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MillimeterMark In
Jul 1, 2007 12:00 PM
Steve Burich (pictured above) purchased a 3ware Sidecar external SATA hardware storage case that includes a four-port PCI Express to SATA II RAID controller that enabled him to create a RAID 5 array.
Storage Genie
By Dan Ochiva
One day, historians of storage technology will make note of 2007. Just about 50 years after IBM stored 5MB on the first refrigerator-sized hard drive system, Hitachi, Samsung, and Seagate are delivering wallet-sized 1TB drives for a fraction of the inflation-adjusted tab.
Storage has gotten so cheap that Google, Yahoo, and other web-based companies think nothing of offering 2GB or more of free storage. Your excuses for not backing up are fast evaporating. Even Microsoft and Apple have designed automated backup software into the latest versions of their operating systems.
Cheap and easy-to-use online backup storage from vendors such as Xdrive (www.xdrive.com) and MediaMax (www.mediamax.com) make sense for securing smaller volumes, because both offer as much as 25GB of backup space free of charge. If you're collaborating on a project, these services allow you to share folder space, too.
If you need more backup space, you might consider services such as Mozy (www.mozy.com) and Carbonite (www.carbonite.com), which offer what the companies claim as “unlimited” storage for about $60 per year. Each offers encrypted storage, incremental backups to cut down on bandwidth use, and even file restoration. Of course, if you have to rebuild the whole disk, doing it over most broadband Internet connections will still take a while. Mozy offers a solution: For a set fee, it'll burn DVDs and overnight them to you.
A new generation of removable hard drives might also fit the bill for backup. The Iomega Rev, ProStor RDX, and Quantum GoVault all feature internal or desktop docking units that accept removable drives of up to 160GB capacity. While the price per gigabyte can be considerably higher compared to a standard or compact drive, the products tout ruggedness for portability to off-premises locations for data transfer or backup.
A great thing about the pace of storage technology development is the ability to build your own highly capable system at a nominal cost. This month, Ciprico will release a new product that employs the new PCI Express external cabling standard, which is based on its own established RAIDCore software RAID stack. By installing a Ciprico SATA 2 or SAS storage I/O card into a computer's PCI Express slot, users can attach a simple storage case and fill it with up to 16 1TB drives, as the company demonstrated at NAB.
Building your own RAID array has gotten simpler, too. That's what Steve Burich found when he realized he needed a larger, faster storage system for his San Jose, Calif.-based recording studio.
“As I got busier and found myself forgetting to run backups of projects, I realized I needed a better solution,” says Burich, who runs Mac and Windows gear at his Shadowtree Studios facility (www.myspace.com/shadowtreestudios). Some of the storage systems he considered required buying the company's hard drives along with the enclosure. “I knew drive prices were dropping, so I didn't want to get locked into that.”
Instead, Burich bought a 3ware Sidecar, an external SATA hardware storage case that he filled with four 500GB drives. Featuring support for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, the 3ware Sidecar kit also includes a four-port PCI Express to SATA II RAID controller that enabled him to create a RAID 5 array.
“It's fast, and I can scale to larger drives whenever I want,” Burich says.
InfoComm 07: Not just for AV guys
By Trevor Boyer
Year by year, the InfoComm tradeshow is embracing companies whose product offerings don’t fit the traditional AV-installation mold. At InfoComm 07, companies such as Wacom, Sorenson, and Focus Enhancements showed gear specifically for content producers.
Of course, these and other examples reflect that there are simply more content producers out there, and many of them are getting production gear from their AV integrators—or attending InfoComm themselves. Professionals or not, more and more churches and educational institutions are integrating pro-level video studios into their facilities. InfoComm’s approach is to expand its tent to include manufacturers that address these applications, and the industry seems to be responding favorably. The 2007 show in Anaheim, Calif., attracted 20 percent more attendees (more than 31,000) and 11 percent more exhibitors (855) at this year’s show vs. InfoComm 06.
The mainline camera manufacturers were all there, and of course they also had traditional AV products to sell, such as flatscreens and projectors. But take JVC, for example. Along with its full HDV camera line, JVC was showing a prototype of a new 4K camera, beaming live images from the booth’s floor into the screening room via the company’s new 4K three-chip LCoS projection system. Neither of these bowed at NAB two months earlier. Not integrated into a product yet, the 4K-projector chip is sure to stir up competition in the digital cinema world, and perhaps help drive down prices across the high end. The 4K2K (4096x2400) D-ILA chip measures 1.27in. diagonally, more than 40 percent smaller in area than that of Sony’s SXRD model.
Video producers need traditional display gear to show clients how their programs will end up. The choices are broadening, and you don’t have to spend much to get a full 1920x1080 projector. Optoma and Mitsubishi were both showing such projectors for less than $3,000. The Mitsubishi HC4900 has three LCD chips, and the Optoma HD80 is a DLP model.
Speaking of DLP technology, at the show Texas Instruments announced the DLP .7 XGA 3 chip. This smaller solution should bring the color accuracy of larger 3-chip DLP digital cinema projectors to a wider customer base.
The line between AV and content production has never been definite, but because hardware has shrunk so much in the last few years, a full professional live production setup can be housed in a university’s AV closet—or transported in a minivan. That’s just what many independent producers are doing with their new Grass Valley Indigo AV switchers. According to Thomson Grass Valley, many of the 500 initial customers are independent producers using the switcher for mobile live-event production. Of course, you have to be able to deliver a professionally post-produced package to your client after the event, and that’s why Grass Valley was also showing its latest Edius 4.5 NLE software, which ships this month. See svconline.com for InfoComm 07 Pick Hit Award winners.
Digital Content Producer's The Briefing Room
Nailgun* Creates Show Open/Packaging for HGTV’s Get Out, Way Out!
For HGTV’s new show Get Out, Way Out!, a new show that centers on extreme patios decked out with state-of-the-art surround-sound stereo systems, big-screen televisions, and fully equipped kitchens, the award-winning creative design studio Nailgun* created a truly tantalizing show open/package featuring a dozen seconds of vibrant, tightly edited 3D animated backyard transformations. …
EditShare Adds Final Cut Pro Project Sharing
EditShare has announced the addition of Apple Final Cut Pro (FCP) Project Sharing capabilities to the EditShare product family. Deployed first for Avid systems and editors, the EditShare Project Sharing technology provides tremendous collaborative workflow benefits by enabling multiple editors to work on the same project simultaneously. EditShare is the only collaborative workflow and shared storage solution to offer project sharing for Apple FCP and Avid editing systems. …
TV One Dazzles InfoComm Crowd with Six-projector Edge Blend
TV One showed off edge blending in a new light at InfoComm 07. The TV One edge-blending setup was built for around $30,000, making it tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than anything on the market with the same capabilities. …
Skillset
Four-day DV Crash Course
Aug. 11-14
San Francisco
$495
dvworkshops.com
Participants in this four-day workshop will make a documentary while they learn documentary preproduction and interview techniques, how to shoot an interview (with a lighting and audio seminar), DV editing with Final Cut Pro 5.0 HD, and how to make DVDs with Apple iDVD. Students will be provided all equipment, but they are encouraged to bring their own DV cameras.
Advanced SAN School
Aug. 23
Seattle
free
storagedecisions.techtarget.com
Advanced SAN School will help storage managers work through many of the issues plaguing SANs today, with an eye toward the SAN technologies of tomorrow. Ashish Nadkarni and Bill Peldzus of GlassHouse Technologies will provide advice and insight to help storage professionals manage, grow, and optimize SAN technology in this full-day seminar.
On Reel-Exchange.com
Millimeter and Digital Content Producer magazines presents the 2007 Stock Footage Resource Guide, brought to you by Reel-Exchange.com. This resource is intended to be a one-stop location for filmmakers and content creators to browse stock footage demos and gain information on the libraries that can help add dynamic shots to any project. Go to reelexchange.com/discipline/stock_footage_sound_libraries/stock_footage to see the complete listing.
Want to be a part of Reel-Exchange and its growing community of global collaborators? For the free trial offer, email Reel-Exchange’s Community Manager Craig Erpelding at register@reel-exchange.com or visit reel-exchange.com and click on the “Register” link.
Media Resources
Books
Character Animation: 2D Skills for Better 3D
By Steve Roberts
Elsevier
A blend of theory and practical exercises help readers improve their 3D animation skills. A companion CD-ROM includes short demo movies, 3D exercises, and 20 rigged practice models.
Photoshop CS3 Essential Skills
By Mark Galer
Focal Press
A guide to producing sophisticated montages and creating special effects.
Whitepapers
The New Madison Avenue Diet: The Strategy for Performance-focused Dynamic Signage Content
By Lyle Bunn
Alchemy
www.digitalsignageforum.com/the-new-madison-avenue-diet-whitepaper.html
Structured advice on boosting digital signage revenue by improving content quality to increase customer engagement.
