Digital Video - NAB Show Special - March 14, 2008 - (Page 36)

NAB STORAGE SAVING GRACES STORAGE AND ASSET MANAGEMENT ARE UN-SEXY YET ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL. BY OLIVER PETERS F or a company without an NAB Show booth, APPLE’s lateFebruary storage announcements are likely to dominate the discussion of many attendees. Apple quietly dropped Xserve RAID storage arrays from its online store, replaced by a new array from Promise Technology. The Apple Xserve RAID was a breakthrough product when introduced, but it had not kept up in price and performance with other options on the market. Apple has chosen to endorse the Promise VTrak E-Class RAID to complement its video editing and shared storage environments. Each VTrak RAID subsystem configured for the Mac supports up to 16 integrated 3.5" SAS or SATA drives, 4Gb Fibre Channel connections to the host, and RAID 5 and RAID 6 data protection. The bigger news is Apple’s introduction of Xsan 2, its newest control software for a storage area network. Xsan 2 sports redesigned administrative tools — to make it easier to set up a SAN — and a new feature called MultiSAN that gives users access to multiple SAN volumes from a single workstation. Of course, this feature will be fully integrated with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and takes advantage of such core features as Spotlight, so users can search across multiple SAN volumes. An InPhase Technologies Tapestry 300r holographic storage system. Convergent Design Flash XDR I think the elephant in the room for Apple is Final Cut Server. This application is an outgrowth of the acquisition of technology from Proximity Group and is based on their Artbox application. It was introduced last NAB for release later in the year but was held back — most likely a victim of Leopard development. All signs point to an impending release of Final Cut Server at or near NAB. Apple showed it in various trade show presentations toward the end of 2007, and the app is currently in beta testing at broadcast installations and with motion picture editors including Joel and Ethan Coen. To refresh your memory, Final Cut Server is an asset management application that promises the ability to track about 100 different file types, offers sophisticated workflow automation and integrates with Final Cut Studio. For example, media captured with Final Cut Pro can be converted to proxies in the background. These files can be searched, viewed and compiled by a producer on a network using just the Final Cut Server interface. Those selects can then be dragged and dropped by the editor directly into Final Cut Pro, which will be able to link to the high-resolution files for editing and output. As one might expect, Final Cut Server, together with Xsan 2, is Apple’s counter to Avid’s Interplay and Unity. Asset management promises to be big this year with many new players. For example, GRIDIRON SOFTWARE should attract a lot of attention with Flow. It was first shown at this year’s MacWorld in San Francisco and picked up many writers’ Best of Show nods. GridIron has been known as the company that enables distributed rendering for After Effects installations, so Flow should fit right in to make the life of designers easier — or at least www.dv.com Ciprico MediaVault 5108 34 dv april 14, 2008 NAB Show special http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video NAB Show Special 4/14/08

Digital Video NAB Show Special 4/14/08 Contents Nab' 08 Cheat Sheet Expert Opinions It Starts at Capture Lens Crafters Cutting Crews High-Key Developments Saving Graces Tech Time Machine

Digital Video NAB Show Special 4/14/08

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