The New Technologies in the Sphere of Archiving and Search of Video Materials
By Michael Medvedev, Vladimir Vodzinskiy

One of the current problems that is provoking lots of disputes and discussions is the work with information medium today. The broadcasting companies and the mass media admit that their information base is growing constantly and because of that the successful tracing of data and their search in the conditions of the constantly increasing volumes of information becomes a difficult problem. The organization of storage of big data volumes with an opportunity of their fast and comfortable search is the clue to the solution of that problem. Today for the large broadcasting companies it is absolutely unacceptable to have the arrays that contains the information on the tapes. Such arrays need the specially equipped premises in which the necessary temperature and humidity would be maintained constantly. Never the less the fact that the system of storage should be connected with system of control that allows tracing and finding of the necessary data fast and efficient should be also put into consideration. For the archive that contents the information on the tapes the fast access to the askable information is impossible. The JVC Professional Company is working over the new technologies of the storage of the archived information and the operative access to it that would allow meeting the contemporary requirements to the facilities of the data storage of big capacity in the different fields of the application. The Jukebox storage system based on the DVD in general allows solving the problem of storage of big data volumes. Developed by the JVC Professional Jukebox systems are assigned for the allocation of discs in the 'net' volume and providing of the reliable work in without using of hard technological decisions. The system of the air filtration and circulation inside of the apparatus guarantees the stable work of the library in spite of the external conditions. The mechanism of the robotic of the system is very system and reliable. In fact the libraries might have different volumes of 100...600 discs. The mechanic construction is situated in the body that is firm but light accounted for the tense network schedule. That is why the DVD Jukebox can be considered as the main candidate that is capable to satisfy the requirements to the systems of storage of big data volumes.

All the facilities of control are situated on the front board. For the comfort of work the Jukebox systems are accomplished with the liquid-crystal display on which the information about the current operation executable by the facility is represented. The group loading is realized with the use of the compact magazines each one of which consists of the 50 discs and the mechanism of the 'mail box' provides the simple input and extraction of separate discs. The construction allows fixing few drives depending on the user's needs for the recording or reproduction of the few discs at the same time. Also the connection to the computer of the few Jukebox systems with the help of the SCSI interface is possible. That allows increasing the volume of the archives with the enlarging of the archived information up to tens of terabytes.

Nowadays there exist lots of different types of the mirror discs mediums from the well-known Video DVD up to the latest formats DVD-RAM. There exist also the majority of the intermediate variants. The JVC Jukebox systems can operate with the majority of formats but the DVD-RAM is viewed as the main type of the disc mediums. One of the reasons why the attention should be paid to this format is the large capacity of storage are already accessible and the active developments that allow hoping that the capacity of the disc would sufficiently increase in the future. According to the forecasts at the nearest years the volumes of the disc mediums DVD-RAM should increase so much that in the case of operation with the Jukebox system it will be possible to get the disc array of the volume up to 18TB.

At the moment of the preparation of that material there already exist the DVD-RAM discs of the capacity of 2.6 and 4.7 GB (one-side) and the 9.4 GB (double-sided). The mechanism of the discs transfer in the Jukebox system contents the flipper shown on the illustration (the turn-over device) that is very much alike the used in the music boxes for the reproduction of the gramophone records designed for 45 rpm. Due to the flipper the disc at the transfer to the DVD drive is fixed on the right side.

At the moment the JVC Professional offers on the archiving facility market the two series of its robotic Jukebox libraries: Mc-8000 and MC-9000. As the MC-9000 is new we will tell more about it.

Line of robotic libraries of MC-8000 series

The three models represent the series of the robotic libraries MC-9000: MC-9100U, MC-9200U, and MC-9600U. As it can be seen from the indication the models of the libraries vary in the quantity of discs they are capable to operate with - 100, 200 and 600 discs accordingly. The libraries maintain the large number of the disc formats", starting from the CD-ROM and CD-RW to the DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM. The fix of few drives of the different types is possible. Such a variety allows storing the disc arrays that were built earlier with the newly formed ones and having the centralized access to them. In the case of using of the DVD-RAM 9.4 GB discs the maximum volume of the information is stored by the MC-9600U library may achieve 5.64 TB. The libraries are characterized by the small access time to the arbitrary disc: 2.5...4.5 sec. For the increase of the reliability of the library itself and the stored information all the models are accomplished with the damp-proof body and the system of the air filtration. Also the local and the distance diagnosis of the library is possible through the interface RS-232C. Beside it is reasonable to mention the opportunities of the colorful printing on the discs with the help of the separately acquired printer.

There exists the variety of software products that are assigned for operation with archiving facilities. The programs vary in functions as well as in the operation facilities that they are assigned for. The robotic JVC libraries had got the acknowledgement at all of the leading software producers for the archiving facilities including PoINT, K-Par, Tracer, Allstor, and NTIOM Systems. With the help of such software as the ArchiveXtender or NTIOMstore the working capacity of the robotic libraries is provided in the largest specter of the operation systems starting from Unix to the Windows 2000.

Common view of archiving application interface

In that article it will be told about the software NTIOMstore of the NTIOM Systems Company. From our point of view, this software with its relatively not big cost provides the perfect stability and accumulates lots of other useful qualities that are perculiar for the more expensive analogous. The software for the robotic libraries NTIOMstore is assigned for the operation with one of the most popular professional operation system Windows NT 4.0, as with its server versions so with the version for the workstations. That allows integrating the robotic library to the absolutely different configurations from the networks of the enterprise to the single workplace. At the nearest time there should appear the version for the Windows 2000. The requirements of the program are not high: computer with the operation system Windows NT 4.0 SP3, on-line storage at the volume from 64 MB, the Pentium class processor. The only additional requirement is the presence of the separate SCSI disc of the capacity from 4 GB on which the program creates the buffer (cash).

The installation of the NTIOMstore is extremely simple and takes about 3 min. At the first starting of the program it is necessary to indicate the DVD-library with which it is going to operate with, the disc for the allocation of the buffer and discs in the library itself that are going to enter the archived group. What is the archived group? For instance, in the library there are 400 DVD-RAM discs. There appears a necessity to create the archived resource for each one of four of the existed stations of the nonlinear editing. In that case it is possible to create four independent resources consisted of 100 DVD-RAM discs each marking out for the each station at 940 GB or 650 hours of video at the flow of 3 Mbit/sec. The created resource would be called the archived group. The especiality of the archived group is that its volume can be increased with the help of the simple adding of free discs into it. At the adding to the library of 200 DVD-RAM discs more it is possible to enlarge the existing archived groups up to 150 discs in each one or to create two more achieved groups by 100 discs in each one.

Archive group creation window

After the creation the archived group becomes available as the standard Windows disc. Accordingly, as on the standard disc in the archived group there is an opportunity to create folders, to limit the access to them to the defined circle of people, to make them available in the local network, etc.

The disc buffer allows producing the deferred recording on the discs of the robotic library. By that the access to the often used files becomes faster and there appears an opportunity to save the materials at the bigger speed than the DVD-RAM drive is capable to record with. This circumstance is highly important at the use of the robotic libraries with the nonlinear editing stations. The field of the use of the robotic libraries is highly wide. This is, for example, the archiving and the storage of videotape footage. Such an approach allows solving the problems of the safety and security from the external factors as well as of the systematization and automating of search. The studios and the TV companies have the opportunity to build the video material archive on the base of the JukeBox. As it is known, the contemporary formats of recording professional DV, DVCPRO 25, DVCAM are operating with the data flows of 25 Mbit/sec. The Jute Box allows archiving the videos not only of the similar but even of the higher quality and with bigger data flow.

The system finds the wide use even in the 'non-television' spheres: offices (storage of documentation and other data), complexes of the security video supervision (recording of video from the cameras), medicine (the long-term storage of the roentgenograms and other important information), etc.

It is enough to say that the users of the robotic JVC libraries are such companies as BMW, AGFA, Daimler-Chrysler and many others.

Provided by the Heinz Ludwig Schudt Medientechnik.

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