Ikegami Tsushinki Co., Ltd., Tokyo, a leading maker of high definition broadcast television cameras and production equipment, has signed an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agreement with InPhase Technologies, of Longmont CO, to sell high-capacity holographic data-archiving systems under the Ikegami name. Combining high storage densities and fast transfer rates with durable, removable media, holographic technology is poised to become the next-generation solution for reliable, low-cost data storage and archiving. The initial product resulting from the agreement will be an Ikegami-branded 300GB external holographic drive associated with a PC. The drive provides a cost-effective, tapeless solution for archiving large video files finished on nonlinear editing systems and acquired with Editcam and Editcam HD tapeless camcorders. The 300 GB external holographic drive for use with PC systems employs a 130mm disk-based media cartridge with a shelf life of 50 years. Second- and third-generation external holographic drives are in development with capacities of 800 GB and 1.6 TB, respectively; both will be backward-compatible.
“Ikegami is pleased to enter into this historic agreement with InPhase Technologies, a pioneer in the highly beneficial field of holographic data recording and storage,” states Naoki Kashimura, Marketing Manager, Ikegami Tsushinki. “Ikegami was the first company to develop and market tapeless video acquisition technology with its Editcam ENG/EFP camcorder, and we anticipate widespread interest among broadcasters, cable networks, and leading program producers in this new and revolutionary 300 GB digital video archiving solution. It is especially needed now that the industry is transitioning to high-definition television production, which has greatly increased demands for digital-video storage and archiving capacities. Ikegami’s version of the InPhase 300 GB digital video archiving solution will be configured specifically for the needs of the broadcast and entertainment industries. This holographic archiving product furthers Ikegami’s aggressive commitment to providing its customers with truly tapeless, wireless, seamless HDTV content-creation solutions.”
The Ikegami-branded InPhase external holographic drive will enable users of Ikegami’s Editcam and Editcam HD camcorders to transfer edited or camera-original video content via FireWire or FTP interfaces to highly stable 300 GB cartridges with all the advantages of tapeless nonlinear archiving and retrieval. Editcam and Editcam HD acquisition will continue to utilize Ikegami’s hard-disk-based and solid-state FieldPak2 media, which can be overwritten for repeated use. In addition to high storage densities, fast transfer rates, and a 50-year shelf life, holographic storage is more cost-effective than tape or optical media (projected cost is approximately ten cents per gigabyte), does not require special environmental controls, offers true write once/read many (WORM) performance, is easily integrated with asset management and archiving software, and records video exactly as originally recorded, adding no additional compression.
The cartridge-encased 130mm holographic storage disc media is comprised of two substrates with 1.5mm of recording material between them. Data is recorded between the substrates, with no surface recording. This use of the full depth of the recording material is a major factor in the robustness of the holographic media itself. Data is recorded at 1.4 million bits per second, using a blue laser from 405 to 407 nm in wavelength.
“Holographic recording, which stores information in three dimensions, has a ‘roadmap’ for density that outperforms any other technology,” explains Liz Murphy, InPhase Technologies’ VP of Marketing. “We’ve already demonstrated 515GB per square inch data density in our labs in May, which is beyond the capacities of hard drives. What this means is it really opens a major market opportunity for holographic recording in terms of storage products and the size. Holographic storage avoids the cost issues associated with Flash memory, and since we’re not spinning the disk at all, it also eliminates the power issues inherent with hard drives. Maxell is an investor in InPhase, as well as its media-manufacturing partner.”
