NETWORKS

LOS ANGELES – DataDirect Networks has announced that Guangdong Television’s new SAN-based integrated newsroom solution is being powered by an intelligent S2A storage controller from DataDirect. DataDirect’s S2A6000 storage network controller serves at the core of the new newsroom system that integrates capture, editing, broadcasting, management and archiving into a solution that increases productivity while decreasing overall costs. Using the S2A6000 intelligent storage network controller to create the enabling storage network foundation allows Guangdong Television (GDTV) to achieve increased workflow efficiencies, including acceleration of news acquisition, production, live broadcasting and archiving. GDTV was one of the first provincial television stations located in China, and has experienced rapid development and growth throughout its 40 year history. With over 1800 professional staff involved in its operation, GDTV provides a mix of original entertainment and news programming to tens of millions of viewers in Guangdong Province and around the world. GDTV’s news network system, created as a turnkey news solution by Sobey Digital Technology Co., addresses the need for news sharing and content management that many provincial (and regional) stations are facing today. In this project, Sobey supplied the required SAN components for the solution – using DataDirect’s S2A technology as the storage network foundation -- and also supported GDTV with planning, overall design and system integration. “In an age where more and more news footage is being created every day, the need to manage, edit and broadcast content in an efficient manner becomes extremely critical,” Mr. Chen Feng, president, Sobey Digital Technology Co., Ltd., said. ”We have created the “News Network System” to address this need, and by using DataDirect’s S2A technology we can enable the sharing of news between users while bringing simplified storage management and automation – all at a reduced cost.” DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliances (S2As) are a family of intelligent storage controllers which provide servers, workstation clusters and standalone computers with easy, scalable and high bandwidth access to shared data. With built-in hardware RAID, a massive cache, storage and LUN virtualization, parallel Fibre Channel port technology and support for up to hundreds of terabytes of storage, DataDirect's S2As provide cost-effective and reliable support for the high bandwidth and large storage requirements of demanding broadcasting and rich media networks. The S2A6000 that Sobey used for GDTV’s news system, for example, can deliver over 6000 hours of 50Mbit/sec MPEG2@ML content to 90 concurrent streams per S2A through the SAN. Each S2A6000 can directly support up to 512 workstations and 180 Terabytes of storage, simultaneously supporting a multitude of ingest, NLE, CG, playout and browse stations. DataDirect’s “format independence” guarantees scaling of capacity and streams from highly-compressed all the way to HD and beyond. “Sobey has created a turnkey solution based around our S2A storage controllers that allows broadcasters to deploy an extremely high performance and scalable SAN for newsroom operation – quickly, reliably and cost-effectively,” Alex Bouzari, chief executive officer, DataDirect Networks, said. “As the China broadcasting industry continues to transition from analog to digital technology, solutions like Sobey’s News Network System and our S2A storage technology will continue to deliver a competitive advantage for forward-looking broadcasters.”