To improve efficiency, reduce travel and make better use of specialized staff, TV broadcasters are moving away from traditional facility-bound control rooms toward remote, distributed and hybrid production models.

“Broadcasters are rethinking the traditional control room,” said Costa Kokorogiannis, product manager at Matrox Video, a global provider of AV-over-IP solutions for live, remote and distributed broadcast workflows. “Instead of tying operators to dedicated hardware in a single facility, they want IP-based KVM and control systems that allow teams to access production resources from anywhere without sacrificing responsiveness.”

“Broadcasters are looking for flexible environments,” added Greg Lenczycki, chief operating officer of IHSE USA, which offers secure, zero-latency KVM and matrix switching solutions for 24/7 mission-critical environments. “The future of the industry is relying heavily on hybrid workflows—keeping latency-sensitive or high-resolution processes on-premises while leveraging IP for scalability and remote access.”

Layered Systems and Distributed Workflows
Today’s remote production architectures involve multiple layers of technology, combining on-premises equipment, transmission infrastructure and localized monitoring with virtualized or cloud processing utilities.

“It’s now common for production teams to work across multiple studios, broadcast centers or remote venues, requiring secure, low-latency access to equipment and resources regardless of location,” said John Halksworth, senior product manager at Adder Technology, which develops high-performance IP KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) solutions for the secure control of local and remote live production systems. “As a result, they’re looking for technologies that not only provide reliable remote access, but also integrate seamlessly into the wider broadcast ecosystem.”

Given this new operational reality, “broadcasters are no longer looking for one single ‘remote production product,’” said Matt Keske, director of business development, North America, at G&D and VuWall, which provides integrated KVM hardware and video wall management software for secure control rooms. Instead, “they are building layered hybrid infrastructures that combine on-site systems, IP-based transport, centralized control, monitoring, and cloud or virtualized services.”

Why Low Latency Matters
In this remotely connected world, fast data speeds are essential. This is why, “as broadcasters continue to adopt hybrid workflows and remote operations, they are increasingly seeking equipment that enables secure, low-latency access to systems and resources regardless of location,” said Thomas Tang, founder and president of Apantac, which offers multiviewers, KVM-over-IP and video processing solutions for the broadcast and pro AV industries.

“KVM-over-IP solutions have become a critical component of this transition, allowing operators, engineers, and production staff to remotely access and control servers, workstations, replay systems, graphics engines, and other mission-critical equipment as if they were sitting directly in front of them,” Tang said.

Connecting these low-latency solutions over standard IP networks lets remote operators feel as if they are sitting right next to the machines even when they are hundreds of miles away. In some KVM-over-IP deployments, standard 1 Gigabit Ethernet networks with transparent USB support can deliver responsive control with little or no perceptible delay, provided the network is properly designed for the workflow.

“Remote production really only works if operators can forget that they’re remote,” Kokorogiannis said. “In live environments, there’s no tolerance for sluggish keyboard response, delayed video or inconsistent switching between systems.”

The Challenges of REMI
In an idealized remote operational environment, the transition from a localized setup to a Remote Integration Model (REMI) workflow goes without a hitch. In the real world, there can be issues.

A case in point: “One of the biggest challenges in REMI workflows is maintaining visibility and control as operators, systems, and signals become distributed across multiple locations,” Kokorogiannis said. “In a traditional control room, everything is physically nearby. In a remote production model, broadcasters need to manage routing, monitoring and operator access across facilities without introducing latency or operational complexity.”

This is where IP KVM technology plays an important role. “By providing secure, low-latency access to systems regardless of location, operators can interact with remote resources as if they were local,” Halksworth said. “Combined with centralized management and monitoring platforms, engineering teams gain a single view of users, devices and system status across the entire environment, helping them identify issues more quickly and manage operations more efficiently.”

Ultimately, successful REMI deployments depend on more than moving signals between sites. “They require a consistent operational layer that allows people to monitor, access and control distributed resources with the same confidence and simplicity they would expect in a traditional facility,” Halksworth said.

Mixing Old and New
The move to remote workflows comes as money is tight in the TV industry. “Most broadcasters can’t afford to rebuild their entire infrastructure overnight, nor do they really want to,” Kokorogiannis said. “The reality for many facilities is that SDI, IP, and cloud-based workflows will coexist for years.

“That’s why flexibility and interoperability are so important,” he added. “Matrox Avio 2 is designed to integrate into existing environments using standard IP networks, allowing broadcasters to centralize and extend systems gradually rather than forcing a complete operational overhaul. Support for ST 2110 and NMOS also helps broadcasters align KVM workflows with the broader evolution of their IP infrastructure.”

Other companies interviewed for this article cited similar product flexibility. “Broadcasters can easily turn their existing Draco control infrastructure into a hybrid or fully remote platform by simply adding a tera IP gateway,” Lenczycki told TV Tech. “This addition to current systems allows users to effortlessly gain remote access to their matrix without a total replacement of their system.”

Added Keske: “G&D systems can be introduced step by step because they sit at the access and control layer, not as a replacement for the entire broadcast infrastructure. A broadcaster can start by centralizing existing computers in a technical room and connecting current operator positions via KVM. Later, additional workstations, systems, or KVM-over-IP components can be added as the facility grows.”

For most broadcasters, modernization isn’t a single project, but an ongoing process—including the transition from localized production to full REMI.

One of the key requirements is ensuring that operators can continue to work efficiently throughout this transition. “Broadcasters can’t afford to disrupt production workflows every time new technology is introduced, particularly in live environments where reliability is paramount,” Halksworth said. “This is where IP KVM can provide significant value.

“Because it sits at the user access layer, it allows broadcasters to connect operators to a wide range of systems regardless of whether those resources are based on legacy infrastructure, modern IP networks or cloud-hosted platforms,” Halksworth continued. “From the operator’s perspective, the workflow remains familiar even as the underlying infrastructure evolves.”

As for the future? Improvements in automation, artificial intelligence, network speeds and transport latency levels are all going to make REMI faster and more invisible than ever. In fact, the day may come when there is no perceptible difference between local and remote production for operators or viewers.

“Broadcasters are already demonstrating that talent, systems and resources can be distributed across multiple sites while operating as a single production environment,” Halksworth said. “Perhaps the most significant long-term trend is that physical location will continue to become less relevant.”

LOS ANGELES—OpenDrives recently hosted an event at its headquarters here marking the soft launch of Astraeus, its new data services platform.

The Nov. 7 gathering brought together industry stakeholders, customers, partners and media to explore how OpenDrives is advancing its long-term vision for the future of hybrid infrastructure and fully orchestrated data services.

The event marked the company’s evolution from a data storage company rooted in the media and entertainment industry into a data services company serving all enterprises. Through presentations, panels and a live demonstration, the event illustrated how Astraeus solves industry-agnostic data challenges like breaking down data silos and sprawl, controlling unpredictable costs, addressing AI and other emerging workflows and implementing modern IT and data governance initiatives.

Officially released in early September, Astraeus is OpenDrives’ cloud-native data services platform designed to unify, orchestrate and manage data and applications across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments. Built on a Kubernetes-based, cluster-first architecture, Astraeus delivers cloud agility and flexibility with on-premises performance and control. It gives organizations a unified view of all data regardless of location, reduces data sprawl, and enhances security and governance, while improving team productivity.

“Astraeus is a platform built to evolve alongside our customers. It reflects our shared vision: simplify complex data workflows, free data from silos and manage costs more reliably,” said Trevor Morgan, chief operating officer at OpenDrives. “Astraeus is our answer for helping organizations turn control of their data into a competitive advantage.”

OpenDrives CEO Sean Lee discussed the evolution of the company from its origins as a high-performance storage provider to a full data service provider “This isn’t just another product launch,“ Lee said. “Astraeus represents a fundamental redefinition of who we are as a company and what’s possible for our customers when they take control of their data,” he said.

Chief Technology Officer Alex Dunfey offered an in-depth look at the technical differentiators that set Astraeus apart, highlighting its cloud-native foundation, containerized composition and data services that enable users to deploy and optimize their workflows across dynamic environments. Dunfey emphasized that hardware and storage alone can’t manage or make sense of data. That’s a job for data services, he said.

As part of this rollout, OpenDrives said it is inviting organizations to join its Early Adopter Program, which runs through Dec. 15. The company is looking for what it calls “lighthouse customers” to experience the platform first hand and help shape its continued development.

More information is available on the company’s website.

IBC 2019, 13-17 September, Hall 7 Stand A01: Cinegy, the global leader for broadcast playout software on premise, hybrid and in the cloud, will demonstrate the multiple advantages of the inclusion of Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) as well as the 8K capabilities of its entire product range at IBC 2019.

Cinegy Head of Product Management Lewis Kirkaldie said, “SRT is an extra bit of magic that breaks the restrictive chains of having to establish connectivity by plugging in a cable somewhere. Through SRT, the ability to ensure a signal gets to and from where it needs to be is now both feasible and widely available.

“What that means is that with SRT you can locate content, tools, and services wherever your business needs them, be it in the cloud, on rented virtual machines, on-prem, or at remote data centres.”

Cinegy’s view is that the maturity of SRT opens the door to a sizable range of new applications while vastly simplifying existing ones.

“SRT is a massive liberator,” further explained Kirkaldie. “SRT makes system design so much easier. You can design exactly what you want to deliver, with precisely the results you need, irrespective of inputs, outputs, or location. There is no longer any reason to compromise your business goals due to connectivity or bandwidth limitations.”

SRT is baked in to Cinegy software, including the license, which removes any concerns about whether users have the legal right, proper subscription, or adequate bandwidth to deploy the software.

In the case of 8K, Cinegy has optimised its entire product line to be 8K-ready and deployed in the cloud. The new Cinegy Multiviewer, in addition to being 8K capable, has had its already impressive GPU optimisation further improved. This makes the Multiviewer even more powerful and flexible when paired with Cinegy Air PRO Playout and Cinegy Capture PRO Ingest.

The twin benefits of increased scalability and efficiency in Cinegy Air PRO are equally beneficial features for Cinegy Capture PRO. Using the same hardware, both systems are not only capable of capturing 8K in 10-bit at up to 60, but also four channels of UHD/4K.

Cinegy products can process mixed SD, HD, 4K/UHD, and 8K formats - as well as handle HDR - for capture, playout, monitoring, news, editing, or MAM. All of the products displayed at IBC 2019 are available for immediate deployment.

###

About Cinegy
Cinegy develops software solutions for collaborative workflow encompassing IP, capture, editing and playout services tools, integrated into an active archive for full digital asset management. Either SaaS, virtualizable stacks, cloud or on-premises, Cinegy is COTS using standard IT hardware, and non-proprietary storage technology. Cinegy products are reliable, affordable, scalable, easily deployable and intuitive. Cinegy is truly Software Defined Television. Visit www.cinegy.com for more details.

Cinegy PR Contact:
Jennie Marwick-Evans
Manor Marketing
jennie@manormarketing.tv
+44 (0) 7748 636171

The most commonly cited advantage of deploying IP video networks in production and other operational applications is the ability to use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) IT-based infrastructure, which takes advantage of the economies of scale of the IT industry when compared with the relatively small broadcast industry. Additional advantages include reduced cabling cost and weight along with the much greater routing flexibility that offers more flexible production options. These advantages have captured the industry by storm and broadcasters are already working on early deployments of IP video networks. Not far behind deployment is the need to efficiently diagnose and resolve faults.

As I discussed in a previous article, Implementing a Hybrid IP/SDI Production Infrastructure, IP introduces new technical and skills challenges. These include jitter, latency and the risk of dropped packets and network asymmetry which results in different path delays upstream and downstream.

Deploying IP for video production applications is effectively the collision of the two worlds of video engineering and network engineering. Video engineers are comfortable with the use of SDI, coax., patch panels, black burst and tri-level for timing and above all, monitoring signal quality. The challenge for the video engineer is to understand IT technology and impact of an IT infrastructure on the video.

On the other hand, network engineers are familiar and comfortable with, IP flows, protocols, network traffic, router configuration and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and Network Time Protocol (NTP) for timing. The biggest difference however is that in most data center applications, lost data can be re-sent—this is not the case with high bitrate video. The challenge for the network engineer is in understanding video technology and its impact on IT infrastructure.

OVERCOMING JITTER

In any digital system, jitter is any deviation from the regular periodicity of the signal. In IP networks jitter is the variation of the packet arrival interval at a receiver. If the network routers and switches are all configured and operating correctly, the most common cause of jitter is network congestion at router/switch interfaces.

The application within a network element will likely require the data to be received in a non-bursty form and as a result, receiving devices adopt a de-jitter buffer, with the application receiving the packets from the output of this buffer rather than directly. As illustrated in Fig. 1, packets flow out of the buffer at a regular rate, smoothing out the variations in the timing of the packets flowing into the buffer.

Fig. 1: Packet jitter is deviation from the periodicity of the packet arrival interval.

The rate of packets flowing out of the de-jitter buffer is known as the “drain rate.” The rate at which the buffer receives data is known as the “fill rate.” If the buffer size is too small then if the drain rate exceeds the fill rate, then it will eventually underflow, resulting in stalled packet flow. If the sink rate exceeds the drain rate, then eventually the buffer will overflow, resulting in packet loss. However, if the buffer size is too large, then the network element will introduce excessive latency. 

Jitter can be measured by plotting the time-stamps of the packet inter-arrival times vs. time as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2: Packet inter-arrival intervals plotted versus time

This is useful to identify variances in jitter over time, but it is also useful to be able to plot the distribution of inter-arrival intervals vs. frequency of occurrence as a histogram. If the jitter value is so large that it causes packets to be received out of the range of the de-jitter buffer, then the out-of-range packets are dropped. Being able to identify outliers such as the example in Fig. 3 helps to identify if the network jitter performance is either likely to or already the cause of packet loss.

Fig. 3: Packet inter-arrival intervals plotted vs. frequency of occurrence

A series of packets with long inter-arrival intervals will inevitably result in a corresponding burst of packets with short inter-arrival intervals. It is this burst of traffic, that can result in buffer overflow conditions and lost packets. This occurs if the sink rate exceeds the drain rate for a period of time that exceeds the length of the remaining buffer size, when represented in microseconds.

ESTABLISHING DE-JITTER BUFFER SIZE

To establish the necessary de-jitter buffer size, an alternative form of jitter measurement known as delay factor (DF) is used. Delay factor is a temporal measurement indicating the temporal buffer size necessary to de-jitter the traffic.

In IP video networks, the media payload is transported over RTP (real-time protocol). One form of DF measurement takes advantage of the fact that the RTP header carries time-stamp information which reflects the sampling instant of the RTP data packet. This is known as “time-stamped delay factor” or TS-DF (as defined by EBU Tech 3337) and represents temporal buffer size in microseconds as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4: TS-DF represents temporal buffer size in microseconds.

The TS-DF measurement is based on the relative transit time, which is the difference between a packet's RTP timestamp and the receiver's clock at the time of arrival, measured in microseconds. The measurement period is 1 second, with the first packet at the start of the measurement period being considered to have no jitter and is used as a reference packet.

For each subsequent packet, the relative transit time between this packet and the reference packet is calculated and at the end of the measurement period, the maximum and minimum values are extracted and the Time-Stamped Delay Factor is calculated as:

TS-DF = D(Max) – D(Min)

FINDING ROOT CAUSES

To establish root causes, it is necessary to understand whether visible impairments are being caused by IP errors or if some other fault is causing the impairment. Fig. 5 shows how a network monitoring tool can be used to track time-correlated video and IP errors. This is made possible by correlating the time stamps of the video errors and the RTP packet errors.

Fig. 5: Time-correlated video and IP errors

A video CRC error does not in itself confirm that the video is impaired, making it desirable to use traditional monitoring methods such as picture and waveform displays as well as audio bars.

Fig. 6: Traditional video monitoring and audio bars are useful in confirming errors.

TRACKING PTP ERRORS

Device clocks in IP video networks have no inherent concept of system time, so precision time protocol (PTP) is used to synchronize these clocks. The most recent version is IEEE 1588-2008, also known as PTP version 2 with the SMPTE ST 2059 PTP profile being specifically intended for broadcast applications.

In effect, PTP provides a genlock functionality equivalent to that delivered by black burst or tri-level sync in SDI networks. The overall PTP network time server is referred to as a “PTP grandmaster,” with devices that derive their time from PTP being referred to as “PTP slaves.” PTP grandmasters are usually synchronized to GPS, GLONASS or both.

For the foreseeable future, many video networks will use a combination of SDI and IP. To allow frame-accurate switching between SDI and IP derived content, it is essential that the timing of the Black Burst/Tri-Level Sync is not offset relative to the PTP clock.

This is achieved by measuring the timing offset between the PTP clock and BB/Tri-Level Sync and then making any necessary correction by skewing the SDI syncs with reference to the PTP clock.

Fig. 7: Measuring the time relationship between BB/Tri-Level and PTP

A FINAL CONSIDERATION

In live production applications, network experts may not be present on the production site and networking equipment also may not necessarily be in a location that is easily accessible. It is desirable that any diagnostic equipment can be controlled remotely by network and video engineers.

Fig. 8: Remote control ability enables on-location access to network expertise.

An all IP infrastructure is the vision for most broadcasters around the world and is already starting to happen in many facilities. The reality is however that the transition won’t happen overnight leading to the need to manage hybrid SDI and IP infrastructures, and thus a need for IP and video engineers to work closely together to ensure seamless operation and quickly track down faults.

Paul Robinson is a 29-year veteran of the test and measurement industry. In his current role, Paul is CTO for Tektronix’ Video Test Business focused on developing test, measurement and monitoring solutions aimed at the enabling the deployment of digital television and helping to bring IP video products and services to market. 

Paul joined Tektronix in 1986 as an Applications Engineer and has held a wide variety of senior roles within the company both in Europe and the U.S. Paul started his professional career in the broadcast industry and prior to joining Tektronix, he worked for the BBC as a senior systems engineer. Paul has a B.Sc. in Applied Physics and a DUniv from Buckinghamshire New University.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

The days are dwindling when a media production/broadcast company can ignore the public cloud for apps, processing and storage. The Cisco Global Cloud Index 2014–2019 predicts that 48 percent of all enterprise workloads will execute in the public cloud in 2019. How can system designers take advantage of this unstoppable trend? This article outlines the basics of the hybrid cloud media system.

First, what is a hybrid cloud? The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the hybrid cloud as follows:

The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds).

Hybrid clouds permit, say, a local media enterprise to divide up workloads with a public cloud. This way, existing, private, sunk cost, infrastructures can interface with public cloud services as needed. An example is use of the public cloud to archive video files while other media workflow aspects are done privately. Over time, more and more workloads (e.g. apps, transcoding, MAM, ingest, QC) may be moved to the cloud as desired until, in some cases, the local system is minimized. This way a holistic media infrastructure can be built with workloads divvied up across the system in a seamless manner that meets security and performance needs.

LOCAL AND SECURE

This is the beauty of the hybrid approach. Don’t want to store your crown jewels in the public cloud? No problem. Keep them safe and sound locally. Hybrid workflows can be designed to function with just about any local/cloud partitioning of media, processing, storage and control.

Here are some of the benefits of the hybrid cloud approach:

• Start small, scale to cloud according to workflow needs;

• Fewer desktop-installed apps; run Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps;

• Faster time to market for new products (business agility);

• Geo-diverse networked operations;

• Support for legacy product integration;

• Support for small, medium and large systems;

• Leverage virtualized cloud services; storage, processing, security, reliability, pay-as-you-go accounting (OpEx not CapEx accounting), and

• Rich APIs for customization as needed.

Even a few of these benefits can be sufficient reason to include the cloud in your workflow. However, for some, using any public cloud services is a “no go” because of security. Is this wise thinking?

There are many aspects to cloud security and multitenancy is near the top of the list. This is where a given user shares cloud resources (compute, storage, networking) with other mostly unknown users.

However, “There’s been no correlation between security failure and the degree of multitenancy,” said Jay Heiser, vice president of research for Gartner, at the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit in June 2016. Gartner predicts that by 2018, increased security will displace cost savings and agility as the primary driver to move to public cloud. In the near future trusted public clouds will become the most secure place to store valuable digital assets. The tide is turning.

EXAMPLE HYBRID CLOUD MEDIA SYSTEM

Fig. 1: The diagram shows a generic hybrid cloud media system. The upper portion illustrates the local/private media center (PMC). The cloud portion (PCMS) contains services for storage, processing and app execution. (Figure concept: Prime Focus Technologies, CLEAR Software Suite. Download the white paper at tinyurl.com/PFT-CLEAR.)

Fig. 1 shows a generic hybrid cloud media system. The upper portion illustrates the local/private media center (PMC). The cloud portion (PCMS) contains services for storage, processing and app execution. There may be several PMCs that “share” the same cloud services and common cloud database for files and metadata. This encourages geo-diverse workflows. Also, the PCMS may, in fact, be a “multicloud” composed of several different public clouds, each offering a specific service that the others do not.

The PMC may be a broadcast operations center with apps, storage and workflow services/processes. Cloud-based software products are provided by traditional AV vendors and others with a cloud services product model (see for example aws.amazon.com/marketplace).

On the left of the figure are the providers of content, both live and file-based. On the right are a myriad of distributors and playout partners. Playout could be implemented at the PMC, of course.

Connectivity between the PMC and the cloud may be via the public internet or a private connection such as Metro Ethernet or a service such as Amazon Direct Connect (aws.amazon.com/directconnect).

Cloud connectivity choices and performance are only improving. Once connectivity is established, it is used to support three main types of communications between the PMC and the PCMS; one for apps, one for file/stream transport and one for services control. Of course there are other communication types such as monitoring, system configuration and provisioning, but these are outside of the scope of this article.

A summary of the three media-related types follows:

• SaaS apps executing in the cloud with a web browser user interface (e.g. aviary.com). The days of desktop-installed apps are fading. Sure there are good reasons for performance heavy apps such as real-time AV editing to be installed, but most media workflow apps can be SaaS-based.

• AV file/stream I/O: In the hybrid model, there will be file and stream transport between the PMC and the PCMS. Some sort of “edge appliance” may assist in security and data acceleration.

• Workflow services: This is key to the success of the hybrid model. Legacy PMC products may be controlled from a cloud controller. For example, PMC files can be checked locally for quality and standards compliance (QC), but control is from cloud orchestration. So legacy PMC systems can be integrated into a hybrid system without rip-and-replace tactic. As legacy is phased out, migrating to a cloud-based equivalent is an option.

Reduced hybrid versions are possible with, say, only some SaaS or only some cloud storage implemented. There are many variations of the hybrid model. This article just scratched the surface of this important area.

To learn more, visit:

• azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/media-services

• www.primefocustechnologies.comwww.deluxemediacloud.comwww.sonymcs.com

•www.ooyala.com/nativ

•www.aframe.com

• www.tedial.com, and others.

There are many broadcasters taking advantage of the hybrid model today, so become familiar with its benefits and tradeoffs.

Al Kovalick is the founder of Media Systems consulting in Silicon Valley. He is the author of “Video Systems in an IT Environment (2nd ed).” He is a frequent speaker at industry events and a SMPTE Fellow. For a complete bio and contact information, visitwww.theAVITbook.com.

SAN FRANCISCO—Blame the advanced need for speed, the reality of our 24/7 always-on news cycle or simply escalating costs, and the industry finds itself at a crossroads: stick with stalwart storage legacy technologies of the past? Or invest in something new. But which road to take?

While the “hybrid” technology moniker has been been stamped on everything from cars to refrigerators (built-in TV with your snack, anyone?), the hybrid technology signature has found its way to the storage realm, and with good reason.

Hybrid technologies, say both system integrators who work with the technologies and the manufacturers who develop them, offer a few key plusses: efficiency, scalability, reliability and the ability to handle high-traffic storage requirements.

Dave Van Hoy, president of Advanced Systems Group‘BEST IN CLASS’
“Today hybrid storage comes up in the world of media and entertainment because there are many storage technologies out there and no one storage technology can be best-in-class for all of the different use cases,” said Dave Van Hoy, president of Advanced Systems Group (ASG), a system integration firm headquartered in Emeryville, Calif. “And so that has led to a lot of hybrid workflows.”

Is mixed SSD the right choice, or spinning disk? “You really have to look at your applications to figure out what to use where. If I have an application that I am going to write once and read many times, SSDs are fabulous. But SSDs have other trade-offs; they’re fairly expensive compared to disk. And also they have lifecycle limitations.

“Whereas spinning disk gives you huge economy of scale, but if you want to make it fast, you offload to help out the disk,” he said.

And this is where you can end up with these hybrid workflows, according to Van Hoy.

Dave Frederick, senior director, Media & Entertainment, Quantum That thinking went into some of today’s current hybrid storage technologies. The hybrid storage system from Quantum, known as QXS, denotes right off the bat that the technology is a hybrid solution combining flash and disk to lower both operating and capital costs. The family of QXS hybrid systems all tout a feature known as “intelligent data tiering,” which works to keep the most requested data in the highest performance tier. “For media and entertainment applications, hybrid storage gives users a system that can handle random I/O and support small-file workflows, such as animation and special effects, at a much lower cost than an all-flash array,” said Dave Frederick, senior director, Media & Entertainment at Quantum in San Jose, Calif.

A ROUTE TO LONG-TERM PROTECTION
Facilis also saw the benefit in taking the SSD/disk route. The company’s hybrid storage ofering, the TerraBlock Hybrid24, combines high-speed SSD drives with traditional spinning hard disk technology in a single enclosure. From a single unit, broadcast and post organizations have the ability to access high-speed storage for 4K workflows while also having collaborative multi-seat shared storage for more traditional HD editorial.

That ability—to be able to access high-speed storage—was a priority for Tribune Creative Services, which is part of the Chicago Tribune Media Group. The group recently added 4K Ultra HD production capabilities to beef up its ability to create high-quality content in house and archive content.

“We looked around, but no-one else could offer even the basic requirement of connecting to copper as well as Fibre without a workaround,” said Mason Pierce, senior video producer at Tribune Creative Services. Tribune’s current workflow supports both Fibre and copper gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

A HOLISTIC APPROACH
Creating a holistic approach to archiving was the goal of the Dternity, a deep storage solution from Fujifilm that uses tape media, onsite network storage and online vaulting. The system uses LTFS standards to provide a file- and project-based workflow in which files can be dragged and dropped into the Dternity NAS or can be moved via VPN into the Dternity Media Cloud.

Keeping tabs on that storage through Dternity—and being able to access it as quick as a flick of a hockey stick— was a priority for the production team for the Los Angeles Kings, whose video-production arm, Kings-Vision, produces original content for the video boards in the cavernous Staples Center and for online dissemination.

“Over the last five years we’ve seen the amount of data that we’re generating just explode, with HD and 4K and all these other new formats,” said Rob McPherson, manager of production for the Los Angeles Kings. “Now we’re shooting and generating 30 to 35 TB of brand new content that needs to be archived.”

Hybrid can also be defined another way: in the mix of on-premise and off-premise storage, ASG’s Van Hoy said. “Again, it’s about mixing technologies so we get the best of return on investment … except now you’re looking at a hybrid of what I need to have on premise—which is about performance—and what do I want to have off premises, which is usually about cost.”

MIX AND MATCH
It’s a word that you’ll hear again and again, and there’s good reason for that. Improving workflow, workflow, workflow—is a key benefit within systems like the XStreamEFS shared storage platform from EditShare.

“[The technologies are] offering customers immense versatility in the face of challenging technology and market changes,” said Martin Bennett, director of marketing at EditShare in Watertown, Mass. “Our solutions allow clients to leverage the best the cloud has to offer along with traditional on-premise solutions.”

The newest version of the EditShare EFS XStream Shared Storage platform also touts a mix-and-match platform. EFS allows users to mix and match high performance SSD, performance-optimized HDD, and cost-optimized HDD nodes in different combinations.

According to the company, XStream EFS is the first storage system to allow users to dynamically define the combination of storage technology and file protection that is applied to media and project spaces. This allows users to optimize storage technology and file protection for each step in their post-production workflow.

Avid NEXISINTELLIGENT STORAGE
Also making the leap into intelligent storage options is Avid. The company’s new NEXIS solution is being called intelligent storage for real-time media production because of its ability to scale and connect to other Avid MediaCentral Platform applications. By enabling—again—a mix-and-match set up of engines, users can form virtual pools of storage to streamline, expand, and accelerate workflows, the company said.

One of the key goals was to build a storage solution that can grow with a company at each stage of its business, the company said.

The system is also a scale-out storage solution that allows users to configure it to give high-priority projects more power. “You can give critical projects maximum performance and throttle back on less critical workflows,” said Tom Graham, a marketing manager with Avid in Burlington, Mass.

LINKING ARMS
Other hybrid solutions are linking arms with storage technologies to offer a similar kind of advantage.

Two hybrid SaaS solutions from Signiant include Media Shuttle and Signiant Flight, which are both solutions that can be used to accelerate the movement of large digital assets. The Media Shuttle hybrid SaaS solution, for one, allows media professionals to transfer any size file and store files either on-premises or in cloud object storage, while Flight is an companion auto-scaling SaaS utility system that helps to accelerate the transfer of large data sets to either Amazon S3 Cloud Object storage or Microsoft Azure.

This kind of “hybrid software as a service” solution, teamed with a storage option, is a benefit due to the freedom it offers customers in choosing their own storage types or vendors.