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Technology Stocks : Son of SAN - Storage Networking Technologies

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To: J Fieb who wrote (1174)4/21/1999 9:42:00 PM
From: J Fieb  Read Replies (1) of 4808
 
nab.org

Get in the Fibre Channel Loop

By William T. Hayes
TV Technology

The Fibre Channel Loop Community is much like the community of the future
featured at the World's Fair — it promises to make our lives more exciting,
profitable and enjoyable.

The Fibre Channel Loop Community is an international non-profit organization
with a membership of over 100 major companies representing virtually every
facet of the digital video world. It is refreshing to see this many competitors
working together to develop a standard so that the end user is not locked
into any single-source, proprietary solution for what is an important
challenge for us all.

Now that we have turned our video into data, how do we share it? All of us
have experienced trying to open a word processor or spreadsheet document
only to see the error of the file not being recognized because of format or
version differences.

Voilà!

Enter SANaganza! The creation is a storage area network (SAN) that is a
shared repository for A/V data that allows all users simultaneous access to
all the material on the network. The SAN is linked via Fibre Channel and
essentially functions as an operating layer underneath an NT server network.
It therefore takes advantage of the data management and trafficking
strengths of the NT network but does not tie up the network with high
volume A/V data.

The higher level NT network provides the metadata control, while the SAN
network ships that actual data to and from the workstation.

No Need for Translation

Because of the high level of cooperation in the Fibre Channel Loop
Community, the workstation and the tools used on the workstation are
completely independent.

Mac-, NT- and UNIX-based systems can share, modify and store data
without any need to translate file formats. All translation is handle by the
SAN operating system and is transparent to the end users.

Multiple Applications

The initial market seems to be the post production industry, but there are
many applications for this technology in the broadcast industry.

The ShowTime network currently uses a SAN to create promotional material
that airs between programs on eight channels. However, it is easy to see
where a news operation could use this technology to allow reporters and
producers to view material while it is being edited.

Given the fact that the Fibre Channel connection allows for full bandwidth
material at the workstation, actual editing can be done without requiring the
interim step of recording a low-res version of the material, which most see
as a Band-Aid step.

Anyone who is looking for a better way to share, modify or transport the
data that our A/V material has become should spend some time in the Fibre
Channel Loop Community at the Sands. It appears to be a beautiful day in
the neighborhood.
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