Vendor Spotlight:

SGI DELIVERS A SHARED DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AT IBC 2004

As broadcasters and post production houses transition from analog to digital IT facilities, Silicon Graphics is providing infrastructure and new storage technologies for the management of digital content within and between facilities. At the International Broadcasters Conference (IBC) 2004, September 10-14 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, SGI (Stand 7.531), will demonstrate how its digital infrastructure solutions are increasing productivity in facilities by enabling the sharing of content across multiple operations. The company will also launch Silicon Graphics Broadcast Europe, a dedicated media business unit in Europe.

Broadcast

With the theme, "From Material Movement to Information Sharing," SGI will demonstrate its open digital infrastructure for broadcast featuring the innovative approach presently being used at Danish Broadcasting Corporation and others. This IT data-centric facility-wide build-out will include the use of Ardendo software for multi-resolution ingest and LAN and WAN browse/rough- cut edit, Pinnacle Liquid blue non-linear editors for collaborative editing, interfaces to Avid Newscutter for editing, SGI InfiniteStorage solutions for managing and sharing files, and multiple SGI Media Server for Broadcast systems for playout under the control of VizRT automation. The system features tight integration through SGI BIS (Broadcast Integration Server) software between ingest, edit, play-out, distribution and archive and enables many times faster than real-time file sharing between workstations of different operating systems throughout the broadcast operation. SGI broadcast systems incorporate Active Archiving -- a concept that takes broadcasters beyond just a faster network or larger storage systems to unleash the power of a true shared central storage. Included in the display is the new SGI InfiniteStorage RM610 rich media storage system that provides real-time streaming of news or production content.

Production

With the theme, "On The Way to 4K," SGI will demonstrate some of its initiatives to make 4K resolution workflows a reality. SGI will debut the newest implementation of SGI InfiniteStorage solutions that enable popular effects, editing, finishing and color grading applications to share content across multiple operating systems, without costly and time-consuming file copies. SGI will incorporate a Dalsa Origin Camera connected to an SGI Altix 350 system into its display and demonstrate a hybrid 4K and 2K workflow. Content captured with the Dalsa Origin camera, will be color graded on Discreet's lustre system. Also featured is Discreet's smoke 6 resolution- independent editing and finishing system hosted on the Silicon Graphics Tezro visual workstation, offering unparalleled performance for 2K resolution on the desktop. Debuting at IBC 2004 is the SGI InfiniteStorage RM660 rich media storage system, designed specifically for the data-intensive requirements of digital intermediates.

SGI SAN systems with SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS support all popular operating systems including IRIX, Windows XP, Windows 2000, 32-bit Linux and 64-bit Linux, and Mac OS X. The Guaranteed Rate I/O (GRIO V.2) option for the SGI SAN Server system is available for enhanced performance through guaranteed quality of service of high-bandwidth applications.

"SGI infrastructure solutions enable broadcasters and video/film companies to optimize their facility-wide workflows by leveraging advances in IT," said Chris Golson, senior director, Market Strategy, Media Industries, SGI. "The openness of CXFS shared filesystem allows broadcasters and post houses to choose the best tools for the job without constraints of proprietary systems or particular operating systems. Enormous amounts of data may be shared by many without the need to make additional copies. In the case of Danish Broadcasting Corporation, news, sports, radio, Internet and other departments have access to the same content. This greatly increases productivity meaning the stories get to air faster or for post houses, through the production process more quickly."

InfiniteStorage solutions optimize dataflow through the facility by providing true file sharing at production speeds with a choice of both network attached storage (NAS) and SAN storage architectures. Broadcast material can be shared at 25x real-time rates and film resolution material can be accessed throughout the production workflow as data at real-time rates.

For the latest SGI announcements at IBC, including Silicon Graphics Broadcast Europe and new SGI InfiniteStorage rich media solutions optimized for broadcast and production, please go to the SGI IBC 2004 Virtual Press Kit that will be posted beginning September 10 in the SGI Newsroom at http://www.sgi.com/newsroom.

SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery

SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is a leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense, or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at http://www.sgi.com.