ßroadcastEnsineerin - AmericanRadioHistory.Com

TECHNOLOGY IN TRANSITION
NEW PRODUCTS & REVIEWS
thinking behind the development of
AXF, for example, the archive format
some vendors are advocating.
AXF is certainly more comprehensively
tuned to the needs of audiovisual
asset management, but it is essentially
just another wrapper format
for essence and metadata. AXF compatibility
would address the portability
issue, but does little for longevity.
And does the broadcast world really
need yet another wrapper format?
Longevity
I keep emphasizing longevity, because
I believe preserving content far
into the future is a critical consideration.
There is general agreement that
LTO tapes are the preferred solution,
but even this widely recognized standard
- open and freely available, like
LTFS - is the subject of continuing
evolution. We shall shortly see LTO -6
gaining ground on LTO -5, and many
broadcast archives have a mixture of
earlier LTO formats.
Will we ever stop archiving data to
tape? There are advocates of MAID
storage: the massive array of idle
disks. This uses large numbers of
disks to store data, which are spun
down or run at a low idle speed when
not in use to minimize wear, giving
them a much longer life than active
disk drives, as well as minimizing
power consumption, even in large
archive capacities.
At the 2012 NAB Show, there was
at least one demonstration of practical
holographic storage. And there
may be new data archive platforms
that have yet to hit the headlines. The
point is if they, too, adopt LTFS, they
become effectively transparent to the
asset management system. Hybrid
storage no longer becomes another
system level processing overhead; it
all looks like a single archive.
Open standard
Finally, and I cannot overemphasize
this point: LTFS is a widely
supported format in the IT industry,
developed originally by IBM and
maintained by a broad consortium of
manufacturers. It is worth repeating
that LTFS is an open standard, freely
licensed to anyone who wants to
implement it.
The IT world has R &D budgets we
in broadcast can only dream of, and
it can invest unimaginable sums in
tailoring perfect products to make
the best of good open standards like
LTFS. Products already exist and
many more will follow, I am certain.
The IT industry's economies of scale
mean that these products are cost -
effective, allowing broadcasters and
their specialist vendors to concentrate
investment where it is really important
- on the applications, not the
underlying hardware.
This is not the time for broadcast
vendors to reinvent the wheel yet
again. We do not need to add complexity
through new wrappers, application-
specific hardware and proprietary
formats.
As an industry, we have to acknowledge
and accept that where they meet
our requirements, standard IT solutions
will deliver better value, better
reliability and better future evolution.
LTFS is the perfect example and the
ideal opportunity for broadcasters to
look to future- proofing their technology
and their assets.
m
Tony Taylor is chairman and CEO for TMD.
+ ADDITIONAL RESOURCES +
The following are available on the
Broadcast Engineering website:
Goodbye spinning disks
Is video editing in the cloud real?
Crystal ball: Where is the
industry headed?
(anders
cier4ific
nc.
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80 broadcastengineering.com I March 2013