In Broadcast - October 2015 - 66

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 10 | October 2015

InTech

Servers, Storage & Archiving
Contributing Editor David Kirk looks at the latest developments in digital content storage...

t is generally accepted in the world
of digital content archiving that
nothing can be considered securely
stored unless it is held on at least three
independent devices, preferably in
separate locations.
The choice of available storage
technologies is quite wide. Solidstage memory has become the norm
for mobile video content acquisition
except when live content is streamed
back to base from a remote location.
Magnetic hard disk drives have long
been the preferred technology for
studio networks and fast-access
archives.
For longer-term storage, Linear
Tape Open is the bedrock on which
the entire digital data industry
today depends. Forget 'tapeless':
the broadcast and multimedia world
depends as much on magnetic tape
today as it ever did in the 20th century.
Content owners of a nervous
inclination may consider even
magnetic tape to be of questionable
long-term reliability, not necessarily
because the recorded information
can fade, but because the transport
devices are susceptible to wear
and tear, or are thrown out on
misplaced assumptions of backwards
compatibility. Many archivists now
store data on portable disc drives
much as they formerly stored films and
videotapes. Portable drives have the
advantage of requiring no additional
playback device, but questions
remain about drive-motor ageing
if re-activated after years, perhaps
decades, on a shelf.

Fujitsu's Eternus
DX8000 S3 storage device

Optical disc is another option for
long-term archiving but the relatively
high cost-per-bit plus the need for
external playback devices are negative
factors. DVD tracks in particular
have a sporadic tendancy to become
unplayable. On the rare occasion
this happens, the effect is usually
permanent.
Most of the players in the data
storage market today are system-ina-box vendors, sourcing magnetic disc
drives from a much smaller number
of
manufacturers.
Cloud-storage
takes that concept a stage further as
investors in SIAB products offer online access to their hardware either
for remote archiving, or as part of a
playout service.
The following report is based largely
on new developments announced
at the NAB show in April and IBC in
September. I have in general stopped
short of the overlapping MAM product
sector.
Starting with perhaps the most
obvious, there is always the option
of using film for long-term archiving
because it is potentially stable, and
the playback technology should be
within easy reach even of resourcestarved future generations of media
specialists. Kodak's Archive Package
includes film stock from Kodak,
recording, optical sound capture and
processing services from Cinelab
London. Anyone seeking to preserve
content simply delivers the final
cut on a data drive and in return
receives 35 mm image and audio
film preservation elements. "By
combining our strengths, Kodak and
Cinelab are helping the independent
creative community eliminate the
risk of losing their projects to time
and obsolescence," Cinelab London
Managing Director Adrian Bull
announced recently.
Accusys' A16T2-Share is a 16 bay
rackmount storage array with four
Thunderbolt host ports. It allows four
Thunderbolt computers to share the
content distributed across 16 hard
drives with a total capacity of 128TB
while equipped with 8TB enterprise
level HDDs. The array can be expanded
up to 512TB. Users can configure
A16T2-Share as a storage area network
storage pool when integrated with SAN

ProMAX Systems' Platform 1000 server

software, or partition the storage array
into several volumes.
EditShare's AirFlow 'private cloud'
remote workflow option is now
included with every EditShare storage
system as part of an integrated Flow
MAM toolset. It is also available for
integration with third-party storage
products such as Avid ISIS 5500,
allowing organisations to provide
secure remote access to outside
collaborators. Collaborators can use
a standard web browser to play, log,
search and organise content, and also
upload and download content directly
to and from central storage systems.
Fujitsu's Eternus DX8000 S3 storage
device incorporates performance
improvements claimed to make I/O
speeds roughly eight times faster
than its predecessor. Features include
faster operation, support for an SSD
cache, and an automatic hierarchicalcontrol function that redistributes data
storage targets among disks and SSDs
in response to access frequency.
LTO technology providers HP, IBM
and Quantum recently announced
that LTO Ultrium format generation
7 specifications are now available
for licensing by storage mechanism
and media manufacturers. The new
specifications more than double
the tape cartridge capacity from
the previous generation, including
capacities of up to 15 terabytes per
cartridge when compressed. Large
files will also transfer faster with
tape drive data transfer rates that
are up to 750 megabytes per second,
which can translate to more than 2.7
terabytes of data per hour for each
drive. The specifications include a
doubling of read/write heads, higher
track density and higher coercivity.
LTO generation 7 will continue to
include features that were introduced
in previous generations, including
partitioning. Plans released last year
outline performance expectations for
generations 8, 9 and 10. These include

32 terabytes for generation 8, 62.5
terabytes for generation 9 and 120
terabytes for generation 10.
Marquis' Project Parking provides
a toolset to analyse and manage and
optimise Avid shared storage and
other storage platforms. It analyses
all Avid projects and media to identify
which projects are using up most
space and take appropriate action
to transfer, archive or delete. Avid
projects and workspaces on shared
edit storage can be analysed by size,
age and location. Projects can be
copied to any storage device, taken
offsite to re-edit and then later merged
back on-line.
Object Matrix, a specialist in object
based nearline storage, was recently
selected to provide near-line storage
by BBC Cymru Wales' for its Cardiff
based production facilities. Features
include 1 petabyte of 10GigE connected
storage; failure resilience; integration
with Avid Interplay PAM, SGL and
Xendata tape library infrastructure,
and easy expandability.
SanDisk has this year entered the
portable SSD market with a range of
drives including the Extreme 900 and
Extreme 500. The 900 is designed to
operate up to nine times faster than a
portable hard drive, while the SanDisk
Extreme 500 drives offer speeds
up to four times faster. Available
with up to 1.92 terabytes of storage
capacity, the new drives are intended
for applications such as 4K UHD video
capture.
Seagate's LaCie 8big Rack is
intended to challenge Fibre Channel
DAS for professional 4K video
production. It is claimed to offer higher
speeds and easier connections with
none of the complexities associated
with a Fibre Channel system. The LaCie
8big Rack additionally offers a 48
terabytes in a 1U rackmount size.
ProMAX Systems' Platform 1000
server incorporates native Avid project
sharing, transcoding, rendering

http://www.inbroadcast.com http://promax.com/products/platform-online/ http://www.fujitsu.com/global/products/computing/storage/disk/eternus-dx/

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