Storage technology at this year's NAB will fully address the real-world demands of the media professional, whether he's sitting in a broadcast control room or in an OB van on the road. Questions have been asked, and the newest slate of equipment is attempting to answer: How can we improve file workflows, address file degradation and share storage across platforms—and do it all faster, smarter and in a smaller footprint?
SERVERS & STORAGE
Abekas is one company attempting to forge an answer, and at NAB will be on hand with the Mira—both the instant replay server version and the production server. The 3RU instant replay Mira handles SD/HD and 3DTV productions, featuring four or eight digital video channels.
Bright Technologies BrightDrive Procyon
EVS XT3
A lineup of sever solutions will be in the BLT Italia both, including the SMS-4U, an eight-channel fully HD broadcast video server with simultaneous recording and playback; SMS-2U, a four-channel server; and the SMS-VKA, a dedicated server for graphics and logo playout.
Bright Technologies comes to NAB with a new generation of BrightDrive SAN servers, as well as the BrightDrive Procyon and BrightDrive Triton. The company has also developed BrightClip SA, a standalone version of its BrightClip recording technology. The company will also showcase new data storage capabilities and file streaming formats of BrightClip SA, as well improvements to file allocation and degradation.
Harmonic Spectrum ChannelPortDVEO will showcase the DelayServer IP, a broadcast-quality IP to IP Gateway and delaying file server designed to capture SD and HD IP transport streams and play them back after a delay that is adjustable from seconds to hours. Capture and playback can be simultaneous on multiple streams. In the IP streaming department, the company will show the Brutus multistreamer, a 200-channel transcoder streaming system.
There will be new capabilities on display in the EditShare booth when the company sets up its EditShare XStream and Energy series of shared production storage solutions. New features include advanced project sharing and enhanced networking configurations to maximize performance. The Geevs broadcast ingest and playout servers will also be on hand, showcasing new multiviewer support, and SD and HD capability.
EVS will introduce EVS Sports360°, a new configuration of its XT3 server platform, and which it says is the industry's first 3 Gbps (single link) video I/O capable system with embedded high/low res management. A new version of CCast, part of EVS Sports360°, is an advanced multicam system and allows instant distribution of multiple camera angles on web-connected screens during live productions. An MXF-file based version of the OpenCube server, offering full mastering of AS02, AS03 and IMF formats, will also be shown.
Facilis Technology will show off v5.5 of its TerraBlock high-capacity shared storage system. Designed for post-production and content-creation professionals, it supports Fibre Channel and Ethernet, with volume and file-level control on multiple platforms. The latest version includes Linux multiuser volume support, integrated server spanning and mirroring, recovery priority, and support for Avid Media Composer 6 and Avid Symphony on Windows and Lion OSX.
Harris Nexio AMP NX3801 K2 Summit 3G is the next-generation production client from Grass Valley. The new server features enhanced codec support for multicam configurations, increased internal storage capacity, and optional simultaneous low-resolution proxy generation to support STRATUS workflows. A new software upgrade offers 1080p 50/60 compatibility.
Harmonic will introduce Harmonic Spectrum ChannelPort, an integrated channel playout device for Spectrum media server systems. ChannelPort combines clip playout functionality with channel branding capabilities to simplify integration and workflow. Harmonic will also showcase the Omneon Spectrum MediaCenter SSD, which adds solid-state drive (SSD) technology to the company's midrange multichannel media server. Featuring integrated storage plus Spectrum MediaPort modularity and scalability, MediaCenter SSD is the first modular server system to offer a choice of SSD or hard-disk drive (HDD) storage.
Harris plans to introduce attendees to the Nexio Studio Suite, used with Nexio servers to create a more efficient file-based workflow environment. The company will also show off new enhancements to the Nexio AMP and Nexio Volt compact video servers. New features include automatic input detection and support for a variety of new software-driven enhancements.
Orad will showcase new enhancements to the PlayMaker sport replay server, which provides up to eight I/O channels of ingest in multiple video formats, including DVCPRO, DNxHD and JPEG2000, with synchronized slow motion replay and editing tools. The PlayNet module provides Gigabit network file sharing between servers for preview, copy or instant playout of clips.
QTV plans to highlight the v3 Video Server, which now provides additional support for Avid and Apple editing workflows, improved timecode handling, and support for closed captions.
Ross Video will introduce the BlackStorm 102P playout server, a two-channel HD 1RU rack unit video player. It natively supports the Quicktime (.mov) file format and a selection of codecs and provides an easy to use, user configurable and intuitive client/server interface fully integrated into the Ross DashBoard Control System. The 1RU chassis is designed to use off-the-shelf hardware and is built on theDell Server platform.
Ross Video Blackstorm The newest evolution to the SeaChange brand of MSV1200 video servers will be at NAB in the form of the MediaServer 1200XD, now equipped with flash SSD drives. New features include decreased power consumption and increased on-air reliability.
Sencore will show off its TSS 6000 transport stream server, a channel-in-a-box that works as a playout solution for single- and multichannel SD and HD as well as providing archiving features.
Small Tree comes to NAB with Titanium, an Ethernet-based video-editing shared storage appliance with advanced file sharing capabilities.
Sonnet Technologies will showcase the Xmac mini server, a 1RU PCIe 2.0 expansion system. It enables users to plug in two PCIe 2.0 adapter cards to slots connected to the mini via locking Thunderbolt cables while allowing the connection of additional peripherals. The company will also show its Fusion RX1600 Vfibre video editing SAN server, available in 16 TB, 32 TB and 48 TB configurations.
Sound Devices will introduce new functionality for the PIX 240 portable audio/video recorder, which now offers new monitoring features that enable users to monitor images in varying exposures.
Thomson Video Networks will showcase the Sapphire MPEG broadcast server that offers advanced capture, playout and regionalization capabilities. The system operates frame accurately with MPEG-2 and H.264 compressed content. New features include frame-accurate clip editing enhancements, advanced logo-insertion features and BXF support.
Wowza Media Systems will be at NAB with the newest generation of the Wowza Media Server 3, a media streaming platform that facilitates adaptive bit-rate streaming, time-shifted playback and integrated rights management.
RECORDING & MEDIA
AJA Video Systems will show the lighter and smaller version of AJA's portable tapeless recorder, the Ki Pro Mini. The Ki Pro flash disk recorder mounts to digital cameras and accessories, allowing it to fit unobtrusively in small spaces and capture to the Apple ProRes 422 codec directly from the camera.
AJA Ki Pro Mini
Sony SR Memory Recorder Unit for F65
A new member of the Fast Forward Video team is the sideKick HD, a camera-mountable recording system designed to ease production workflows. It features recording capability of 220 Mbps and serves as a straight-to-edit DVR with removable 2.5-inch SSD drives. Also new for 2012 is the sideKick HD Studio, a camera-mounted DVR that works with the sideKick HD to transfer field footage stored on the unit directly into the Studio for integration with NLE systems.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, For-A will showcase enhancements to recording solutions like the LTR-100HS LTO-5 archive recorder.
JVC plans to show off enhancements its Blu-ray disc and HDD recorder, the SR-HD2500US. This combo deck creates standard Blu-ray discs or DVDs from a variety of HD content sources without complex software or computer hardware, recording to a built-in 500 GB hard drive or directly to Blu-ray disc. Features include built-in SD/HD-SDI interface for compatibility.
Merging Technologies will introduce v3.0 of its multiformat media sequencer and playout system.
Sonnet will bring a host of media reader solutions to the show, including the Qio CF4, a professional CompactFlash media reader; Qio E3 professional SxS media reader; and Qio MR, a compact mobile rack-mounted reader that supports major HD video memory card formats such as SxS, P2 and SDXC.
Sony will showcase the SRMemory recorder unit for its F65 camera system and the SRMemory recorder unit. New members of Sony's open environment SRMASTER alliance include a range of post production companies and manufacturers of content production solutions including on-set dailies, nonlinear editing and color grading technology.
