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MillimeterNAB 2005 Web Expanded Content
Jun 1, 2005 3:01 PM
Storage
How to Share a Stone
While building or buying a simple SAN isn’t the hassle it once was, moving your facility to post work at 2K res and higher faces higher hurdles, such as guaranteed throughput for digital grading and other digital intermediate processes.
At NAB, Autodesk claimed bragging rights by announcing a deal to place its Autodesk Stone Shared storage area network with LaserPacific Media Corp., a long-time leader in Hollywood post. LaserPacific added that SAN along with three of Autodesk’s Discreet Lustre digital color grading systems to its digital motion picture pipeline.
SGI and DataDirect Networks are sub-contractors to Autodesk, providing expertise in specific infrastructure areas to complement that company’s core offerings.
To learn more about why LaserPacific made its decision visit www.discreet.com/stoneshared.
SAN-powered Multi-stream HD Editing
While there are many high-powered multi-stream NLE systems out there, many carry a high entry tab on a complete setup. That’s why it’s been interesting to watch for the latest developments from 1 Beyond, which has come out with a number of innovative digital video editing and compositing systems that price competitively.
At NAB 2005, the Somerville, Mass.-based company announced 1 Beyond Harmony HD/RT SAN, claimed as the first SAN capable of supporting multiple streams of uncompressed, real time HD and support for 2K.
Pegged for delivery in Q3 2005, with systems starting at $50,000, 1 Beyond uses 4 Gigabit Fibre Channel along with IT industry veteran Sanbolic’s Melio file system and LaScala volume manager to enable all that throughput.
Click here for more.
Really Big, Really Fast Storage
Because post needs for lots of fast storage call for the latest in SAN, NAS, and iSCSI array technology, lots of shops can feel overwhelmed by the engineering and maintenance demands such multi-terabyte systems demand.
Here’s a factoid that gives a glimpse at how tough that job is becoming: According to the research firm the Yankee Group, the storage required for digital content will grow seven-fold between 2003 and 2006 to more than 1.2 exabytes (1.2 million terabytes).
That’s why it’s been interesting to track what Isilon, a maker of a new type of clustered storage system, is up to. For starters, the Seattle-based company designed a distributed file system—OneFS—that transcodes all incoming digital data into what looks to the user like one really big drive. Really big, as in scaling to over 150TB.
At NAB, Isilon introduced the next generation of its Isilon IQ clustered storage family. Among other neat things, it can deliver some 3GBps from that single file system.
To learn more, visit www.isilon.com/news/release_48.html.
Fractally Yours
While MPEG is the defacto compression standard across much of the digital media world, it’s not necessarily the best choice for post or playout, according to some players. Fractals, of course, grabbed attention a few decades or so ago when Benoit Mandelbrot coined the term for breakthrough math article he published in Scientific American. But if you’re in post, you might check out a more practical application by QuVIS, which applies fractal mathematics to storage compression. This scalable architecture can even handle future upgrades to 4K academy and beyond, as well as 3D mastering in a variety of resolutions up to 2048 x 1080.
Click here for more.
Spec’d for DI
Editing and compositing huge files requires as much big, fast storage as you can get your hands on. But who doesn’t want a good deal at the same time? That’s just what Globalstor says it delivers with its new ExtremeStor-DI. The fault-tolerant array incorporates 24 250GB hot-swappable SATA hard drives for up to 6TB of local storage or 24 400GB hot-swappable SATA hard drives for up to 9.6TB. At the same time, the Chatsworth, Calif.-based company claims it delivers one of the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) boxes around.
Learn more by clicking here.
A Few Cool Things of Note
What a Little Fiber can do
Face it. Most of us don’t think much about all the stuff that hooks things together, whether cables or power cords, as long as they do their job, most of us forget about them. But what about a cable that reinvents a camcorder? That’s just what Telecast Fiber Systems did when it debuted its CopperHead JT, a new HD fiber-optic transport system that turned Sony's HDC-F950 4:4:4 camera into something you could perch on your shoulder and easy move where you wanted—except, of course, unless you trip over the cable.
Pace Technology, known for its innovative underwater camera designs, even displayed its own mode of the F950 in a corner of the booth. While it was still an R&D model, the lightweight camcorder they designed—the actual F950 head sits in a cart tied to any length you want of the tough, tiny fiber—was a joy to handle, and simple to operate: there was just one on/off button, nothing else—just something to get you going.
To learn more about what Telecast is up to, click here.
Holding it Steady
Wouldn’t it be nice to match Arri’s new lightweight Model 235 35mm camera, or even one of the new HDV camcorders, with a slimmed down support rig that would enable the whole thing to fly along with you?
Steadicam developed its new F-24 Flyer for just that result. The camera stabilizer now incorporates an HD monitor, ergonomically designed vest, and 24V support, and a built-in ability to parallel up battery power sources to double the run-time on 12V systems.
Visit www.steadicam.com for more.
Speedy Linux on the Desk
Many Linux users rely on standard PCs, Macs, and other commonly available workstations. But increasingly, heavy-duty effects and compositing jobs call for as much computing power as you can muster. That’s what SGI feels it’s delivering with the “deskside” model of its Prism visualization system. Although prices start under $8500, the Prism holds up to 24GB of memory as well as dual ATI FireGL graphics processors.
Users with investments in IRIX apps gain too, since the rig can run those apps with significant performance improvements over prior systems, according to SGI.
Visit www.sgi.com/products/visualization/prism for more.
