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Storage and Networking

Jun 30, 2004 11:50 AM

Storage doesn't stand still might be an NAB maxim. This show wasn't any different, as HD-capable arrays came down in price and size, SATA (serial ATA, a serial I/O version of the standard PC IDE drive) came on strong, and new concepts in file system topology challenged the usual players.

While 1 Beyond made a number of significant NLE introductions, its Harmony shared SAN made a big impression. Created in partnership with SAN software developer Sanbolic, 1 Beyond's system claims to deliver multiple streams of 10-bit, uncompressed HD to up to 32 workstations per system. That good news gets better, as the company says complete setups start at $35,000, a breakthrough price point.

Long a respected name for its host adapters, hubs, and bridges, AttoTechnology introduced its Diamond Storage Array S-Class for HD. With 6TB of capacity in a compact 3RU enclosure, the Diamond Array can store more than 14 hours of uncompressed HD video. Pinnacle Systems qualified the array with their CinéWave card for uncompressed HD and SD editing.

The array uses Atto's ADXT (Aggregated Data Transfer Technology) to achieve high data-transfer rates, even though it employs standard ATA drives, not the usual SCSI and FC that other, more expensive arrays rely on. ADXT combines hardware—including dual 2-Gigabit Fibre Channel Host Interface Cards (HICs)—and embedded software and custom ASICs in a setup ATTO describes as the Intelligent Midplane.

Ciprico introduced its first serial ATA (SATA) storage products at the show: DiMeda 1700, an NAS device, and the FibreStore 2212A, designed for SAN use.

By going with SATA-based drives—and not pricier SCSI or Fibre Channel ones—Ciprico says it can price the FibreStore at up to half less. Since the array still packs a 2Gbps Fibre Channel RAID I/O, the company claims sustained data transfer rates that utilize 95 percent of that available speed (this is for apps running sequentially, not simultaneously).

The paranoid are well looked out for: the FibreStore 2212A employs a dual architecture throughout; that includes appliance nodes, power supplies, and RAID controllers. You can manage the SAN setup via its integrated web server, with support for SNMP, SMTP, and HTTP.

Dot Hill introduced the RIO Xtreme storage server, a high-bandwidth array pegged at data-intensive, rich-media environments. In an interesting twist, the product's use of inexpensive hardware also allows the company to pitch the product for low-cost nearline storage duties.

The RIO Xtreme storage server comes in a compact 1RU form factor and offers mixed storage connectivity to Fibre Channel, SATA, and SBOD disk subsystems. RIO Xtreme was developed using Chaparral technology; Dot Hill acquired Chaparral Network Storage earlier this year, which enabled the enterprise vendor to move into the video and streaming media markets.

Fast Forward Video attracted documentary creators and reality show producers with Covert DVR, a miniature, standalone DVR that builds from the company's ultra-compact Recon DVR.

While the Recon DVR comes in close to the Covert's petite 5.7"x1.0"x3.55" dimensions, the company says that the Covert really does provide "exceptional" image quality via its scalable Motion-JPEG (MJPEG) compression. With its 720x486 resolution, Covert offers very usable still images courtesy of MJPEG, as each frame is a standard JPEG image. User-selectable compression ratios range from 4:1 to 20:1, with recording times averaging between four to 20 minutes per GB.

Over the years, Huge Systems developed a rep for delivering solid drive arrays that spec out exactly as claimed. Not a small matter when contending claims make every product sound like a winner. Mike Anderson, CTO, is one reason Huge's gear garners respect. Anderson's résumé includes development of the first commercial RAID-5 system, the first A/V-optimized disk drives, and the first commercially available video server.

At the show, Huge Systems debuted the MediaVault U320-R Max and U320-S Dual Max, along with the next-generation SANstream disk array. The MediaVault U320-R Max is claimed as the first and only redundant disk storage product capable of sustaining uncompressed 10-bit, 1080i HD content or up to six uncompressed SD video streams from a single SCSI channel, five-disk drive array. The RAID array offers removable disk modules for ease of service and upgrading.

With the move towards editing uncompressed HD on the desktop, what's Anderson's opinion of current technology, such as the proliferation of arrays sporting 2Gbs Fibre Channel ports? "I think (UltraSCSI) 320 is the fastest interface now available," says Anderson. "2Gb fiber is about 60 percent slower, while U320 has a theoretical rate of 320MBps. … We have reports from 1 Beyond (1 Beyond uses Huge's U320 array) of moving 450MBps plus by just using two channels of U320. We're going to be feeding gigabyte per second here soon."

In a hotel suite not far off the convention floor, Isilon Systems introduced the second generation of its Isilon IQ network storage system. The low-key demo contradicted the interest Isilon's unique storage solution continues to garner. Big buy-ins from FotoKem, Technicolor, Digital Filmworks, and Ascent Media prove the interest in Isilon's approach, while pointing up the need for new thinking about the best ways to manage the quickly increasing amounts of video, audio, and data the DCC industry generates.

So what is it? The Isilon IQ system provides clustered storage that combines an "intelligent" distributed file system with modular, industry-standard hardware. So far, so good. But next, Isilon side-stepped standard practice and created its own distributed file system—OneFS—which helps to build a single, shared global "namespace". By combining the three layers of traditional storage architecture—file system, volume manager, and RAID—into a single, unified software layer, Isilon virtualizes all the underlying hardware. No matter how much storage is added, it all looks like one very big drive. In a way, this makes the hardware if not irrelevant, less relevant to the workings of a facility. Users don't worry about topologies, which storage node to connect to what other node, and other problems inherent in focusing mainly on the hardware.

Isilon IQ consists of 2RU servers that hold 1.44TB of ATA disk storage per node. Here's another benefit of the file system's structure: I/O bandwidth increases as more storage nodes are added. How does that work? As new nodes are added to an Isilon cluster, the iQ's Auto-Balance feature redistributes existing files across the cluster. This happens automatically, without any downtime, and doesn't slow the system down.

Maximum Throughput (Max-T) introduced new products to its line of high-performance, networked storage and media-management solutions. While the basic Sledgehammer NAS for data storage debuted last NAB, this show saw the addition of video handling chops in the Sledgehammer SD!O and Sledgehammer HD!O products.

With results from an independent test lab to back it up, Max-T claims title for the Sledgehammer line as the world's fastest Network Attached Storage (NAS) file server. Effects and animation houses buy the stock Sledgehammer for a centralized storage solution that works well with render farms. At the show, Max-T demonstrated a useful new capability resulting from its buyout of the Xstoner product line. Xstoner is a client-server software and networking utility that connects Windows-based PC and Mac OS X desktops with Discreet systems. Now, artists can use lower-cost workstations to view and copy clips and image files on Discreet workstations, a boon for tight deadlines and tight budgets.

The addition of Sledgehammer SD!O and HD!O enables networked post to serve heterogeneous operating environments over both data and video networks. The result unique mix: a high-speed file server that works just as well as an uncompressed multi-resolution DDR. Sledgehammer HD!O handles 8- or 10-bit SD, HD 4:2:2, and HD 4:4:4 I/O. There's also support for all resolutions up to and including 2K for HSDL-based transfers.

Medéa won a smile from many a Mac user with its compact, stylish G-RAID, which looks like something made from a spare G5 case. Not much bigger than the proverbial cigar box, the drive handles multi-stream, uncompressed SD, HDV, and DV non-inear video editing via its FireWire 800 I/O. Seems a steal: G-RAIDs start at $399 for 160GB.

Also new: VideoRaid FCR2 and FCR2X Fibre Channel arrays. They solve setup and management problems since they come with built-in 4- or 8-port FC hubs with 2Gb FC interfaces. With its five drives, the FCR2 supports up to seven streams of uncompressed SD video. Meanwhile, the two-channel FCR2X employs 10 FC drives to deliver two streams of 10-bit 1080i HD.

QuVis, the small, Topeka, Kan. manufacturer of unique, wavelet-based DDRs, finally saw the results of years of R&D just before NAB 2004, when its first QDMC ASICs delivered. The ASIC runs its wavelet compression algorithms in realtime. It's designed to scale from NTSC to 8K images, with full dynamic range at every stop along the way.

Even the QuVis codec sans ASIC has found acceptance in the digital cinema arena. Warner Bros. Technical Operations division, for example, licenses the QPE codec to digitally master movies for postproduction, digital dailies, and digital cinema distribution and presentation. The Warner Bros. facility encodes motion picture content in the QuVis playable media format (QMF) on its Linux-based systems. Rob Hummel, senior vice president, Production Technologies at Warner Bros., says the studio uses QuVis gear to work at 4K for its DI post.

At the show, QuVis introduced three new servers that support recording and playback of HD video, as well as 2K and 4K data. Designed for post, the QuVis Acuity employs a virtual tape architecture that allows users to incrementally move to a digital, disk-based workflow. As part of the QuVis Studio Series, the Acuity comes in 2K and 4K versions. Besides the standard professional video I/Os, the Acuity includes high-speed data I/Os (Gigabit Ethernet and QSDTI).

Designed for fixed displays such as at museums and theme parks, QuVis Ovation offers only a basic DDR functionality, which enables entry-level pricing.

Used extensively by the Digital Cinema Initiative for theatrical playback, the QuVis Cinema Player excels at digital cinema projection. It provides 2K and 4K playback, as well as 2K playback from a 4K master. The Cinema Player offers 12 channels of audio for multiple language tracks.

A longtime storage provider to the post industry, Rorke Data knows what people want: choices. That's some of the thinking behind the new Galaxy-i Series. For starters, chose between 2Gbs Fibre Channel or SCSI-160, while employing the systems' high-capacity, cost-effective Serial ATA (SATA) drive technology. Designed as a midrange Fibre-to-Fibre storage solution, the Galaxy 65 includes four backend loops and top line read/write levels. Just how fast is that? The array delivers sustained sequential data transfer rates of 690MBs, while supporting over 35TB of RAID storage. Rorke's Galaxy-i Series must be doing something right: it won the Digital Video Professionals Association (DVPA) "Best Network Storage Solution" Award at NAB2004. (The DVPA is the largest such DV organization around. http://www.dvpa.com/)

S.two tackled workflow issues with its latest product introduction. The company started by creating the D.MAG system of on-location storage. Designed for camera systems like the Viper FilmStream, the D.MAG gains in production usefulness with the introduction of A.DOCK, an on-set archiving station. The device uses a large internal disk cache to quickly clone the data on a D.MAG magazine. Meanwhile, the A.DOCK's cloned data also needs backup. That's solved by the introduction of a robotic data tape backup library. Attached directly to the A.DOCK, it holds up to 4.8TB.

Building on its new iSANmp volume sharing software, Studio Network Solutions (SNS) brought GlobalSAN to the show. A family of shared storage networking solutions, GlobalSAN is one of the first systems in the post video and audio markets to use the recently ratified iSCSI protocol. The "i" means Internet; iSCSI devices break the chains of the usual short range SCSI cabling to allow storage to work—well anywhere the Internet goes. Pegged for facilities that want improved networked storage but don't want to invest in a full Fibre Channel SAN or point-to-point WAN connectivity, GlobalSAN arrays transport block-level I/O data over high-speed Ethernet. Flexibility? The system upgrades to a Fibre Channel setup and support up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. It works with both Windows and Mac OS X systems, making it the first such product available to Mac users.

SpectSoft, LLC introduced its Linux-based RaveHD system. Used by Tippett Studios in its work on the upcoming Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, RaveHD is the company's second-generation, hybrid DDR. As it's completely based on open sourced Linux, RaveHD is the first recorder/player based on non-proprietary protocols. Features include frame-oriented, standard file system storage and a centralized database for asset tracking. RaveHD also supports RP188 (embedded timecode) and the Panasonic Varicam, real time color correction, programmable cadence (2:3, 3:2:3, 2:3:3:2, etc), and RS422 machine control. According to Jason Howard, vice president of engineering, RaveHD's advantage is that it supports sequential frame playback from a standard filesystem. That means frames created on a render farm, or from any image creation process, feed right onto the DDR via standard file-sharing protocols.

Thomson expanded its Grass Valley brand M-Series intelligent video digital recorder (iVDR) line with two new models that offer digital audio and support higher quality (50Mbps) SD production. With more than 100 units already installed in its six months of availability, the iVDR is popular, according to the company. The M-Series iVDR acts both as a very flexible VTR and—with its digital storage, networking, and software tools—and a DDR that can trim and create video clips and subclips, build playlists, and exchange clips with news, graphics, and other apps.

The new iVDRs—the M-222D and M-322D—support four audio tracks (AES/EBU digital audio), embedded digital audio and simultaneous analog and digital video outputs. The M-322D also offers record and playback of 50Mbps DV and MPEG-2. The upgrade also lets users integrate an iVDR with Grass Valley Digital News Production (DNP) products and the Grass Valley NetCentral Simple Network Management (SNMP)-based remote monitoring application.

Xtore featured its new XD 2000 Series Fibre Channel-SATA storage array. The XD 2000 series enables daisy-chain or cascading functionality in both JBOD and RAID configurations. With up to 200MBps per host channel, the array supports up to 56TB of capacity in a high density 2RU, 12-bay or 3RU, 16-bay form factor. Its enterprise RAID features include full redundancy and failover.

—Dan Ochiva

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