2011 NAB Show Product Review: Storage & Recording


Sleeker, faster, smaller—the latest spate of storage and recording devices are taking those words to heart, offering users archive and record solutions that are streamlined, portable and offer improved workflow functionality.

Peter Natowicz (L) from AV Group in Brussels, Belgium, gets information from Robert Bury on the new EVS Xedio-Flash integrated news solution. Photo by Dawley/KovacsSTORAGE & SERVERS

Abekas showcased the multichannel Mira production server, available in four- and eight-channel configurations.

Archion introduced several new solutions at NAB, including the Synergy XTR, EditSTOR ES and Alliance LT.

The highlight at the Atempo booth was the new version of the Atempo Digital Archive, which allows users to create a scalable, flexible, multitier file archiving solution that allows editors to archive, search and retrieve assets directly from an Avid interface.

Autocue/QTV Group released new firmware and hardware for the Autocue Video Servers, which feature two or four bidirectional HD/SD channels that can be switched between playback and record mode instantly.

New from Avid was the ISIS 5000 shared storage system, which offers up to 90 client connections, 144 TB of useable capacity and linear performance.

Storage options from Cache-A included a new linear tape film system as part of the LTO-5 product line. The new solutions include Prime-Cache5 cost-effective archive appliance and Power-Cache high-performance archive appliance server.

Digital Broadcast came to NAB with solutions like the mediaVault LTO Tape Archive, RAID 6 Spinning Disk, and the mediaVault Carousel archive system that offers mass storage on Blu-ray discs for broadcast news, programming and production operations.

DVS showcased new features for CLIPSTER, including extended mezzanine workflow support and automatic 3D correction. The company also highlighted several storage solutions, including the SpycerBox Flex and SpycerBox Ultra.

Harmonic's Matthew Rehrer (L) explains the features of the Omneon MediaGrid 3000 Series shared storage system to Andre Anten from Film-Partners in The Netherlands. Photo by Dawley/Kovacs Designed for small and mid-size productions, EditShare's new Energy shared-storage product line offers more than 700 MBps of read and write performance and supports resolutions from DV25 up to full 2K DPX.

EVS launched its XFly high-capacity portable storage solution, designed for live production operations. The storage case encloses eight removable standard SAS or SATA hard disk drives offering up to 8 TB storage. Also new was Xedio Flash, an integrated hardware/software system offering all-in-one newsroom capabilities and designed for small and regional newsrooms.

Evertz launched the Mediator workflow management system, which relies on the Evertz Media Server Solution, a scalable clustered NFS server with fault-resilient multitiered core storage and multichannel playout client.

For digital film archiving, Fraunhofer IIS showcased the CURATOR Archive Suite, a long-term software archive solution for digital film archives.

Grass Valley's K2 Summit Production Client can now handle low-res proxies, allowing smaller broadcasters and production studies to enjoy the same benefits of editing and viewing low-res HD proxies without having to invest in a high-bandwidth expensive solution. The company also released new software for the K2 Dyno Replay System that offers more streamlined operations as well as new live event replay features.

Harmonic introduced the Omneon MediaPort 7000 series of I/O modules for the Omneon Spectrum media server, designed to streamline playout and simplify the transition to HD. The company also introduced a new combination of scale-out storage hardware, the ContentServer 3000, and v3.0 of the Omneon MediaGrid file system software that features integrated software RAID for efficient and smart data protection.

Regis Andre (C) of Grass Valley demonstrates the STRATUS playout system to a group. Photo by Dawley/KovacsHarris introduced a new lineup of NEXIO server and storage systems, including the newest NEXIO AMP advanced media platform and NEXIO Farad online storage system, both operating on NEXIO 6.0 software to improve performance and workflows.

Hitachi demonstrated the new Hitachi Professional Media TV Broadcaster Core Infrastructure Solution Set, which includes storage solutions from Hitachi Data Systems and is designed to support automated workflows that repurpose content.

TeraStore from NVerzion supports up to 144 TB of network-attached storage with the addition of a 3TB 48-bay configuration.

Orad demonstrated the PlayMaker slow-motion server, an eight-channel tapeless HD/SD server that integrates to Avid and Apple editing systems.

The newest version of Ross Video's SoftMetal video server targets production playout of clips and graphics. V4.4 adds VDCP control protocol over Ethernet and AMP automation control support.

SAN Solutions launched two new product lines in the ArtiSAN Storage Platform family: the ArtiSAN 9400, a SAN storage platform that supports multiple streams of 2K/4K media as well as all HD video streams; and the ArtiSAN 5400, designed for high-capacity requirements with192 TB of 2K/4K storage.

SeaChange debuted its next-generation Universal MediaLibrary Grid storage system, configured to scale to a grid storage system and connect with other bricks in dispersed location so the entire networking can act as a single storage system.

Sencore launched a new line of video-on-demand servers as part of a new development partnership with Broadpeak. On display was the BkM100 CDN Mediator, a storage solution centered on a bandwidth management module, as well as the BkS family of live and on-demand servers.

SGL unveiled several new solutions, including a new version of the FlashNet content archive software solutions that offers workflow enhancements.

Portable and desktop options were at the Sonnet Technologies booth where the company showcased the Fusion F2TBR, a two-drive portable SSD storage system; the Fusion E400TBR5, a four-drive RAID 5 desktop storage system; and the high-performance Fusion D800TBR5, an eight-drive storage system.

At the show, TelVue demoed its line of broadcast servers, including the HyperCaster IP broadcast server, and Princeton digital broadcast servers and workflow equipment.

Thomson Video Networks highlighted its Sapphire MPEG broadcast server, which offers capture, playout and regionalization capabilities, and new features such as frame-accurate clip editing and advanced logo insertion.

Pedro Bertolino (L) of TV Barriga Verde in Brazil listens as Robert Peterson of FOR-A explains the company's LTR-120HS video archiving recorder. Photo by Dawley/Kovacs The newest online archiving solution from Xendata was the XOA-20, a scalable online archive that provides up to 140 TB of RAID capacity.

Wowza Media Systems showcased the Wowza Media Server 2, and announced the integration of the Wowza Media Server 3 with a video content authority system for Internet TV management.

RECORDING & MEDIA

Abekas demonstrated ClipStoreMXc, a DDR used in live productions for video, key and audio clip playback. The system accommodates JPEG-2000 compressed HD and uncompressed SD digital video.

In the miniature department, AJA Video Systems showcased the AJA Ki Pro Mini miniature portable field recorder.

Alcorn McBride showcased new features as part of its SetPlayer video playback line, which has a 40 Mbps bit rate and includes MediaFlow encoding software.

Atomos introduced its Ninja portable touchscreen HD recorder, monitor and playback device. The company also showed the Samurai, a portable 10-bit HD-SDI recorder/monitor/playback system.

Blackmagic Design introduced HyperDeck Studio, a new uncompressed 10 bit broadcast recorder for solid state disks (SSD) that features dual slots to allow automatic recording onto the next disk when one record disk fills, allowing unlimited duration recording. Also new was the HyperDeck Shuttle disk recorder that captures uncompressed 10 bit SDI or HDMI video onto SSDs.

For HD studio desktop applications, Datavideo showcased the HDR-40 recorder, which records from both SD and HD equipment via SDI with HDMI output.

In the digital cinema space, Doremi Labs introduced the DCP-2K cinema player. Video disk recorders from the company include the V1-UHD, V1-UHD/LE and V10HD FOR HD and 3D applications.

Recorders from the DVEO family included the Millennia HD portable HD DDR and DigiDisk server/player/recorder.

The HD version of the sideKick made its debut from Fast Forward Video. The sideKick HD is a multiformat, camera-mountable digital video recorder that can capture video directly from and HD/SDI or HDMI output.

Robert Murphy (L) of Panasonic drives home a point on the company's AJ-HPM200 P2 recorder to Craig Porter of Young Broadcasting. Photo by Dawley/KovacsFOR-A introduced the LTR-120HS video archiving recorder, which uses high-quality AVC-Intra/DVCPRO codec and MXF wrapper/un-wrapper to record MXF files that can be used by a variety of NLE systems to LTO-5 tape.

Focus Enhancements showed off the Focus FS-H, a series of professional H.265 proxy recorders designed to help simplify the acquisition workflow by recording matching lower bit-rate H.265 proxy content.

Grass Valley released the new STRATUS platform, a media workflow suite that can ingest, manage, edit and play out assets stored on K2 Summit or K2 Solo servers.

Seven new products from the iVDR line made a splash at the Maxell booth, including the iVDR desktop drive with SATA connectivity, the 4-bay Storage Tower, 4-bay Cipher Tower, 5-bay Storage Tower, 5-bay Cipher Tower, 9-bay Storage Tower and 9-bay Storage Rack. Each can be configured with a combination of iVDR, SATA or IDE drive trays accommodating 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch HDD. Panasonic announced the AG-HPD24, a P2 portable deck with 3D synchronized record/playback, native 24p recording with variable frame rates, and 24-bit, four-channel audio recording in AVC-Intra 100/50. The company also introduced the AJ-PCD30, a P2 three-slot drive with a USB 3.0 interface.

The new DVStor2 could be found in the Pixelmetrix stand—a recording and playback system with RAID-6 and redundant power supplies.

Roland Systems Group recording options include the all-in-one VR-5 system, an A/V mixer recorder designed to simplify production, recording and streaming of live events.

Sony showcased a new quad (four) layer version of the XDCAM Professional Disc, with a 128 GB capacity. The new disc targets long-form recording and archiving, and can store more than four hours of XDCAM HD422 50Mbps content. Sony also highlighted its next-generation drive technology, the PDW-U2, as well as the XDCAM Station hybrid media recorder, which features SxS memory card slots and a VTR-like control panel. The newest version of the XDCAM Archive was also on display. Also new was a 1 TB SR memory card.

Sound Devices has entered the video recording market with the PIX 220 and PIX 240 mini video recorders which handle HDMI and HDMI/HD-SDI.

Solid State Logic came to the desert with the Gravity Studio Recorder HD, a video disk recorder with linear recording capability.

Susan Ashworth

Susan Ashworth is the former editor of TV Technology. In addition to her work covering the broadcast television industry, she has served as editor of two housing finance magazines and written about topics as varied as education, radio, chess, music and sports. Outside of her life as a writer, she recently served as president of a local nonprofit organization supporting girls in baseball.