Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
Blogcast
MillimeterNAB 2007
May 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By D. W. Leitner and Dan Ochiva
Quantum introduced a DLT-based, MXF-aware SDLT 600A data tape drive at last year's show. It turned out to be the first tape archive device that could be accessed like any file-based hard drive. At this year's show, the company introduced a version that employs the highly popular LTO (linear tape open) tape drive platform. The result? A higher-performance and larger removable network storage archiving compared to that initial DLT tape version.
Storage Goes High-speed
By Dan Ochiva
As disk drives rapidly increase in size — Hitachi is delivering a 1TB drive, with Seagate to follow later this year — moving data on and off those drives becomes a concern. At the show, a number of manufacturers were emphasizing higher throughput on their drive arrays.
Some of the credit for improved throughput results from moving to a new generation of interface technology. At the show, Atto Technology debuted its ExpressSAS RAID adapter family, which provides SAS/SATA II connectivity with a theoretical transfer rate of up to 3Gbps, enough for two streams of uncompressed HD. Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) moves the well-established direct-attached storage SCSI drive architecture to serial mode to enable longer runs and faster connections.
At the Atto booth, you could find Sonnet Technologies' Fusion RAID storage systems that use the ExpressSAS RAID adapter card. Sonnet specializes in storage for Apple Macs. Its Fusion D400RAID supports 10-bit, 720-line HD and 8-bit, 1080-line HD, as well as multiple streams of DV, HDV, DVCPRO, and uncompressed SD video. The Fusion D800RAID system, meanwhile, claims delivery of up to 340MBps — enough performance to handle uncompressed 10-bit 1080-line 4:4:4 HD.
Archion delivered two RAID arrays that are compatible with Avid's Unity MediaNetwork through System 4.2. Both deployed 4Gbps connections. The Synergy HD and Synergy HD4 — which actually uses dual 4Gbps connections simultaneously — employ hardware-based RAID, which offers faster performance than software-type systems.
Users of Archion storage systems can mix and match drives in order to upgrade their systems according to Archion's CTO James Tucci. The company also previewed SynergyIS, an iSCSI storage array that moves the company from Fibre Channel-only systems into the IT-friendly IP infrastructure. Speed's the thing here: Units will offer either eight ports of 1Gbps Ethernet or one port of 10Gbps Ethernet.
Atto Technology's ExpressSAS RAID adapter cards (the R380 is pictured below) were used at NAB with Sonnet Technologies' Fusion RAID storage systems, specialized for use with Apple Macs.
For its part, Avid introduced the new version 5.0 of its Unity MediaNetwork shared storage system. In a move that reflects Avid's embrace of openness, Unity MediaNetwork 5.0 incorporates the Open Storage Initiative, which allows customers to connect a range of third-party PC and Mac products to Avid-shared storage. At the show, Avid was demonstrating Adobe Production Studio and Apple Final Cut Pro (of all programs) running on Unity storage.
Meanwhile, Ciprico thinks that standard direct-attached storage (DAS) devices could get faster. Planned for release later this year, the system employs the new PCI external cabling standard, which will work in computers with an updated BIOS, along with Ciprico's established RAIDCore software RAID stack.
Ciprico will offer a SATA 2 or SAS storage I/O card, which will fit into a standard workstation's 20Gbps PCI Express 8X slot (or “by 8,” as it's spoken). A simple storage case for the drives can be used, and cable runs over 7m are possible. In the demo at the booth, the cable ran to a 3RU, 16-drive chassis stocked with 16 of Hitachi's new 1TB SATA 2 drives, all running under Adobe Premiere to support multiple streams of HD.
Maximum Throughput demonstrated a new clustered storage solution, Maxcluster. Designed for concurrent file access with high-speed throughput, the product will scale to petabytes of capacity and tens of gigabytes per second of network throughput, according to the company.
The company also displayed a more mass-market side, introducing an entry-level Sledgehammer NAS that costs less than $20,000 (compared to the $125,000 tab of a similar system three years ago). Enhancing the deal, the company bundles its Maxmedia and Xstoner software apps.
New RAID controllers also speed the latest version of Digital Video Systems' DVS-SAN, but production speed also comes from a new feature set. SpycerBox, consisting of a hardware and a software package, grants all users of the DVS-SAN central storage system immediate viewing of its contents.
Moving certain operations off the network can make the workflow more efficient. Using the SpycerBox, operators have access to low-resolution proxy clips that can be played out from any standard computer. (The SpycerBox automatically scales and compresses film projects' high amount of data.) Because the preview proxies are stored and available on the SpycerBox, the performance of the SAN will not be affected, even when parallel browsing activities take place. High-performance gear, such as DVS' Clipster, can then be used in other more critical DI processes.
Quantel also uses a new connection scheme to surpass previous throughput limits on SAN-based environments. Its Genetic Engineering initiative does away with fragmentation, “closed” history (non-accessible metadata), and the external management needed in traditional systems, according to Steve Owen, director of marketing for Quantel.
Da Vinci Systems general manager, Bill Robertson, touts the recently announced marketing agreement between Da Vinci and storage manufacturer Bright Systems. This agreement has produced the turnkey package of Da Vinci's Resolve digital mastering suite combined with Bright's BrightDrive shareable media storage system. "By integrating the hardware and key software elements," Robertson says, "we are able to perform fundamental control tasks that better manage the storage and optimize both the reading and writing of the data to the storage subsystems."
FrameMagic, for instance, enables multiple users to access files without needing to make a single copy. With this and other features, claims the company, Genetic Engineering enables Quantel systems to run multiple streams of realtime 4K. Burbank, Calif.-based FotoKem is the first to deploy the system. FotoKem's Genetic Engineering implementation links four 4K Quantel DI suites and even gives access to the same media to other systems in the DI pipeline, says Bill Schultz, general manager of FotoKem's Digital Film Services.
Quantel's GenePool gear represents the power behind Genetic Engineering. Available in either HD RGB or 4K configurations, GenePool can host multiple hi-res streams. Its large RAID-protected workspace — up to 80TB — can accommodate multiple movie-length projects simultaneously. Quantel's Resolution Co-existence technology, meanwhile, enables media to be stored in its native resolution, color space, and bit depth. It converts media on the fly to whatever output format is required.
Tiger Technology demonstrated a high-performance, cross-platform, InfiniBand-based SAN/NAS cluster for its MetaSAN/MetaLAN product line. The cluster uses gear from Tiger partners Qlogic and DataDirect Networks. (InfiniBand is a point-to-point, “switched-fabric” link that starts out at 2.5Gbps throughput and goes higher when channels are bonded together. It can also transport both SCSI and TCP/IP, so it's network-neutral.)
With transfer rates of 20Gbps, Tiger Technology's version of InfiniBand delivers five times the bandwidth of Fibre Channel with up to a 90-percent reduction in internal latency.
Working with DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliance (S2A) storage gear, Tiger Technology's MetaSAN/MetaLAN software creates a cluster of NAS-like servers that virtualizes the SAN storage. The total bandwidth of these individual servers is transparently aggregated to eliminate the hotspots and I/O bottlenecks that facilities often experience when they use traditional NAS heads, says Alexander Lefterov, CTO of Tiger Technology.
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.