And Finally, Apple Xsan

This was the most impressive thing that I saw at the whole of NAB.

The forthcoming Apple Xsan file system will allow mutiple media servers to share huge files off of one storage center. I know this doesn't really sound like anything new but it is, the new part is that each server can share the same exact file without any lag AND the bigger the file, the better. Xsan does not work well with small files.

This translate directly into a network of video servers sharing up to 10 10bit uncompressed 4:2:2 NTSC or PAL files which translates into over 20 compressed files depending on your compresion. This means that you could feasibly have 4 servers running 4 simultaneous layers of compressed content off a Single Dual U320 SCSI 10gb etnet XSAN file system and switch.

The setup of an Xsan file system includes either a server or virtual server, an Xsan Switch, and 2 or more clients G5s with Fiber Channel cards at $500 ea. They can be G5's or Xserves, no matter. The Switches have both Fiber channel and ethernet. Xsan will make use of 10GB ethernet technology.

Apple's Xsan file system will retail for $999. The Xsan switches will likely range from $3500 to $10,000 to start and quickly fall as it is not proprietary technology. Xsan and Motioni both won for best of show at this years NAB.

Christian

Quote:

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Originally Posted by litemover

Apple's Xsan file system will retail for $999. The Xsan switches will likely range from $3500 to $10,000 to start and quickly fall as it is not proprietary technology. Xsan and Motioni both won for best of show at this years NAB.

Christian

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With any kindof of SAN system, the important criterion for what we do is not the headline data rate - but the latency...

The latency of a system is how long it takes to get information out of a system after the request is made.

Our systems are crippled by latencies.

SAN systems can have high data rate, but also have high latencies that make them unusable for doing random frame accesses and seemless loops.

Remember christian -- all the non-linear editing programs can work from a timeline going in one direction - forwards - these systems know whats going to happen next - AND when its going to happen.

I dont know when you are going to hit the bump button , or run a cue.
I cant do the same optimisations as a non-linear editor.

Richard,

Do you think that the latency will be reduced while using 10gb ethernet along with the fibre channel?

I will have to email the engineer about the latency problem and see if it will be improved in the later releases of xsan. He had told me that it was still very glitchy but it would be such a great solution if it would work and had low latency.

I will be watching this technology closely.

Christian

Sorry for the double post but if you haven't already seen this Richard, you should take a look. I think it is interesting to see how video servers are going to take advantage of this technology.

http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com/products/servers/san/

Profile is going to utilise san file sharing for up to 48 channels of video.

Christian

Quote:

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Originally Posted by litemover

Sorry for the double post but if you haven't already seen this Richard, you should take a look. I think it is interesting to see how video servers are going to take advantage of this technology.

http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com/products/servers/san/

Profile is going to utilise san file sharing for up to 48 channels of video.

Christian

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Call them up and see whether they can do seemless random looping from any two points in the movies.

These types of systems rely on buffering a lot of information.
And if you need to do live random loops the buffering is a hindrance.

These guys never have to worry about latency.

San, Xsan and fibre distro rocks. It works great and I've seen it fly with up to 8 servers running multiple layers of sd and hd content.

It all worked out. This technology made it.

Christian