NABShow Daily News 2008 - (Page 26) By Susan Ashworth TV TECHNOLOGY NAB Show Daily News | PREVIEW Edition April 2008 Storage Eyes Its Digital Future The market is saturated with new distribution mediums, from over-the-air and cable to IPTV and mobile devices. But once the content has been acquired for those outlets, broadcasters, post-production facilities and new media content producers are turning to ask each other the same rousing question. Where are we to store all this stuff? The answer isn’t always clear. So NAB is preparing to give attendees a heads up on new options out there at the Creative Storage Conference, produced by Coughlin & Associates, on April 15 at the NAB Show. “Digital storage technologies are an enormous enabler to the broadcast media market,” said Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin & Associates and organizer of the daylong workshop. “But the capabilities of storage devices are changing constantly,” he said. “If you’re not in the forefront, you will lose out on your ability to compete.” The Creative Storage Conference will be an intense one: The hands-on training conference opens at 7:30 a.m. with an introductory breakfast and wraps up with an evening reception at 7 p.m. that evening. But the packed agenda is designed to give attendees a well-rounded perspective of the opportunities – and myriad challenges – that lie ahead. And the session is likely to raise just as many questions as it answers. Asset management has long been a key focus for the broadcast industry in general, and it’s been made even more confusing by the entrance of so many different media outlets. attached storage, long a mainstay of professional nonlinear editing. But there’s a growing interest in the benefits of network storage technologies, too. This workshop will offer options for those working with nonlinear editing and post-production applications, including direct attached, networked and grid storage. The conference will also look at the relationship between content delivery and log content? That issue will be addressed by one of the conference’s keynote speakers. As CNN’s senior director of broadcast video production systems, Chris Hinton will talk about the huge library of analog content that is in place at CNN, and how the network plans to use a combination of metadata tracking and rapid ingestion tools to digitize those files into a digital format. The keynote will also touch on the benefits of working within a digital storage world. The workshop will wrap up with an in- [ Tom Coughlin “Without the technology that’s currently being developed in the digital content storage realm, the development of new content just wouldn’t be possible.” —Tom Coughlin ] It’s no longer adequate to prep content for broadcast alone – today’s content has to be stored in a way that it can be easily reaccessed, easily edited and easily reproduced for myriad output models. An early morning workshop will look at storage as it relates to professional applications such as cameras, field editing equipment, animation and special effects. A second workshop will delve into the stalwart workhorse known as direct digital storage for on-demand, cable, satellite and network distribution, as well as the newest batch of physical media distribution models – including flash drives, hard disk drives and new high-capacity optical disks. Speakers will also look at the latest line of kiosk storage solutions, which are designed to quickly get content into users’ home and mobile devices. But it’s not enough to look ahead to future technologies. It’s just as important to take a step back – and look at the massive amount of analog storage that sits in the backroom. What is one to do when it comes to digitally storing decades’ worth of ana- the-trenches Q&A session, where members of the entertainment and media community will hash out their likes and dislikes, and discuss what new features they’d most like to see in tomorrow’s content storage options. The session is designed to give attendees a closer look at how the backroom workhorse – the storage system – perhaps ought to be more closely analyzed. The future depends on it, Coughlin said. “Without the technology that’s currently being developed in the digital content storage realm, the development of new content just wouldn’t be possible,” he said. EXHIBITOR VIEWPOINT: TEKTRONIX Q. What kind of products or services does your company offer for broadcasters? A. Tektronix is the video test expert, providing the broadest and most comprehensive video test portfolio for existing analog and new digital video technologies. A new generation of Tektronix video test-and-monitoring tools has emerged to help video engineers and technicians resolve complex test, measurement and monitoring challenges. Tektronix solutions span the entire video ecosystem from hardware development to content developers to delivery network operators. To enable the explosion of digital video, the content, delivery system, and end equipment must all be interoperable and easy to use. Equally, the test needs are evolving for every point in the digital video ecosystem. Tektronix has products in the following categories: signal analyzers, generators and monitors; MPEG analyzers, generators and monitors; and content verification. Q. What’s new that you will exhibit at the NAB Show and that broadcasters should look for there? A. Tektronix video test solutions are heavily focused on solving our customers’ quality and delivery challenges in the new digital world. As our customers work to maintain a competitive advantage in a very competitive environment they need solutions that help them succeed. Tools specifically designed to enable the transition to digital video will be highlighted at the NAB Show this year. Among our next generation solutions at the show will be the following: Tektronix has expanded the industry’s broadest portfolio of waveform monitors and rasterizers to include the 4000/5000 series. These new platforms provide MPEG monitoring technology. Fittingly, we are demonstrating our latest extension of the award-winning MTM platform at the show — the MTM400A with the FlexVuPlus remote user interface. FlexVuPlus is a browser-enabled Windows-based user interface designed to empower a broader audience of non-technical users and enhance productivity in a variety of complex workflows for traditional broadcasters, Cable MSOs, Satellite Jon Hammarstrom, Senior Manager Video Marketing at Tektronix Inc. talks waveform monitors. basic SD and HD SDI monitoring capability for Video levels, Gamut compliance and digital audio level and phase monitoring. These products establish a new price performance benchmark in the market. They are the only monitors that utilize Tektronix patented/proprietary Gamut displays that are designed to support OB van and ENG truck deployments. As our customers see an increase in field production requirements these tools enable a fast and efficient skill set transfer for anyone in their organization familiar with the Tektronix user interface. This year Tektronix earned a technical Emmy award for our contribution to uplink and downlink facilities and telecommunications network operators. New service deployments present a particular set of challenges for our Video over IP customers. Enhanced tools set supporting Video over IP and IPTV design, deployment and management will be a highlight at the show. Tektronix will also demonstrate several tools designed to support emerging standards including enhanced analysis tools to aid in the transition from MPEG 2 to H.264 compression technology. Q. How is your new product offering different from what’s available on the market? A. Complexity is steadily advancing in an actively evolving digital video ecosystem in the form of new technologies and more sophisticated workflows. None more evident than those inherent in hybrid facilities, not just analog/digital, but RF/IP, multiformat compression environments and file-based storage and distribution. Our customers need solutions that help them not only adopt new technologies and roll out new services, but bridge the gap and help them transition their business. Tektronix solutions are designed to help reduce an engineer’s time to insight with powerful diagnostic capabilities and empower broader nontechnical audience with a variety of See and Solve features. These aspects enable our customers’ success technically and with improved operational efficiency. Q. Anything else we should know about your company? A. The company received its 7th Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for “Real-time Transport Stream Monitoring for ATSC & DVB Conformance.” The award recognizes the contribution of Tektronix for MPEG-2 Transport Stream monitoring and analysis product. We are excited about this award and feel it further demonstrates our strong history of providing innovative technologies for the television and film industries.
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