RETAIL

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and MUNICH, Germany -- SGI will provide the core digital infrastructure technology for Germany's most modern transmission center, which is being created for the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) in Munich. SGI has been commissioned by the system house T-Systems, the main contractor for the project. Initially ordered last December, the SGI(R) solution will provide an extremely flexible, high-performance digital infrastructure to record and store all incoming and in-house-generated video content, ensure an optimized workflow for online access and transmit finished material to air. The comprehensive SGI digital infrastructure will support the activities of three TV studios from data ingest to server-based play out-to-air, as well as the archiving of all video assets. The digital process developed for BR is so complete and comprehensive that it could serve as a future model for broadcasters worldwide. The SGI installation, which should be completed by early 2004, includes a central online storage system that provides users in the transmission center with a hard-disk-based storage capacity of several terabytes. SGI will also supply 15 SGI Media Server(TM) for broadcast systems, which will access the online storage, offering BR more than 85 SDI video channels. Video data is stored in the storage area network (SAN) in high-resolution quality with 50Mb MPEG2. Cost-effective disaster recovery solutions will be realized through the implementation of high-availability SGI(R) FailSafe(TM) software, as well as through the modular structure of the SGI Media Server technology. Open, Scalable and Highly Flexible to Meet BR's Requirements Key advantages delivered by the SGI solution include the leveraging of open IT standards for storage and networking options combined with the tremendous bandwidth of SGI Media Server for broadcast. The SGI digital infrastructure more than meets the demands of challenging broadcast digitalization and workflow-optimization projects. Second, SGI provides value in terms of experienced services. The SGI Professional Services team ensures that server and storage components are integrated into a highly efficient, digital infrastructure. SGI can flexibly address all aspects of the client's requirements. In addition, the SGI team will also support the integration of the SAN solution into the general transmission center project environment. Dirk Zachau-Redmann, sales director for media industries, SGI Germany, remarks, "With this end-to-end digitalization project for the complete workflow process chain, BR will attain a new level of flexibility and speed for its production and transmission of news, bulletins and a variety of other program formats. We are proud to deliver key technology for this ambitious project and to support T-Systems with its successful realization." "With this project, we again underline that SGI as a partner is able to provide flexibility in two crucial ways," explains Zachau-Redmann. "First is our ability to design open and scalable technology, so that the customer has a lot of flexibility in configuring and expanding the environment to meet his very individual and changing needs. Second is our staff's ability to meet the clients' demands as far as technically possible."