STORAGE

LOS ANGELES, CA -- DataDirect Networks, the leading provider of the world's highest performance storage networking appliances, announced that RTL Television, Germany's largest television network, has selected a S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance for use as the storage network backbone of their Integrated News Editing System (INES) real-time news platform. In the first phase of INES rollout, RTL has used the appliance-enabled environment with great success for coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics and the Netherlands Royal Wedding. Using the Silicon Storage Appliance as the enabling storage network foundation allows RTL Television to achieve increased productivity and workflow efficiencies, including acceleration of news acquisition, production, live broadcasting and archiving. Moving to a real-time, non-linear digital environment with DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage technology has brought storage cost reductions, workflow improvement, and the ability to easily scale the SAN environment. "We were aware of the benefits brought about by DataDirect's appliances, but we were surprised by the impressive performance of the S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance itself," Andreas Fleuter, head of technical engineering, RTL Television, said. "This is the only system we know which provides enough performance and cost-effective scalability to fulfill all of RTL's requirements." Transitioning to Real-Time with a Silicon Storage Appliance The move to restructure the entire news environment to digital using a storage network appliance foundation allows the network to quickly deliver time-sensitive news stories and provide viewers with superior quality broadcasts at a lower total operating cost Prior to integration of RTL's news production system, the news system was based on analog, tape-based technologies, where concurrent access to data was non-existent. In the previous system in place at RTL, VTRs were used to record raw footage from satellites on tape, and those tapes were then physically walked to the editing bays. Finished programs were then re-recorded to tape and walked to the broadcast VTR. INES was designed to transition the linear tape-based environment to a real-time, non linear and more automated system, with video editors concurrently accessing digital content through a storage network pool. With INES, satellite video sources are ingested into twin Matrox DigiServer DTV capture stations and moved into the S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance-directed fabric. Four Incite NLE workstations are connected into the appliance fabric to access the digitized data, with the S2A 6000 Silicon Storage Appliance managing all data in the 1.5 TB SAN. Video editors prepare segments and stories for RTL news programs, and send the finished programs back to through storage network for automated broadcast. When the whole concept has been realized, data is then automatically transferred to the playout servers in the gallery. The Silicon Storage Appliance-based approach allows the acceleration of news workflow on a system that offers the opportunity to experience new aspects of news production. "We used the EDL to archive material from the Olympics," Fleuter continued. During both events (the Netherlands Royal Wedding and Salt Lake Winter Olympics) the Silicon Storage Appliance "was absolutely reliable and the operators using the system were pleased with the overall performance." "Broadcasters today are looking for enabling technologies that allow them to work faster and smarter to achieve efficiency gains," Robert Woolery, vice president corporate development, DataDirect Networks, said, "and many broadcast professionals are determining that Silicon Storage Appliances bring competitive advantages over other technologies. Silicon Storage Appliances enable increased efficiency, lower operating costs and the highest levels of Quality of Service (QoS) needed for next generation broadcast environments, and these attributes are providing compelling advantages for digital facilities worldwide."