So we have the FC path of Philips/SGI/Prisa/ANCR and perhaps they'll buy GIC to complete their end-to-end solutions. Videography Mag recent issue lays out a SONY plan that will rely on EDS for networking so it looks like Sony/EDS/HDS/?? From this piece it sound like SONY is behind SGI/Philips in FC integration, but maybe since EDS will provide that part they don't mention it?
vidy.com
Digital Asset Management: One
Company's Solution
By Frank Jones
The watchword today in the video/high-end digital effects industry is convergence.
Convergence, combined with the recent explosion of media assets in the video arena, ,is
driving an industry-wide need for systems to manage, access, and repurpose these assets
(digital video, audio, and graphics data) in ways never before possible, thereby enabling
enterprises to stay competitive.
If we, as an industry, have learned anything from the advent of computer-based video
production it's this: To stay competitive and useful, systems need to be open, flexible, and
format-independent. I believe that the Sony/EDS approach to digital asset management
embraces this concept. Sony's experience and reputation as a major technology provider and
innovator in the broadcast and entertainment marketplace combined with EDS' major
strength in computer networking, electronic-commerce, and system integration has allowed
for a unique perspective grounded in both broadcast and the IT industries. The synergy of the
two companies proves a formidable formula, providing solutions for the entertainment,
broadcast, news organization, and Fortune 1000 arenas.
The result is one fully integrated end-to-end solution from Sony storage products to EDS'
digital asset management software and integration expertise. What might all of this mean to
your video postproduction business? Consider the following "bulleted" items:
¥ Maximize the value of your assets through repurposing. To one company, this means ten
uses for every one asset, and across multiple networks and programs. By improving your
ability to locate and distribute assets, you'll get even more value from each asset that's
created. In addition, you'll have the tools you need if you choose to offer your assets for sale
to outside agencies.
¥ Reduce costs associated with storage and retrieval of assets. Take the contents of that
warehouse and place it in one online location. You'll be able to leverage all your assets more
readily, because the least-required asset is as available as the most requested. And instead
of tying up personnel to hunt for what you need, they will be able to retrieve that video, audio,
or graphics clip or element quickly and easily, allowing more time for more important tasks.
¥ Enable collaboration and concurrent access. By using E-mail, the Internet and intranets,
and other tools, multiple locations can work together. Through real-time video collaboration,
two people can view and work with the same video clip at the same time across a network.
And because your content is stored digitally, multiple users at multiple locations can work with
the same asset without having to dispatch a search party to find the original and make
copies.
¥ Improve content security. With a digital asset management system, there's nothing lying
around. The system allows greater ease of access to assets without sacrificing security.
Security protocols help ensure that only authorized users have access to the system,
whether they enter through the local network or over the World Wide Web. In addition, the
system maintains a transaction "audit rail," documenting every search, access, and request.
¥ Lower production costs. Since the system treats everything as pure digital data, information
from the accounting and personnel departments can be stored in the same data warehouse
as the high-end computer graphics and effects from the graphics suites, and the tens of
thousands of hours of archived video footage from the production division.
Hardware/Software Combine
EDS' Media Vault is a scaleable client/server-based asset-management tool that makes
cataloging, indexing, storing, and retrieving all kinds of digital information simple and fast. In
designing it, EDS integrated the best-in-class database manager, search engine, storage,
delivery, fulfillment, and client/server technologies into a simple, homogeneous system. It
supports various electronic media types--including video, audio, images, text, and MIS
data--over any distributed network environment, including the Internet. The open architecture
of the product enables the simple integration of emerging "best-in-class" technologies as they
come to market.
Integrated to the digital asset manager are Sony's Digital Tape Format (DTF) computer tape
drives (see "Hollywood Post Houses Plug Into DTF," 3/98) and PetaSite mass-storage tape
library system (see Video Toolkit, 8/98). The DTF drive--one of the fastest drives
commercially available and supported by UNIX and Windows NT platforms--provides back-up
and archiving capabilities for a variety of servers, workstations, and client/server computer
systems that span a range of applications from mission-critical IT (information technology)
environments to high-end graphics production and postproduction. The DTF drive, a
high-speed/high-capacity device, is based on a derivative of Sony's Digital Betacam
technology. The drive currently combines a maximum capacity of 42 GB of uncompressed
data per cassette with a sustained transfer rate of 12 MBps to SCSI-2 Fast and Wide
interfaces. Enhancements currently planned in the DTF technology over the next several
years will increase the transfer rate to 48 MBps and 400 GB (native) capacity per tape with
backward compatibility and Fibre Channel connectivity.
All DTF drives are compatible with the PetaSite system, the flagship and most powerful
member of Sony's DMS storage library family and the heart of the Sony/EDS Digital Asset
Management System. The PetaSite system is a modular, flexible system that allows for a
migration path of storage needs from 5.4 TB (terabytes) up to 2.3 PB (petabytes; a petabyte
is 2,300 terabytes) of data. This library system optimizes productivity, minimizes media
storage costs, ensures long-term protection of content, and expands to meet growing storage
needs. In addition some upcoming new features of the PetaSite library will include:
¥ Video to data conversion. Since the DTF data tapes are the same physical size as
Betacam tapes, they can be housed within the same physical PetaSite and encoded and
converted to digital data files.
¥ Extended data archive life. By periodically monitoring individual data tapes for read/write
errors, tapes can be automatically tracked for tape shelf life and copied to new media as
tapes begin to degrade over may years due to environmental conditions.
With the Digital Asset Management System comes the collective experience and resources
of two established industry leaders. Sony and EDS have decades of experience in applying
innovative technologies while achieving solid results for clients worldwide.
Author Bio: Frank Jones is the Senior Product Manager at Sony Electronics' Broadcast and
Professional Company, Data Systems Division.
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