SYSTEMS

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- In their transition from analog systems to completely digital newsrooms, leading broadcasters in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Germany are selecting the SGI(R) CXFS(TM) storage area network (SAN) infrastructure with Pinnacle Systems Liquid(TM) family of nonlinear editors (NLEs) as their newsroom editing solution. Among the newsroom projects recently or currently being installed: -- Czech Television (CT) public service television in the Czech Republic awarded its new server-based newsroom project to SGI for the delivery of a complete digital news production system (DNPS) for managing the production of news and sports broadcasts. Included are four SGI Media Server for broadcast systems with a total of 20 MPEG-2 channels, four SGI(R) TP9100 storage systems, and a central media repository comprising an SGI(R) Origin(R) 300 system and SGI(R) TP9500 storage system with 2TB of initial storage, plus 8 to 10 Pinnacle Liquid blue and Pinnacle Liquid purple NLEs integrated as its editing solution. The Czech Television project will serve as a flagship installation in Eastern Europe for digital infrastructure and the change from a tape-based to a file-based production system. -- Danish Broadcasting Corp. (DR), Denmark's oldest and largest public service radio and television company, is halfway through its complete digital conversion. SGI will integrate 24 Pinnacle Liquid purple and Pinnacle Liquid blue NLEs as the newsroom editing solution, as well as provide eight SGI Media Server for broadcast systems, an SGI(R) Origin(R)?3000 series server, an SGI Origin 300 server, two SGI(R) TP9400 storage systems with 3.4TB of storage and SGI(R) Data Migration Facility (DMF) software for moving data from disk to tape that will serve as the foundation for archiving material. -- Sudwestrundfunk (SWR), or Southwestern Broadcasting, is one of the first German public broadcasting stations and belongs to ARD, the first German public television network. SWR's infrastructure is built around the SGI Media Server for broadcast systems (configured for DVCPRO 25), the SGI Origin 300 server and the SGI TP9400 storage system. The SGI servers and storage arrays hold a complete central "pool" of content that can be directly accessed in full-resolution for editing on the Pinnacle Liquid blue NLEs attached via high-speed network. There is no need to move the clip via the network to the local disk, so both time and disk space is saved. The edit functionality is as if the clip were on the local disk. In addition to the time and space saved, more than one editor can access this file simultaneously. This feature eliminates bottlenecks and allows parallel editing to take place. "Working together to meet the needs of our common customers, SGI and Pinnacle have now eliminated the bottleneck of the NAS only editing solution," said Chris Golson, senior director, Media Industries, SGI (NYSE:SGI) . "We have combined the solutions of 2Gb fiber-attached Pinnacle Liquid editors to the power and expandability of the SGI 'infinite structure' solution. This bulletproof SAN uses the SGI CXFS shared filesystem, giving you the power to use virtually any popular OS simultaneously, including IRIX, Linux, Solaris, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Mac OS X and more. This architecture allows you to start small and end up big with a recording capability of thousands of years at 50Mb per second and bandwidth at a current SGI customer of 12Gb per second with no actual limit. This allows for the fastest response times and instantaneous sharing of edited files that are ready for air." "Effective collaborations between companies like SGI and Pinnacle makes it easier for customers to realize their cost and productivity goals without limiting their infrastructure choices," said Richard Scott, Pinnacle Systems VP and managing director for European sales. "Leading broadcasters throughout the world are selecting Pinnacle Liquid NLE systems precisely because these products have the open design needed to seamlessly integrate in networked multi-vendor environments."