology to create compact, affordable storage for use in
video editing.

Another SATA-based product introduction at the show: FibreSTORE
2212A. Featuring Fibre Channel performance “at half the
price,” Ciprico says the FibreSTORE 2212A is the first ATA
product that's robust enough for online, mission-critical, 24/7/365
applications. As with a number of storage vendors who are now starting
to deploy SATA-based systems, the technology enables manufacturers to
offer gear that combines lower price points with high throughput that
nearly rivals SCSI arrays.

Last fall, Ciprico announced that it would partner with Kodak
Service & Support, a business unit of Eastman Kodak company,
as its U.S. service provider for Ciprico's line of DiMeda storage
solutions. While it's not as well known as the fact that the Rochester,
N.Y.-based company is trying to reposition itself as a digital player,
Kodak has moved into the potentially lucrative field of service
offerings. Under the Advantage On-Site program, for example, Ciprico's
North American customers will receive onsite service and replacement
parts in four hours or less.

Doremi Labs' latest HD disk recorder, the V1-HD, allows
recording of HD-SDI video in either compressed or uncompressed modes.
Features include simultaneous record and play capability and dual-link
HD-SDI recording. The dual-link HD-SDI inputs enable 12-bit 4:4:4 video
recording from the new generation of higher-res HD video cameras, as
well as 4:2:2:4 recording of video and key.

The V1-HD's simultaneous record and play function provides time
savings, Doremi says; by allowing playback for color grading work, for
example, users can simultaneously record a video feed. A Gigabit
Ethernet option allows for fast transfers of movie and still image
formats such as QuickTime, TIFF, and YUV.

The V1-HD can use either internal storage or external RAID5 storage.
Features include HD and SD serial digital video I/O with embedded
audio, and up to eight channels of AES/EBU or six channels of analog
audio.

Fast Forward Video debuts its DigiDeck digital video
recorder. Based on the company's Recon DVR, the DigiDeck keeps its
price down by recording to standard IDE hard drives. Features include
composite and Y/C I/O, two channels of unbalanced audio, genlock,
timecode I/O, and an RS-422 interface. The DVR can record up to nine
hours on a single drive. Options include RGB/Component out and Windows
control software. The DigiDeck DVR can be ordered as a single- or
dual-channel system.

If you haven't seen it, also check out FFV's Recon, an ultra-compact
digital video recorder board. Based on the same feature set as the
company's Omega Deck, Recon offers MJPEG image resolution in a compact
form that's only 2.8'× 3.9'. Recon's small size, low DC power
consumption, ability to record hours of video and audio on fixed or
removable IDE hard drives, and solid state memory make it ideal for use
as a field portable, on-body, or in-vehicle recorder.

FFV's top-of-the-line Omega Deck DVR now offers a chase lock feature
enabling synchronized playback from multiple Omega Decks.

As drive prices continue to plummet, more companies enter the DDR
market with competitive deals. That includes For-A, which
introduces the LDR-4 multi-channel digital disk recorder, which records
up to four streams of video. When used with a 120GB hard drive, that's
enough capacity to record 30 hours of DV-quality material per channel,
greatly simplifying the recording of multi-camera live events, says the
company.

For-A moves into the DDR market with its LDR-4.

Fitting into 3RU, the MPEG-2 DDR offers simultaneous record and
playback, so that up to four channels can record a live event while any
one of them can be played back simultaneously. Any of the video feeds
can be viewed and monitored onsite or remotely with a PC. The number of
input channels can be selected from one to four, with the addition of
one encoder board per channel. There's also time-lapse recording,
automatic detection of video loss, onscreen titling generation/display,
RS-422 protocol support, and (optional) Ethernet 10/100baseT networking
support.

While not a “big” name, Huge Systems sports
talent that lays claim to innovative engineering helping to usher in
highly cost-competitive drive arrays.

At the show, the Huge MediaVault U320-R Max disk array offers an
example of that. While its footprint is small (6'×11'×12'),
this latest Huge MediaVault (HMV) offers capacities of up to 1,250GB in
four different configurations.

Huge Systems MediaVault U320-R

With its “true” SCSI Ultra320 I/O, the HMV U320-R Max
delivers a 10-bit, 1080i HD stream using five drives in a single
channel configuration, or choose six SD streams instead.Most other such
arrays, says the company, require 10 drives in a dual channel setup to
achieve the same result. Besides cutting hard drive costs in half, this
single channel configuration doesn't need disk striping, which in turn
cuts down on the potential for record errors — one of the typical
problem areas of disk arrays.

While the HMV delivers a maximum burst data rate of 320MBs, its
sustained data rate is 200MBs in High Definition Turbo mode. As with
all Huge Systems arrays, the HMV handles multiple OS compatibility
— Macintosh, Windows, Linux, UNIX, and SGI — right out of
the box.

Maximum Throughput not only does NAS for post — it
claims to offer the speediest networked attached storage available
— but it also does it over a Gigabit Ethernet network via TCP/IP.
Using Internet protocol enables the company to combine off-the-shelf
hardware and Internet-based management in products such as Sledgehammer
NAS. Still under development is InfinARRAY, which will scale to
multiple petabytes of storage (explain that one to the CFO) with
multiple gigabytes per second I/O, according to the Montreal-based
company.

Medéa delivers its first FireWire-based array, the G-RAID.

Expect to see more integrated applications for Sledgehammer NAS,
which, the company says, delivers some 180MBs throughput in the real
world. Main features include affordability (via use of industry
standard components); scalability (move from 2TB to 32TB of commodity
storage); and concurrent support for multiple protocols, clients, and
multiple operating systems. Since EDLs can be batch captured and the
system can also be accessed just like a DDR, supporting operations such
as uncompressed telecine transfers any resolution.

Besides software updates to Sledgehammer (including product versions
that handle SD and HD video), Max Throughput will also demo with
partners Discreet and Xstoner. The latter provides a browser to view
and manage partitions, libraries, and the clips database on the
Discreet stones arrays, as well as an intuitive interface to program
import and export tasks.

Buyers looking for low prices on fast storage know to keep an eye on
Medéa, a long-time manufacturer of cost-effective RAID
gear. The company probably won't disappoint those buyers as it
introduces some five new drive systems at the show.

The VideoRaid FCR2 and FCR2X Fibre Channel arrays build in four- or
eight-port FC hubs and employ speedy 2Gbs FC interfaces while keeping
data safe with level three RAID. By lashing five drives together, the
FCR2 supports up to seven streams of uncompressed SD video, while
fitting neatly on a desktop. Meanwhile, the two-channel FCR2X employs
10 FC drives to enable realtime work with two streams of 10-bit 1080i
HD. With the latter drive, Medéa challenges Apple's entry into the
video storage market with lower cost FC-based arrays that begin well
under $6,000 (for 640GB), according to the company.

Two other new Medéa offerings: the G-RAID starts at $399
(160GB) and delivers two streams of realtime uncompressed SD video via
its FireWire 800 ports; the VideoRaid XTRM includes a four-port FC hub,
2Gbs FC interface, and holds up to 15 drives to support realtime 2K
editing.

Omneon Video Networks introduces the Spectrum ES, which now
includes an SDTI media interface adapter that enables the media server
to support Panasonic's DVCPRO-100HD. The company claims this makes the
Spectrum line the first servers capable of supporting all leading HD
formats simultaneously, including MPEG, HDCAM, and DVCPRO-100.

At the show Snell & Wilcox releases MXF Express, a free-to-use set of software developer tools to help create MXF-compliant gear and software. MXF (Material eXchange Format) looks to be a new digital lingua franca for media content. S&W will also "freely release" MXF Desktop (above); the software player allows MXF-wrapped files to play on any Windows PC desktop.

Omneon will also introduce native support for MXF across its entire
server line. Now, users can select either QuickTime or MXF as the media
wrapper format for stored material.

S.two, the small, innovative provider of D.MAG on-location
storage for camera systems like the Viper FilmStream, tackles workflow
issues with the introduction of A.DOCK, an on-set archiving station.
The device uses a large, internal disk cache to quickly clone the data
on a D.MAG magazine. The company also spots it for use in digital film
transfer.

That cloned data needs its own copy too, since the material is too
important to leave on just that one copy. A robotic data tape backup
library, attached to the A.DOCK, holds up to 4.8TB. At the studio or
post facility, more automation for A.DOCK comes via bar codes and
production database tools.

S.two will also show the latest version of its DFR digital field
recorder.

With the graphics and processing power now available in
off-the-shelf components, the content creation industry doesn't buy as
much SGI gear as it once did, which is something company
management acknowledges.

SGI is not out of the content creation workstation business, of
course. There's its flagship Tezro workstation. Introduced last year,
it delivers one of the company's best price/performance ratios ever,
which keeps software from Discreet, Alias, da Vinci, and others
competitive. But it's the storage and networking initiatives that are
now gaining emphasis.

Adopting the moniker InfiniteStorage for its combined networking and
storage play, it's actually a shared file system, CXFS, which sets the
company's offerings apart from just being another SAN and NAS supplier.
This proprietary file format wraps around data from a variety of
operating systems, allowing Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, Irix, and
others to coexist and interactively share files over a SAN.

SGI claims CXFS offers much greater I/O performance and bandwidth
than any network data-sharing mechanism, since the SAN's simultaneous
shared access means there's no need for time- and disk-consuming
copying.

Its move to highlight storage and networking enables SGI to finally
work with long-time competitor Quantel. Quantel certified its iQ
DI and eQ HD editing system for use with InfiniteStorage. While the
Quantel iQ employs the company's dedicated Dylan storage array, SGI
storage and networking enables it to tie into the rest of post.

Following an increasingly popular two-tiered storage strategy, SGI
introduced its own SATA option for economical secondary disk storage in
its InfiniteStorage line. That's enabled the company to secure larger
installs, including EFilm, which added 63TB of the Serial ATA storage
as a nearline archive for its existing SGI SAN.

Studio Network Solutions (SNS) will announce new features for
SANmp, its multi-platform volume management SAN app. The software
enables multiple workstations with different operating systems —
Mac and Windows for most users — to concurrently access and share
information. Since SANmp doesn't require a server or Ethernet
connection, it's easy to implement and maintain, says the St.
Louis-based company.

Besides an updated user interface, this latest SANmp version offers
performance boosts by optimizing the way the software interacts with
shared disks. Meanwhile, the new Command Line Interface (CLI) helps
automate SANmp by executing commands in script or batch modes from
either Mac or Windows platforms.

Other new features include AutoSync (refreshes the array); the
ability to select multiple volumes and then mount — or un-mount
— them simultaneously; and an “Exclusive” mode, which
enables a user to mount a disk/volume so that the user is the only
person who has access to it at any given time. This ensures that the
performance of that disk or volume is not negatively impacted by
concurrent access from another user.
— D.O.