Category
New studio technology — network
Submitted by
Front Porch Digital
Design Team
BCE: J. Lampach, overall architecture; J. Jungels, hardware infrastructure; J-M Gacher, software integration; G. Feinen, workflow; S. Heiles, automation
CAN: J-M Spartz, requirements and architecture
Front Porch Digital: Nicole Jacquemin, overall architecture; Marc Wharmby, proj. management; Roger Kesteloot, integration
Technology at work
Avid MediaStream server
Axon Synapse converter
Front Porch Digital DIVArchive content storage management
Miranda Imagestore master control
Sony
VTRs and monitoring
Sun/StorageTek taped archive storage
Tektronix monitoring
Thomson Grass Valley
router
TSL monitoring
BCE, CNA protect Luxembourg cultural assets with a single content storage solution
Luxembourg’s Centre National de l’Audiovisuel (CNA) stores all of the country’s audiovisual resources into one digital archive. It then makes those resources available to broadcasters and researchers, as well as the general public via the Web. The archive protects the country’s audiovisual heritage, generates new material for the community and promotes Luxembourg internationally.
In 2001, Luxembourg’s national broadcaster, Broadcast Centre Europe (BCE), began reviewing the management of its own archive. Because all of BCE’s content eventually is archived at CNA, it seemed a natural solution that the two organizations might eliminate needless duplication efforts, increase efficiency and better serve the public by collaborating to share infrastructure and management resources. Working together, CNA and BCE designed a system that links their two sites, 12mi apart, and combines essential functions between them. To do this, the organizations used the content storage management functionality of Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive, with intersite communication and transmissions managed by the company’s DIVAnet.
This solution, completed in 2007, represents the first time a single content storage management system has been deployed to serve multiple requirements at two different sites. In addition to meeting legal obligations to keep a record of all broadcast material in the national archive, CAN and BCE’s strategy provides content replication, disaster recovery and business continuance in the event of problems at either site. At CNA in particular, the system provides content management for the archive, library and Web-serving operations, thus facilitating research for on-site users and for the public via the Web.
In the infrastructure, DIVArchive and DIVAnet technologies reside between the automation systems and the deep storage, managing file transfers and the recording of operations. Disk storage is prohibitively expensive for an archive as big as CNA’s, so project planners opted to go with a nearline approach that combines disk storage and tape archive storage, provided by Sun/StorageTek. The storage technology is based on 8500 cassettes, with potential storage for 8.5PB of material. As the archive at CNA grows, BCE likewise expands its own capacity to maintain full replication of both sites. While the collection of material is continually growing, the physical space required to house the digital archive is about one-tenth the size of what was needed for the original material.
In a short time, the organizations created a facility that offers new revenue sources from archived material saved to the CNA Web site and ensures continued operation of both facilities in the event of failure at either.
