Pappas Commits to Holographic Storage
Pappas Telecasting says it will be the first broadcaster in the world to adopt holographic data storage, as it taps InPhase Technologies for the job. Longmont, Colo.-based InPhase has developed a laser-recording technology that can transfer video onto a 300-GB optical disk at a transfer rate of 160 Mbps and store roughly 35 hours of broadcast-quality video.
Pappas will use InPhase's Tapestry holographic drive and media as the archive system for an HD facility it's creating in Reno, Nev., for KAZR, an Azteca America affiliate, and KREN, which will become a CW affiliate in September. Pappas plans to launch two high-def newscasts from the facility. Deputy Director of Engineering James Ocon says Pappas will probably integrate Tapestry into its archive by 2007. He hopes to use the holographic disks for online storage as well, noting that next-generation disks will each hold more than a terabyte of data. He says, “They broke through the data barrier with this technology.”
Grass Valley rings up Digital News Sales
Thomson's Grass Valley unit has sold more than $24 million year-to-date of its server-based Digital News Production (DNP) and K2 Media Client and Media Server systems to broadcasters worldwide.
New DNP/K2 customers include U.S. station groups Tribune and Belo; UK news channel BBC Wales; Swiss broadcaster SRG; Brazilian broadcaster TV Cultura; and regional Australian broadcaster WIN Television. The biggest recent installation is SRG, which will go on-air in July with a 20-channel DNP system that includes three Ingest stations, five NewsEdit workstations and 36 NewsBrowse clients.
NVISION Streamlines
Nvision is displaying several new routing products at NAB, including the NV8288 digital video router, which is designed to squeeze large-router features into a smaller form factor for installation in live production trucks. “You can't take up valuable space in a truck,” says Director of Marketing Jay Kuca. The 10-rack-unit, 12-inch-deep NV8288 uses Gennum's new 3-Gbps HD/SDI chipset for routing 1.5-Gbps uncompressed HD signals today and potentially 3-Gbps 1080p signals in the future. The basic NV8288 can be configured for systems ranging in size from 12 x 12 up to 288 x 576 and expanded with a second frame to 576 x 576.
Clear Channel Taps Isilon for Storage
Isilon Systems, Seattle, has landed a contract to provide storage for Clear Channel Communications' radio- station Web sites and creative-services groups.
Clear Channel is using Isilon IQ and Isilon's SyncIQ replication software to streamline its file-based storage for more than 1,100 radio-station Web sites and to replicate files between multiple data centers in North America and Europe for disaster-recovery purposes.
Clear Channel is also using Isilon IQ to streamline workflow at its Creative Services Group in Atlanta and to centralize international content at its European data center.
NESN Goes Solid State for high-def facility
Cable network New England Sports Network (NESN), Watertown, Mass., has installed two Solid State Logic C100 Digital Broadcast audio consoles at its new 40,000-square-foot HD production facility. The C132 32-fader digital audio consoles are at the core of a digital infrastructure that will allow the network to produce all in-house programming in HDTV, including all Red Sox and Bruins studio programs, and support full 5.1-channel Dolby Digital audio in the future.
