Media Storage Performance

This document details work carried out by BBC R&D for the EBU Project Group on Future Storage Systems (FSS).

Media storage is still expensive and very specialist, with a few suppliers providing high performance network storage solutions to the industry. Specifying, selecting and configuring storage is very complex, with technical decisions having far reaching cost and performance implications.

The viability of true file based production will not be determined by storage performance alone.How applications, networks and protocols behave is fundamental to getting the best performance out of network storage.

This paper details the experience gained from testing two different approaches to high performance network storage and examines the key issues that determine performance on a generic Ethernet network.

All the graphs shown were produced from measured performance data using the BBC R&D Media Storage Meter open source test tool.

Synthetic Double-Helix Faithfully Stores Shakespeare's Sonnets

A team of scientists has produced a truly concise anthology of verse by encoding all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets in DNA. The researchers say that their technique could easily be scaled up to store all of the data in the world.

Along with the sonnets, the team encoded a 26-second audio clip from Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream" speech, a copy of James Watson and Francis Crick’s classic paper on the structure of DNA, a photo of the researchers' institute and a file that describes how the data were converted. The researchers reported their results on Nature’s website.

The project, led by Nick Goldman of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) at Hinxton, UK, marks another step towards using nucleic acids as a practical way of storing information — one that is more compact and durable than current media such as hard disks or magnetic tape.

“I think it’s a really important milestone,” says George Church a molecular geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who encoded a draft of his latest book in DNA last year. “We have a real field now.”

DNA packs information into much less space than other media. For example, CERN, the European particle-physics lab near Geneva, currently stores around 90 petabytes of data on some 100 tape drives. Goldman’s method could fit all of those data into 41 grams of DNA.

This information should last for millennia under cold, dry and dark conditions, says Goldman, as is evident from the recovery of readable DNA from long-extinct animals. “The experiment was done 60,000 years ago when a mammoth died and lay there in the ice,” he says. “And those weren’t even carefully prepared samples.”

And whereas current media such as cassette tapes or compact discs become obsolete as soon as their respective players are replaced by new technology, scientists will always want to read and study DNA, Goldman says. Sequencers might change, but you can “stick the DNA in a cave in Norway for a thousand years and we’ll still be able to read it”. This creates enormous savings for archivists, who will not have to keep buying new equipment to rewrite their archives in the latest formats.

Data Capture
Goldman’s team encoded 5.2 million bits of information into DNA, roughly the same amount as Church’s team did. But Church’s team used a simple code, where the DNA bases adenine or cytosine represented zeroes, and guanine or thymine represented ones. This sometimes led to long stretches of the same letter, which is hard for sequencing machines to read and led to errors.

Goldman’s group developed a more complex cipher in which every byte — a string of eight ones or zeroes — is represented by a word of five letters that are each A, C, G or T. To try to limit errors further, the team broke the DNA code into overlapping strings, each one 117 letters long with indexing information to show where it belongs in the overall code. The system encodes the data in partially overlapping strings, in such a way that any errors on one string can be cross-checked against three other strings.

Agilent Technologies in Santa Clara, California, synthesized the strings and shipped them back to the researchers, who were able to reconstruct all of the files with 100% accuracy.

The promise of extending DNA storage is largely hampered by the high cost of writing and reading DNA. The EBI team estimates that it costs around $12,400 to encode every megabyte of data, and $220 to read it back. However, these costs are falling exponentially. The technique could soon be feasible for archives that need to be maintained long term, but that will rarely be accessed, such as CERN’s data.

If costs fall by 100-fold in ten years, the technique could be cost-effective if you want to store data for at least 50 years. And Church says that these estimates may be too pessimistic, as “the cost of reading and writing DNA has changed by a million-fold in the past nine years, which is unheard of even in electronics”.

Goldman adds that DNA storage should be apocalypse-proof. After a hypothetical global disaster, future generations might eventually find the stores and be able to read them. “They’d quickly notice that this isn’t DNA like anything they’ve seen,” says Goldman. “There are no repeats, and everything is the same length. It’s obviously not from a bacterium or a human. Maybe it’s worth investigating.”

By Ed Yong, Nature

An Introduction to LTFS for Digital Media

We live in an age where content is king. For the entertainment and media industry, the majority of this content is now produced in digital form, and virtually all of this content has digital distribution; that content is now digital data. Protecting that content, the lifeblood of this industry, with the right data storage system is more important than ever.

Tape is already firmly established in the media production environment whether to secure on-set content or for long-term archiving. LTFS broadens LTO technology usefulness by being easier to use and more robust. The open and self-contained LTFS format is useful if the tapes are to be sent offsite, archived or shared with a variety of recipients.

The LTFS standard was adopted by the LTO Program in April 2010. It is an open format and software specification that supports simpler and new ways to access data on tape. Although the tape model hasn’t changed dramatically over the years, the speed, storage density and features of data tape have improved significantly, ultimately providing reliable and inexpensive storage as a sequential storage medium. With LTFS, accessing files stored on the LTFS-formatted media is similar to accessing files stored on other forms of storage media, such as disks or removable USB flash drives. It has no application software dependencies, offers support for large and numerous files, and often can have a lower total cost than traditional managed tape storage.

How LTFS Works
LTFS consists of a software driver and the format specification. Drivers, some free and open source, are available for various operating and tape systems from the tape hardware vendor websites.

The format is a self-describing tape format and defines the organization of data and metadata on tape. Within the partitions, the tape contents are still stored as usual, as blocks of data and file marks. Files are mapped by LTFS to a hierarchical directory structure.

LTFS uses media partitioning, where tape is logically divided “lengthwise” into two partitions:

• Index partition: Contains file system info, index, metadata.
• Content partition: Contains the files and content bodies.

The standard LTO-5 tape cartridge is segmented into two partitions, one for the index and one for the data, so the index partition can be modified as needed without affecting the append-only data partition. This creates a self-describing tape where a user can see the tape cartridge and its contents in the operating system directory tree browser and can copy, paste or drag and drop files/folders to and from the tape. Similarly, applications can access the data on tape directly, unaware they are using tape, though there may be differences in latency inherent to tape.

When the tape is inserted and mounted in a tape drive, the information in the index partition is read and cached in the workstation’s memory. From that point on, the index is accessed and updated in the workstation memory for fast performance and so the tape head can stay positioned in the content portion of the tape to more quickly access files or write new ones.

As the tape is used, the index is updated in the workstation memory for fast performance, eliminating the need to go back to the beginning of the tape. To protect the index, LTFS periodically copies the index from the workstation’s memory to the data partition. When the tape is done being used (unmounted), the index is copied one more time at the end of the data partition, the tape is rewound and then the index is written twice to the index partition. Essentially, there are multiple copies of the index on tape for restoring in the unlikely event the index partition index is not usable or if a user wants to roll back the tape to a previous version.

For instance, you may want to restore it to the way the tape appeared last Monday by choosing an index from that date. In some tape library implementations, the tape cartridge’s indexes are cached to a server disk for fast searching without having to remount the tape cartridges. LTFS also supports extended attributes, which enable custom file metadata.


Workflow
LTFS opens up new opportunities for media and entertainment storage and distribution, providing support to media workflows. LTFS directly affects two major trends having significant impact on media and entertainment companies and digital media producers: the shift to file-based workflows and increasing storage demands.

With the advent of digital technologies, moving image (video and film) content producers and distributors are transitioning from analog/linear workflows based on film or videotape technology to digital/nonlinear workflows based on the manipulation of data files. Many organizations have already completed this transition. This has been commonly referred to as “moving to a tapeless workflow,” though it is more accurate to call it moving to a “videotapeless” workflow.

The other fact of life in media and entertainment is the demand of ever-increasing visual resolution and complexity (HD, 4K, 3-D, etc.) creating more and larger files that must be managed. Keeping hours of such media online on disk quickly becomes cost prohibitive. LTO tape, especially with LTFS, can address the challenge. LTFS can work with LTO hardware-based lossless compression, which can provide bandwidth and capacity benefits depending on the data content.


Production
LTO tape is already firmly established in the media production environment. For production, LTFS efficiently supports several important requirements.

• Camera media reuse: Digital cameras encode motion images directly to SSDs or removable disks in the camera. These media are quite expensive (three to more than 350 times the equivalent media cost on LTO). Fast transfer of their contents to tape with LTFS enables reuse of this expensive media, reducing the number of SSDs or disks that must be purchased or rented.


• Backup: Backup of daily footage to LTO tape is a common requirement as the loss of a day’s worth of production is costly. LTFS facilitates backup by enabling small portable independent systems to easily write daily content to tape.


• Transport: The density and cost of LTO-5 tapes with the self-describing capabilities of LTFS combine to create an effective transport medium. Large amounts of data can be sent more quickly and economically than network-based transmission methods. This is especially compelling for digital productions, which can produce terabytes of data for every day of shooting. The encryption features of LTO tape help secure the data in transit.


• Economic direct access to data: For any file-based production workflow, an LTFS-enabled tape drive can feed workstations or networks with content directly and relatively quickly, similar to a disk and unlike most traditional tape systems. An application via the operating system always has a direct and persistent view of a mounted LTFS tape and the files it contains. Consequently, in a workflow where access to a file is expected to be fast but not instantaneous, such as a stock footage collection or archive footage of an ongoing news story, an LTFS tape is an effective and economical choice for storage.


• Archive: LTFS-formatted tapes can be easily imported into an LTFS-compatible archive by simply reading the index and adding the file metadata to an archive manager’s catalog.

Conversely, traditional systems that use separate media for transport and archive require all the data be recopied. With LTFS, there is no need to read the much larger data partition or transfer the data to other storage media. The transport media and the archive storage media are one and the same under this scenario. The “import bandwidth” of tapes being added directly to a library en masse far exceeds any system that requires movement of the actual data.

By Rainer Richter, Broadcast Engineering

2010 NAB Show Standouts

One fixture at the NAB Show has methodically plied the exhibit floor for more than 30 years. Mark Schubin, engineer in charge at the Metropolitan Opera and possibly one of the most renowned video experts in the business, walks down each aisle at least twice, speed-reading every display.

“3D is kind of dimming everything,” he says, walking at his usual deliberate pace through the South Hall on Tuesday. He stops short when something catches his eye. The TV Logic OLED 3D monitor. Schubin dons the specs, takes a look, moves on.

Monitors displaying 3D images are so prevalent they nearly cause second-hand eye fatigue. Schubin is not a 3D proselytizer by any stretch. He’s seen the format come and go many times, and often lectures on the deleterious physical effects of 3D gone wrong. However, 3D is catching the public’s imagination as never before, and media companies--and their suppliers--are responding. With a potential live 3D opera cinecast in mind, Schubin found some noteworthy technologies on the NAB Show floor.

I joined my long-time friend, mentor and teacher for dinner the night before he left Las Vegas. He shared his notables, logged on a single sheet of paper in neat, miniscule hand.

He was veritably excited about a Pace-Fujinon camera that allowed for simultaneous shooting of 2D and 3D. Right now, two distinct operations are required to shoot 2D and 3D, and 3D-only coverage is not likely anytime soon. The majority of viewing is still in 2D. Pace and Fujinon have coupled 3D and 2D cameras for a single operator who can zoom the different lenses at a synched or differentiated rate.

A fan of Fraunhofer, Schubin said the Munich, Germany concern was showing 3D stereoscopic software that enabled not just two, but up to nine views. The more views, the lower the resolution, but he said five looked “not bad.”

High-speed camera specialist Vision Research of Wayne, N.J., was showing high-speed 3D, eliciting an affirmation of “cool.”

A company by the name of Ateme had a 3D explanation chart covering set-up and transmission for the various stereoscopic formats. Another, Monogram, has a “3DTV station in a box” that appears to work as advertised, he said.

Belden even brought 3D wire in the form of 16-94D dual, red-green color-coded cable.

In the polar-opposite-of-3D arena, Schubin said there were signs on the floor that “tape is not dead.” He said Sony rolled out new videotape gear, and a new archiving tape, LTO-5, was unveiled. To boot, For-A and Cache-A have come up with a way to record directly to LTO-5, effectively creating… wait for it… yet another tape format.

Other non-3D items on the Schubin cheat sheet included Panasonic’s AF-400 camera under glass. He said it was basically a Lumix GH-1 still camera rendered into a high-sensitivity video camera with a shallow depth of field.

NTT showed “Fun TV,” a 4K signal with selectable views. NICT showed something similar last year, Schubin said.

This year’s NAB Show was the first to feature what Schubin referred to as “ghetto” organization, in that similar exhibitors were placed together in somewhat segregated areas. He discovered an “Academic Ghetto” in South Hall where several schools were displaying research projects.

Ryerson University in Toronto was doing research on how people actually watch different video formats. “They’ve shot things in 4K, 4K3D and hi-def, and they have an eye-tracking system to see what viewers eyes are doing while they are watching.” The research can inform videographers, cinematographers, producers and directors, he said. Different focuses may be optimal for different formats. No resulting data is yet available.

Another research lab--Aerial 3D--was demonstrating volumetric laser display. “You’re actually looking around the image,” Shubin said, though it’s not technically holography. He likened the display to a lava lamp.

Over in the “ghetto for cellular modems,” Schubin found Streamcast claiming to bond up to four high-speed cellular modems to create one 20 Mbps channel “where ever you can get a cell signal.” E.g., anywhere in Vegas but Central Hall. Two other companies—TVU and Verizon--were showing similar technology.

Schubin was delighted to find joystick-editing inventor Dennis Christenson at the show. Christenson was in the Leader booth with microwave technology that carried uncompressed video in the 60 GHz band with zero latency. Schubin said Fuji TV showed similar technology at IBC two years ago, but “these guys reduced it to a chip.” It can go in a cell phone to download movies from a kiosk, or be used as a professional microwave link. The smaller size would allow far greater flexibility in locating temporary microwave links for live events like bike races and marathons. And because it’s in the 60 GHz, it wouldn’t have to be licensed.

Fraunhofer had an ultra low-latency transmission codec that Schubin described as “awfully close to zero.”

HaiVision made his “fun” category for bringing a tank full of sharks, reflecting the company emblem. Only these were real sharks. Nine of them. None were wearing 3D glasses.

A lot of human beings put on 3D glasses at the show, but not all of them saw 3D images being displayed, Schubin said. “I went to a booth with active glasses and put them on… someone else came over and put the active glasses and watched. He said, ‘did it work?’ I said, ‘yeah.” He said, ‘I didn’t see it.’ I said, ‘you have to turn the glasses on.’ I saw this throughout the show.”

And finally, for the man who takes thematic T-shirts to a whole new level of sartoriality--his favorite of the show: “Are you real, or is this 3DTV?”

The 2010 NAB Show runs through tomorrow. Mark Schubin’s musings are available at www.SchubinCafe.com. Enjoy, and travel safe.

By Deborah D. McAdams, Television Broadcast

Silicon Imaging Leverages NVIDIA Quadro Digital Video Pipeline

Silicon Imaging has teamed up with NVIDIA to launch the new SI-3D Live System – a stereo HD-SDI Video Processing and 2K recording platform, based on the NVIDIA Quadro Digital Video Pipeline that will enable users to shoot and transmit live stereoscopic 3D events using the SI-3D cameras. SI-3D Live is the first stereo camera system to allow for synchronized capture, stereo correction, Iridas color grading, 2K raw recording and simultaneous generation of live stereo, independent left and right, SMPTE HD-SDI genlocked outputs. It is also the first to support NVIDIA 3D Vision for direct viewing on 120Hz 3D HDTV’s for on-set monitoring.

The SI-3D Live system is ideal for closed-circuit events and live broadcasts, providing robust, real-time controls. Stereoscopic 12-bit RAW image data is transported via Gigabit Ethernet to the processing system containing an NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800 GPU and a Quadro HD-SDI digital video output module. The data is interleaved into a stereo pair for recording to a single QuickTime file for 2K RAW postproduction. It is also sent to the NVIDIA GPU for real-time 30-bit 3D-LUT color processing using the IRIDAS SpeedGrade rendering engine. There the images are developed and spatially repositioned for correct stereo display. The NVIDIA Quadro HD-SDI module outputs the Left-Right stereo pair as a genlocked dual SMPTE 4:2:2 broadcast stream at 1080 or 2K for direct projection.

With the SI-3D Live, broadcasters and production companies can shoot and record 2K cinema-quality stereoscopic images, while simultaneously outputting stereo HD from the same system. And since Silicon Imaging’s 2K data is overscanned, (2048 X 1152 at 24/25fps or 2048 X 1080 at 30fps compared to a DCI standard 2K image at 1998 X 1080), operators have 50 lines of horizontal shift, allowing them to adjust convergence issues without losing any resolution. This means that the parallax can be set for broadcast, with enough data latitude remaining for cinema.

Source: Silicon Imaging

TDVision and Kronomav Announce Real-Time S3D Encoding Tools

TDVision Systems announced in collaboration with Kronomav the availability of their award winning 2D+Delta / MVC encoding technology running on the NVIDIA Quadro Digital Video Pipeline. The system can ingest two gen-locked 3G/HD SDI interfaces from full HD resolution up to 4k per view. Real-time warping and conformance on the input pair of stereoscopic images is achieved by using Kronomav tools and real-time encoding is performed using TDVCodec 2D+Delta method with MPEG2, MPEG4/H.264 and MVC on the fly.

This universal encoding platform even provides support for 2D and 3D interim frame compatible formats. The system also provides stereo output for viewing the result directly from the system to any stereoscopic display or projection system. Since the system is a ruggedized Wintel TDVReady station inside a hardened case, it is ideal for productions and live events in a studio or in the field.

The unique characteristic of the TDVCodec 2D+Delta system is the way that the system encodes S3D video by comparing the left and right stereoscopic views and taking advantage of the redundancies between them. The Left view and the correlated Delta are then stored into a single stream, in such a way as to ensure backward compatibility on 2D legacy decoders. This encoded content has the benefit of being “In full HD3D where available.”

The 2D+Delta method leads to a reduction of bandwidth usage and huge cost savings, by servicing both the 2D and the 3D viewers with one channel leading to a better monetization of the 3D Ecosystem. TDVision's 2D+Delta technology is listed as part of the Multiview Video Coding (MVC), an amendment to the H.264 video compression standard, recently selected by the BDA as “Blu-ray 3D.”

Source: TDVision Systems

Silicon Imaging Brings the New SI-3D Minideck Recorder to NAB

Silicon Imaging will introduce its new portable SI-3D Minideck solid-state recorder at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention. The lightweight recorder can simultaneously capture 12-bit RAW 2K or HD images from two SI-2K cameras, or from the new SI-3D stereo camera. The SI-3D Minideck processes content for real-time viewing and storage on removable 2.5″ SATA SSD drives. A single 250GB SSD is capable of storing about 30 minutes of uncompressed stereo 2K footage, including audio and timecode, or up to two hours of stereo material using the CineFormRAW QuickTime codec.

Silicon Imaging SI-3D Minideck

The SI-3D Minideck includes an easy-to-use, 7” touch-screen interface providing filmmakers with access to all of the camera settings, including resolution, frame-rate, white balance, stereo adjustment and 3D-LUT color processing. The Minideck’s high-brightness HD LCD display can show the left- and right-eye channels individually, or combined in anaglyph, 50-50, wiggle, split-screen or side-by-side views. All of the tools are provided to monitor camera alignment and parallax without the need for special 3D displays or glasses. It also features a built-in Ambient Clockit timecode generator and reader.

Stereoscopic content is recorded to a single QuickTime file with all associated color and convergence metadata. The footage can be edited immediately, without prior rendering or format conversions. Weighing in at just 3.8 lbs., the SI-3D Minideck is ideal for Steadicam applications and shoulder rig documentary-style shooting. The Minideck offers composite video output, ideal for RF monitoring or an SVGA output for the Silicon Imaging OLED Electronic Viewfinder.

The SI-3D Minideck was developed in conjunction with OEM partner Cinedeck, a leader in ultra-portable HD recorders. Early production units are already in use on Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, a Warner Herzog 3D A&E documentary and Discovery Channel’s 3D pilots for Cake Boss and Mythbusters.

Key Features of the New SI-3D Minideck Recorder:
- 7″ LCD HD Touchscreen (1024 x 600)
- Dual Intel Pro/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Input
- Quad Core Intel Processing
- VGA or TV Output for external Viewing
- 2.5″ SATA SSD Drive Slot
- USB (x2), eSATA (x1)
- Battery Mount
- 9~19VDC Power Input

Source: Silicon Imaging

Convergent Design Unveils nano3D

Building on the highly successful nanoFlash, Convergent Design unveiled nano3D, the world’s smallest professional 3D-HD portable recorder/player. nano3D combines two nanoFlash recorders/players, for fully-synchronized stereoscopic recording and playback. Additionally, nano3D can also be used for simultaneous off-line/online (high quality + proxy modes) or redundant (2 identical masters) recording.

The diminutive size: 3”(H) x 4.2” (L) x 3.8”(W), lightweight (2 lbs), and lower power (12 W), makes nano3D an ideal choice for almost every 3D camera rig. nano3D utilizes the very high quality full-raster 4:2:2 Sony MPEG2 CODEC, but extends the bit-rate up to 280 Mbps for superb video quality. Compressed video and audio are stored on affordable Compact Flash media (now up to 64GB) in Quicktime or MXF file format, providing universal NLE support, including Avid, Final Cut Pro, Edius, Vegas and Premiere.

As a recorder, nano3D features dual HD-SDI inputs as well as a LTC input for time-code. nano3D supports a wide range of video formats, including 1080i60/50, 1080p30/25/24, and 720p60/50/30/25/24. I-Frame only recording (up to 280 Mbps) guarantees that both the left and right frames are processed identically, for superior 3D rendering. Finally, up to 8-channels of embedded audio per HD-SDI stream can be recorded in uncompressed 24-bit 48KHz format, enabling full HD 5.1 or 7.1 program creation.

As a playback device, nano3D offers the standard dual-stream synchronized HD-SDI output. However, what really sets nano3D apart, is the built-in combiner function which merges the left and right video into one of the popular 3D formats such as side by side, top and bottom, or line by line. The merged video is output over a single HD-SDI cable for display on professional 3D monitors. Furthermore, the addition of a low-cost HD-SDI to HDMI converter enables the 3D HD-SDI stream to be displayed on consumer 3D TVs. This is important, as a large-screen is considered essential for critical analysis of 3D material.

Source: ProVideo Coalition

Flash XDR ships with MXF and QT Support

Convergent Design announced MXF file support for their award winning Flash XDR portable recorder/player. MXF support enables users to import video/audio files into most PC based editing programs, including Avid, Vegas, and Edius. MXF combined with the previously available QuickTime will bring to the Flash XDR near universal NLE support.

Flash XDR and the upcoming nanoFlash, are HD/SD portable recorder/players which utilize the very high quality Sony MPEG2 CODEC to capture visually lossless full-raster 100Mbps 4:2:2 video and un-compressed 24-bit audio to low-cost CF (Compact Flash) media. Flash XDR can be found inside fighter jets, race cars, and motorcycles, as well as polecams, for use on reality TV programs, commercials, documentaries and poker tournaments. Flash XDR’s all solid-state, ruggedized design is quickly replacing traditional tape and hard-disk decks, offering significantly lower power, no fans, lighter weight and tapeless workflow.

Firewire based drives/media, utilize the camera’s built-in encoder, thus providing no quality improvement whatsoever. Flash XDR, on the other hand, captures the never-compressed video via HD-SDI encoding it to a visually lossless HD CODEC. Uncompressed 24-bit audio is added to this stunning video stream and written to low-cost CF Media in either QuickTime (.mov) or MXF file format. With a FireWire-800 reader, the video/audio can then be played directly off the CF card without transcode or re-wrap. Flash XDR is now compatible with selected CF media from SanDisk, Lexar, Delkin and Transcend. The 32GB Transcend card, for example, stores 32 minutes of 100Mbps footage for under US $75, or about 1/20 the price of competitive solid-state media.

Solid-State media also enables tapeless workflow, eliminating time-consuming ingest and enabling on-set review without all the tape repositioning issues. Flash XDR uniquely offers high-quality video / audio in a tapeless workflow using low-cost media, without the need to transcode .

“Now with the addition of MXF support, PC as well as MAC users will enjoy the stunning Flash XDR video quality with all the benefits of a tapeless workflow”, noted Dan Keaton, Convergent Design’s Director of Sales and Marketing. Additionally, Flash XDR now offers 100/160 Mbps I-Frame only mode as well as 50/100 Mbps Long-GOP mode in QT and MXF, further expanding the workflow options.

The innovative Flash XDR is shipping and generally available for immediate delivery. Current Flash XDR users can download the new MXF enabled firmware from the Convergent Design website. Finally, an MXF <-> QuickTime converter is near release for all Flash XDR / nanoFlash users, at no charge.

Front Porch Digital Acquires SAMMA Systems

Front Porch Digital has acquired New York-based SAMMA Systems. "While Front Porch Digital has offered our current broadcast customers near-line and online storage for many years, the largest collection of media in the world today is still stored on videotape," said Mike Knaisch, president and chief executive officer of Front Porch Digital. "Our acquisition of SAMMA is strategically planned to offer broadcasters, archiving facilities, and other content owners a new system uniquely capable of accessing all that stored content and of making it available in a cost-effective way.

"With more than 280 installations in more than 55 countries, Front Porch Digital serves the world's leading media brands -- those with the largest archives filled with the most content. There are more than 6 billion videocassettes in the world, 1 billion of them containing historic, important, and valuable content, representing more than 7,000 petabytes of high-value data stored only on videotape. An estimated five percent of this content is lost to deterioration each year, but the expense of digitizing it has proved prohibitive.

SAMMA, founded with the mission of saving the world's video heritage, brings unique expertise and proven preservation solutions to Front Porch Digital. Going forward, Front Porch Digital will provide an end-to-end solution for media past, present, and future on a scale not offered by anyone else in the world. In fact, the combination of SAMMA and Front Porch Digital has the potential to rapidly accelerate the migration of vulnerable videotape, and gives customers far more reliable, secure, and easy access to valuable content housed in digital storage.

Mark Gray, CEO of SAMMA Systems, will assume the role of executive vice president and general manager of the company's Americas division, reporting directly to Mike Knaisch. Jim Lindner, founder of SAMMA Systems, will continue in his role as evangelist and visionary in the preservation of A/V content.

Pagemill Partners, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., advised Front Porch Digital regarding the acquisition of SAMMA Systems.

Having merged operations with SAMMA, Front Porch provides an end-to-end solution for cost-effectively digitizing, accessing, and preserving media past, present, and future. Front Porch Digital now can accelerate migration of vulnerable videotape -- on an unprecedented, global scale -- to optimize and secure digital storage.

Source: BroadcastBuyer

Codex Digital’s New Lab Delivers Hub for Tapeless Workflow

Codex Digital, specialist in high-resolution media recording and workflow systems, announced the extension of its product family with the Codex Lab – a digital-film-lab-in-a-box that forms the hub of fast and efficient tapeless workflows for broadcast and motion picture productions. The new Lab is modular, offers enormous recording capacity, and provides all of the deliverables needed for production, post and archive processes. It can create a complete set deliverables in less time than traditional systems take to make a single copy.

Codex Lab

The Lab ingests digital production material from Codex recorders and also from tape, telecine and other digital systems. It can be expanded to store over 500 hours of digital cinema footage, or 1,000 hours of high-end broadcast material, plus audio. When used in Standard Definition applications the Lab can contain 3,600 hours (around five months) of recordings.

All material stored in the Lab is immediately available, at any time, for on-demand daily deliverables and reprints. When an offline the edit is complete, the Lab automatically generates the required finishing-files from the EDL – in minutes or hours, rather than days. It will also play-out to multiple channels of video (HD or SD), with automatic processing of shot-lists or EDLs.

Ultimately the Lab is the hub of a completely tapeless workflow. It can manage a wide range of broadcast productions (multi-camera episodic TV, drama, light entertainment) or digital motion pictures. Multiple productions can be handled on a single unit. It is designed for easy integration into the MCR of an editing/VFX facility, and it can also be directly connected on set or location.

The Codex Lab converts original HD material – or any format from SD to 4K – into editing files for Avid, Apple or Adobe, into VFX, finishing and archive tapes, as well as viewing files. Output file formats include DPX, MXF, DNxHD, QuickTime, AVI, JPEG, BMP and BWF (WAV) with full metadata, resizing, colourspace conversion and LUTs for look management.

Codex has designed the Lab so that it can be configured and upgraded in a variety of ways according to the changing needs of users. It can be ordered with one or two dual bays for Codex Portable diskpacks, and a dual bay for Codex Recorder diskpacks. The Lab will also hold up to four internal LTO4 tapedrives, or can control external LTO4 robots.

High-speed RAID6 storage is expandable to over 100TB in removable blocks of 12 or 24TB. This provides 500 hours of HD 4:4:4/24fps cinema-quality compressed, or 125 hrs uncompressed, 1,000 hours of HD 4:2:2/24fps (high broadcast-quality), or 3,600 hrs of SD PAL/25fps.

The Lab offloads HD footage up to ten times faster than realtime, with SD over twenty times faster, and it can produce multiple deliverables in parallel – underlining the ability of all Codex workflows to deliver unrivalled efficiency, productivity and creativity.

Codex Digital expects to ship the first production-ready units in the first quarter of 2009, and will publish pricing accordingly.

Source: PostProduction Buyers' Guide

Codex Digital New On-Camera Recorder Shrinks Digital Cinematography

Codex Digital, specialist in high-resolution media recording and workflow systems, continues to shrink the world of digital cinematography for broadcast and motion picture production with the announcement of its new On-Camera solid-state recording system. The On-Camera, set to ship in Spring 2009, is packed with many of the same advanced features as the ground-breaking Codex Portable. It is designed to clip on to HD, 2K and 4K cameras, giving the camera crew the freedom to move anywhere around a set or location with enormous recording capacity.

Codex Digital On-Camera

The On-Camera can record over two hours of 2K cinema footage, or over four hours of high-end broadcast material, as well as audio and metadata. As with all other Codex recording systems, and unlike comparable products, the On-Camera enables true tapeless production. It offloads footage up to ten times faster than realtime, in file-formats ready for editing and compositing – underlining the ability of Codex workflows to deliver unrivalled efficiency, productivity and creativity.

Weather-resistant, rugged and weighing less than 3kg, the On-Camera is designed for ‘run and gun’ production – around a set, up a mountain or in a field – on the full range of broadcast drama, episodic TV and light entertainment, as well as digital motion pictures.

The Codex On-Camera is always ready-to-record and runs off all standard camera batteries (12-28V). Flexible I/O configurations mean the On-Camera can record from virtually every digital camera available today – including all HD cameras in video mode, plus data-mode from cameras such as the ARRI D-21 and DALSA’s Origin, and others as their data ports become available.

The On-Camera also features a “Mutter Track” microphone input, which allows the user to add comments during a take for shot logging and notes.

In production, the On-Camera provides immediate playback and review of footage on its own daylight-readable screen, or remotely over a wireless network. It delivers DPX and MP4 files directly, and in conjunction with the Codex Transfer Station or Codex Lab, can deliver shots in all industry-standard formats, including DPX, MXF, DNxHD, QuickTime, AVI, JPEG, BMP, and BWF (WAV) files. It can even provide native-mode files that editing-systems can use with no importing at all.

Codex Digital expects to ship the first production-ready units in Spring 2009, and will announce pricing at that time.

Source: StudioDaily

Codex Records in the Raw

Codex Digital has announced support for recording Arri's new Arriraw T-Link raw data recording system, as offered on its latest D-21 digital film camera.

It means that Codex Digital's data-recording (uncompressed or JPEG2000) will enable users to record the highest-possible resolution and dynamic range of the D-21 and future Arri cameras, and to deliver the captured material directly into the post production chain. The material is recorded complete with all available metadata, and delivered in any format required for effects and finishing.

The raw, unprocessed data from Arri's 4:3 sensor makes maximum use of its 2880 x 2160 resolution (around 3k) and 12-bit bit-depth, and the Codex can offer realtime playback, including unsqueezed anamorphic material. This gives greater picture resolution than when using the 1920 x 1080 HD video output, as the entire image data captured by the sensor is retained. Codex can also de-mosaic and downsample the Arri cameras' Bayer pattern images in realtime. Material captured with the D-20 or D-21 can be viewed and passed directly to editorial in the form of MXF, QuickTime, AVI or DPX files, without the need for lengthy de-Bayering and downconversion. In Arri data-mode, Codex also supports all framerates, including full vari-speed support.

by David Fox, IBC Daily

Bright Systems - BrightClip

BrightClip Intelligent Data Recording Technology provides superior disk recording and playback of media within the digital postproduction environment by eliminating the need for disk optimization bringing unprecedented stability and predictability to digital workflows.

The Need for BrightClip
With the transition of film and television to file-based, data-centric operations, there exists the need for smooth, reliable, and predictable recording and playback of media files in many formats and resolutions. Standard, off-the-shelf IT technologies do nothing to prevent randomization of file content over time and can cause performance to drop by as much as 95% from the underlying disk system. This can mean a disk system capable of delivering 3,000 MB/s may drop to 150 MB/s or less. Essentially, when file content is randomized, every component in the system, from the RAID controller, to the requesting software application, must wait for the physical disk to reach the exact location of each content section.

The BrightClip Solution
BrightClip is the world's first recording technology designed to prevent entropic randomizing, thereby achieving the industry's need for predictable and reliable recording and playback. As media is accessed between the different postproduction processes, BrightClip employs advanced, sophisticated technology to ensure optimal physical placement on disk. Rooted in video disk recording technology, BrightClip was designed specifically for digital postproduction and DI workflows where multiple processes are the norm enabling superior performance and reliability, better use of resources, and faster, predictable project turnaround times.

BrightClip supports out of sequence frame writing, making it a must-have for render farm and other data-intensive creative applications. In a render farm scenario, frames trickle into a BrightClip generic area out of sequence as each render node completes them. BrightClip's 'watch' function (BCW) sees the frames appear and relocates them to BrightClip's reserved area. Frames are ready for import or playback as soon as they are rendered, and because they are re-sequenced by BrightClip, no optimizing is needed.

BrightClip supports simultaneous recording of the same or mixed formats. All file formats are supported natively which means there is no need for transcoding. Frames sizes can be fixed or variable.

BrightClip can be set up for use with applications either direct through API, or indirect through an administrative interface. With the API, an application developer has full access to all recording functionality within their application. Alternatively, if an application is not BrightClip-enabled, an administrator can set up or script tasks to create a BrightClip. BrightClip files appear as normal alongside regular project and other files, making their use entirely transparent.

Maximum Throughput Builds a Better Sledgehammer

Europeans will get their first look at the latest version of Maximum Throughput’s Sledgehammer server, with its built-in MAXmedia browser-based media management application at IBC in Amsterdam. It adds new features that address performance, collaborative workflows, media assembly, media search and retrieval, metadata compatibility and device integration, and format conversion and encoding.

The new V3.6 Sledgehammer delivers an aggregate, sustained network throughput of more than 700 MB/s. It can allocate guaranteed network bandwidth for dedicated clients such as editing and effects workstations that require sustained real-time streams. Additionally, the Sledgehammer HD!O model adds support for real-time capture and playback of 1080/50p, 1080/59.94p, and 1080/60p at 4:4:4 12-bit. Closed Captioning, keycode and production metadata are supported.

Sledgehammer is a Network Attached Storage (NAS) file server with built-in media management and preparation tools. With its real-time video I/O and control capabilities, combined with file-sharing and media processing support, the product accommodates both tape-based and file-based workflows.

The new software release of Sledgehammer’s MAXmedia application adds MXF encoding support for format conversion while allowing dynamic preview of video conversion. It also adds capabilities to the timeline, including the ability to drag and drop clips to and from any location on the timeline, to display and magnify audio track waveforms, and to trim and slip segments within the timeline, as well as several keyboard shortcuts and modifiers, enabling faster media sequencing and editing.

Sledgehammer file servers are available in either the NAS configuration or in the HD!O model. NAS file servers can be upgraded to Sledgehammer HD!O (SD, HD, and 2K/4K film resolutions) for real-time capture of uncompressed SD or HD video at 8-bit,10-bit or 12-bit color depth.

By Michael Grotticelli, StudioDaily

Object Matrix - MatrixStore

MatrixStore is software that turns low-cost disk (Promise VTrack, Xserve RAID etc.) into a safe place to store your digital assets. It is a secure store to archive all your digital creations for as long as you want to keep them. It puts all your archived assets onto your network, available to search and use instantly.

MatrixStore has been designed for Professional Video and Film production and is ideal for Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Server workflows. It’s built on a cluster of Apple’s server and storage arrays. And it is a great complement for Xsan, offering long-term protection for the final cuts you need to keep. A SAN is perfect for provisioning high performance shared workspace for the editing and production process. Its architecture, management and costs are less suited to long-term protection of assets. Xsan is ideal for what your working now, MatrixStore for keeping original footage and final cuts safe.

MatrixStore can also integrate directly into other applications in your workflow through our open application programming interface (API). Or you can use our DropSpot desktop application to search, upload and download assets from MatrixStore allowing you to script and automate processes across Mac, Windows and Linux platforms and applications.

A MatrixStore license cost $1000 for every Terabyte of asses you need to store. You can download a 15TB MatrixStore license with our compliments to help get you started.

Protect
MatrixStore is different from other disk-based systems. It can manage a failure of a complete storage array while keeping your assets available for you to search and use. And if hardware fails MatrixStore re-protects all assets affected, putting a copy of them onto another independent piece of hardware in the system, automatically. You can also configure MatrixStore to replicate all your assets to another off-site MatrixStore to further enhance protection.

Manage-less
The management overhead of your archive becomes increasingly important as it grows. As does the task of keeping it safe for many years. MatrixStore is designed to lower these management overheads. It’s simple to set up, easy and fast to add capacity and it automatically backs up every asset you store. MatrixStore automatically re-protects all the assets affected by any hardware failures. All designed to lower the management requirement and make protecting hundreds of terabytes for many years as painless as possible.

Content Rules
MatrixStore makes it viable to put everything you’ve ever created onto your network. Metadata stays with your assets right through their lifecycle which means all your archived content is searchable and available instantly. MatrixStore integrates with Final Cut Server. It has an open interface (API) and can also play well with other Media Asset Managers and applications in your workflow.

Holograms May Make 3D Video a Reality

The next generation of digital entertainment could bring entertainers into your living room as full-sized 3D holograms, bring cell phone voicemails to life with tiny images of callers or bring you face-to-face with Super Mario himself. It's an exciting time for physicists and other researchers who have spent decades trying to expand the applications of holography, the creation and manipulation of 3D images made by bouncing laser light around.

Last month, a team of researchers at the University of Arizona unveiled a critical breakthrough toward the elusive goal of holographic video, developing a technology that allows holograms to be rewritable for the first time. This allows 3D images to be changed many times per second, just like the frames in a movie.

Nasser Peyghambarian, chairman of photonics and lasers at Arizona University, said the rewritable holographic technology his team developed is the first step toward video applications for holograms. "It is not yet suitable for 3D movies, but I believe we will be able to get to that capability," he said, adding that holographic video would require the image to be rewritten 50 times per second or so, while the current technology allows rewrites at a pace of only about one per minute.

"The medium we are using is capable of being rewritten every 100 microseconds, far faster than is necessary for video, but there are many other challenges including the technique for rewriting that fast. It is possible to do it, but we certainly can't do it yet. I would suspect it will take several more years to get to that point," Peyghambarian said.

Tung H. Jeong, an author and retired physics professor at Lake Forest College outside Chicago, has studied holography since the technology emerged in the 1960s. "When we start talking about erasable and rewritable holograms, we are moving toward the possibility of holographic TV ... It has now been shown that physically, it's possible," he said.

Although holograms are as common in credit cards, where they long have been used as a security feature, the recent advances allow for a variety of new applications, from large-scale holographic portraiture to virtual input devices for computers.

The "Beam One" interface from Connecticut-based HoloTouch Inc., for example, can project a working image of a keyboard in space. Among other things, the virtual keyboard can allow doctors to enter data into a computer during surgery without risking touching nonsterile surfaces.

InPhase, a Colorado-based spinoff of Lucent, is nearing release of a holographic data storage technology which stores data three dimensionally in multiple layers instead of single layers like CDs and DVDs. Its discs can hold 300 gigabytes of data versus 25 to 50 gigabytes for a Blu-ray high definition DVD. That, the company says, is enough storage to save "50 hours of high definition video on a single disc, 50,000 songs on a postage stamp, or 500,000 X-rays on a credit card."

Infosys Technologies Limited, based in India, was granted U.S. patents in June for technology that would allow holographic video, games and images to be beamed among cell phones. The technology would squeeze the huge amounts of data needed to make holograms through existing communications networks by sending unprocessed data to be turned into holograms once they are received.

Frank DeFreitas, who runs the website holoworld.com, said recent breakthroughs are being embraced by holographers around the world. "There are all sorts of things we can do now and some extraordinary new applications on the horizon. It's an exciting time in the holographic world," he said.

By J. Scott Orr, Digital Life

DVS SpycerBox with Ingest Option

DVS presents the SpycerBox, a flexible storage solution At IBC. With a capacity of 24 TB, the SpycerBox can be used as a central NAS solution with integrated storage or as a file or backup server for workflows. The SpycerBox is also an ideal video server with large memory as well as capture functionality.

Video material is ingested as uncompressed image sequences to preserve the best possible image quality. The ingest control is run by a remote user interface that, when installed on other systems and clients, can also control record or play-out processes.

With its transcoding option, the Spycer software can be used to automatically convert image sequences into compressed video sequences or proxies. Thanks to InfiniBand, Ethernet and other IT interfaces, the recorded video clips can be distributed to other workstations using the Spycer high-speed copying process, which prevents fragmentation. In addition to InfiniBand and Ethernet, the SpycerBox provides users with a large variety of interfaces: 8/4 GB/s Fibre Channel, 1 GB/s as well as 10 GB/s Ethernet, eSATA, FireWire and USB.

If required, multiple SpycerBoxes can be combined into a SpycerBox cluster solution and can then be connected to each other using high-speed SpycerLinks.

Source: BroadcastBuyer

Stereo 3D at SIGGRAPH

Digital Ordnance, the California-based manufacturer of 2D and stereoscopic 3D products, has confirmed that its SIGGRAPH plans include a live stereo 3D presentation.

Daryll Strauss Digital Ordnance Founder and CEO commented: "We will present live stereoscopic 3D on our booth at SIGGRAPH using a ReadyStor on-set capture and playback system working in uncompressed HD and 2k. We'll also be showing Frame Thrower 3D, the latest of our Frame Thrower line of network review and approval systems. These two innovative solutions keep us at the forefront of the stereo 3D market space and on target to be one of the premier suppliers of stereo 3D solutions for production and post applications."

Frame Thrower has seen expansive growth over the past year; having been adopted by LAIKA for its 2007 facility upgrade, it also became even more integral to visual effects and restoration projects at Technicolor DCS and was instrumental in the 25th Anniversary restoration of the 1980's classic Blade Runner. More recently Frame Thrower's speedy network approach to dailies eased the review and approval process to facilitate on-time delivery of Disney/Walden's Prince Caspian.

Source: TVB Europe

Arriraw T-Link Certificate Verifies Recorders for D21

The ARRIRAW T-Link (Transport Link) certificate has been developed to allow certified data recorder manufacturers to market their ability to record the raw data from the ARRIFLEX D-21 film style camera.

The ARRIRAW T-Link is a simple and standardized method of transporting raw data from the ARRIFLEX D-21 to a recorder. It is a method of packing the ARRIRAW 12 bit data into the RGBA HD file format. Transmission is achieved over a standard dual link HD-SDI connection per SMPTE 372M. At this point, certified manufacturers working in partnership with ARRI include Codex Digital and S.two. Data recorder manufacturers can receive the T-Link certificate if they fulfill the following conditions, that their product can record the ARRIRAW T-link stream, can show a live preview while recording, can play back the ARRIRAW images, can de-squeeze an anamorphic image for preview and playback and outputs raw data in a format that can be read by the ARRI Image Booster software.

Source: BroadcastBuyer