Storage and Recording at the 2013 NAB Show

LAS VEGAS -- The demands of the real world are changing, whether those demands originate out in the field or from the control room of a facility. The newest solutions are looking at the best ways to improve file workflows, address file degradation, share storage across platforms and address the emerging 4K format.

CLOUD
Aframe will showcase Aframe2.0, which includes a new Edit Flow feature that allows users to export their metadata out of Aframe and into the three major NLE platforms—Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. Aframe 2.0 also includes even faster mass downloads, a greatly streamlined UI that lets users instantly see what they need, and an API that allows third-party solutions to connect more readily into the Aframe platform.

Deluxe MediaCloud will showcase its cloud service for media and entertainment. Its service delivers all of the rich functionality required by broadcasters to launch and operate TV channels, including versioning for new media platforms and distribution over IP to transmission headends. Deluxe MediaCloud delivers in full HD, with network resilience integrated into the architecture and high security levels, as well as full disaster recovery.

STORAGE & SERVERS
Abekas has updated its Mira production server to 4K. The new 1080p 4K Mira is designed for feeding large on-set displays. The Mira 4K can import a 4K file and create 1080p files for playback on four 3G HD/SDI outputs.

ATTO Technology will showcase its ThunderLink and ThunderStream devices, which enable storage and network connectivity for SAS, SATA, Fibre Channel and Ethernet devices. Other solutions on tap include the FastStream storage controllers and Celerity Fibre Channel adapters.

Autocue/QTV plans to highlight its two- and four-port SD and HD video servers, including the high-capacity fourport VS-4D16HFR.

Blackmagic UltraStudio 4K Blackmagic Design will demonstrate its UltraStudio 4K, a rackmount capture and playback device; and the Ultra- Studio Mini Recorder, a capture and playback solution featuring 3 Gbps SDI and HDMI connections.

BLT Italia will show the SMS-4U 8R4P, a 12-channel HD broadcast video server with simultaneous recording and playback capability; and the SMS-2U 4R2P, a compact six-channel server.

Bright Technologies will demo its BrightClip SAN server as well as a standalone version—the BrightClip SA— and BrightDrive Procyon and BrightDrive Triton.

BUF Technology will be on hand with Sport-HD, a dual-channel replay system consisting of a Sport-EX control panel and an RM-HD hard disk replay recorder, as well as the single-channel Sport-HD.

Digital Broadcast will showcase an expanded version of its MediaVault archive, which offers blue laser, LTO tape or spinning disk technology for mass storage of broadcast media. Utilizing metadata contained in each video file, the system offers both high speed and straightforward search capability of stored files.

On tap this year from DVEO is Xaris, a single- or dual-channel HD/SDI play-out server that supports H.264/MPEG-2 and embedded audio passthrough.

There will be new features on display in the EditShare booth as part of v6.3 of the company’s EditShare Storage solution. New features include project browser compatibility for Adobe Premiere Pro in Windows, and the ability to limit access to a single user at a time. New features will also be part of the EditShare Ark nearline storage solution and Geevs ingest and playout servers.

Elemental Technologies will demo the Elemental Server, a file-based video processing system designed for transcoding for both broadcast and multichannel video applications.

EVS will be on hand with its extended line of servers, from the XT-3 eight-channel SD/HD server, to the XT Nano HD/SD slowmotion replay server.

For-A LTS-50 For-A will showcase the LTS-50, an LTO server that archives media files via network to an LTO-5 via the LTFS file system.

Facilis Technology will show off an archive sync solution called Sync- Block that’s designed to help archive, backup, sync, mirror and transport file-based media. The company will also bring the TerraBlock, including the latest version that supports 16 Gbps Fibre Channel and 10 GB Ethernet connectivity.

Grass Valley K2 Summit 3G server Grass Valley will show the latest version of the Grass Valley K2 Summit 3G server, a solution that offers enhanced codec support for multicam configurations, increased internal storage capacity, and simultaneous low-res proxy generation.

Harmonic comes to NAB to show off server solutions including the Spectrum and Spectrum MediaCenter family of servers.

Harris Farad online storage system The newest generation of the Nexio Volt server will be on hand from Harris. This 1RU server offers four bidirectional HD channels or up to eight SD ports, and offers automatic generation of low-resolution content for editing. Likewise, the company will show the Farad online storage system, a shared storage platform that allows users to configure anywhere from 8TB to half a petabyte of online shared storage. The Farad with RAID-601 storage protection is designed for large-scale ingest, editing and play-out applications.

Orad VJ production server Orad will showcase it VJ production server, which offers a tapeless workflow from ingest to play-out, as well as the Blend play-out device, PowerPlay sport-production solution, PlayMaker next-generation sports replay server, and the MPV sports highlight clip server.

New from Quantum is the Lattus- M, a disk-based storage solution for digital content archives that serves as a secondary storage option that can scale from 500 TB to hundreds of petabytes. Also on display: Scalar LTFS, a file-based solution designed for content protection and for storing archives in tape environments.

Ross Video will showcase the BlackStorm play-out server as part of a full studio system demo with companion switchers and graphics.

As part of its server lineup, Sencore will show video on demand and transport stream servers, including the TSS 3530A, a frame-accurate play-out solution for single and multichannel SD and HD content.

Small Tree will showcase GraniteSTOR TITANIUM4, an Ethernet-based shared storage solution that offers four drives that can support 2 TB, 3 TB or 4 TB disk drives. The company’s ThunderNET connectivity solution will also be on display.

A host of storage solutions can be found in the Sonnet Technologies booth, such as the Fusion R4500, a 1RU RAID storage system that features a built-in RAID 5 controller and eSATA interface.

Sound Devices will show the newest updates to its PIX recording solutions. For the PIX 240 and PIX 240i production video recorders, the company is showcasing new Apple ProRes 4444 recording capability, which offers improved color precision for chromakeying, color grading and multigenerational editing.

TMD will showcase its Mediaflex archive, designed to serve as a direct attachment to robotic data tape libraries and hierarchical storage management systems.

The Tolis Group will show its Argest CreativeSTORE DAM solution which incorporates CatDV asset management and BRU Server archival and nearline storage into a single appliance platform.

VITEC will be on hand with the Proxsys media archive solution, which features an accessible online video storage, online database and long-term LTO-5/6 archive.

Wowza Media Systems will showcase new features to its Wowza Media Server 3 media streaming platform, including full support for MPEG-DASH, built-in content protection, secure key exchange with multiple DRM providers, a new StreamLock AddOn for easy, secure RTMPS and support for closed captioning for both live and on-demand streaming.

After its purchase of the server division of SeaChange last year, XOR Media comes to NAB to showcase its line of storage and server solutions, including the compact XOR Universal MediaLibrary Eseries storage system.

RECORDING & MEDIA
For portable applications, AJA Video Systems will show the Ki Pro Quad, which can capture edit-ready files in 4K, 2K quad HD and HD. The 1 RU Ki Pro Rack will also be on display.

Blackmagic Design will demo its UltraStudio Mini Monitor and Mini Recorder, two portable capture and playback solutions featuring 3 Gbps SDI and HDMI connections, one for recording video and the other for playing back video. The company will also showcase HyperDeck 3.5 software update that introduces support for the ExFAT file system, so Windows formatted ExFAT disks can be inserted for recording and playback.

Fast Forward Video plans to show recording solutions like the camera- mountable sideKick HD and sideKick HD Studio.

Hi Tech Systems will show the AViTA family of production tools, which can record, review, edit and replay up to 16 camera channels. The company will also show the AViTA Differential ingest and archive system, which connects VTRs to servers for ingest, and servers to VTRs for archive.

Merging Technologies will showcase v4.0 of the Ovation media server and sequencer, a solution designed for live broadcast play-out.

The focus at the VITEC booth will be on two recorders: the Focus FS-T2001 XDCAM media recorder, a field-deck recorder; and the FS-H50/60/70 proxy recorder, which attaches to a camcorder and allows users to record proxies while simultaneously recording high-res video.

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.