Galactic GS208 Non-linear Editing Storage Solution

New media, whether TV broadcast or network, is expanding the content capacity to enrich its format, information, and multimedia function. This has made editing video content far more important. Importance of non-linear editing system is prevailing. The most important storage in non-linear system has been dominated by SCSI based DAS products and SAN based fiber optic products. However, as iSCSI technology is maturing and network environment being upgraded, DAS products’ inflexibility in capacity expansion and inability in content sharing, along with high cost of fibre channel, has more visible disadvantages. In view of the current market situation, Galactic has launched a new product GS208, an iSCSI+NAS storage device with excellent performance/price ratio. Based on the mature Ethernet technology, GS208 combines the strength of IP-SAN’s high performance and NAS file sharing, and provides a lower cost, more suitable storage solution for non-linear editing workstations.
Diagram on the left is a networked non-linear editing system built on GS208 storage system, various integrated recording equipment at front end provide initial video source content, all video sources are transferred to non-linear editing server via A/V switching matrix, at first editing server collects source programs onto GS208 disk array, then uses software to edit effects. (Card station performs complex editing tasks such as captions, special effects, A/V signal download/upload, etc. Card-free station plays supplementary role to improve effectiveness by performing preliminary edit), edited A/V files are written to disk array again, while edited video content can be broadcasted directly through front-end record/play equipment. The entire data processing and exchange process is shown on the right hand side:

Galactic GS208 iSCSI+NAS provides networked non-linear editing system with storage solution that has the best performance/price ratio: first, video information, even compressed, is at 50Mbps, a 2-hour movie needs 45GB storage capacity, uncompressed video could be tens or even hundreds of times larger. GS208 can provide up to 8TB storage capacity to safely store many video works. GS208 IP-SAN also provides unified data management, meets demand for content sharing, realizes synchronized editing of video information on multiple servers, and provides large concurrent link bandwidth for multiple video channels. If a single server has one write channel and two read channels, every additional server requires a bandwidth of 3X50Mbps=150Mbps, about 20MB/s. Total bandwidth requirement by multiple servers will be the sum of single server’s requirement. GS208 uses gigabit network and has 1Gbps bandwidth. For small- or medium-sized TV studio with only a small number of non-linear servers, IP storage can satisfy the needs for bandwidth and provide best performance/price ratio. GS208 uses specialized RAID controller, supports RAID 5 and RAID 6, hence providing a better data security and reliability. This non-linear editing system storage solution is suitable for: municipal or county-level TV studio, corporate TV station, non-linear editing lab in schools, video workshop, small- and medium-sized advertising agencies.

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