Marquis Broadcast Launches Media Software Analyzer Integrated With XenData Archive

XenData Ltd. and Marquis Broadcast announced the launch of a version of Project Parking software that is integrated with XenData digital video archives.

Project Parking analyzes all content on shared edit storage allowing Avid Technology, Inc.‘s projects to be copied to a XenData archive. Finished projects may then be deleted from edit storage, freeing up space. For current projects, snapshots may be copied to the XenData archive and then updated incrementally to provide data protection. The combined solution allows the management of offline LTO or Sony optical disc archive (ODA) cartridges, giving system administrators the ability to migrate projects to much lower cost storage with unlimited space.

Most shared edit storage solutions tend to be expensive and difficult to maintain and manage. By combining Project Parking software with a XenData archive, users may move content to secure low cost LTO or ODA cartridges, which are then externalized and held offline. The cost per terabyte of an LTO cartridge is typically less than 5% of edit storage. When and if a project needs to be restored, the software will identify any offline cartridges, allowing the user to migrate the whole project or selected content back to edit storage by importing the cartridges into a robotic library, or inserting into an ODA/LTO drive.

Benefits include:

• Frees space on expensive shared edit storage – completed projects may be moved to lower cost near-line or offline storage

• Minimizes total cost – it is much lower cost to add the Marquis-XenData archive solution than to continually expand shared edit storage

• Provides data protection for Avid projects stored on edit storage – snapshots can be made of projects, storing these on a XenData archive

“Project Parking allows you to take control of your Avid shared edit storage because it understands the relationships between Avid projects, folders and bins, and all its media,” explains Simon Fearn, product manager, Marquis Broadcast. “Then having obtained this full picture, it is easy to select projects for transfer to the XenData archive.“

“The lack of data protection for content on shared edit storage has been a major problem within the industry for years, and a failure of the edit storage will typically have disastrous consequences,” said Phil Storey, XenData CEO. “Now, we’ve addressed this issue for Avid users with the enhanced Project Parking. It is easy to implement a two part strategy where completed projects are moved to secure LTO or ODA cartridges, freeing up space on the edit storage, and current projects are backed up using the incremental snapshot capabilities of Project Parking.“

The Project Parking is certified for installation on XenData’s SX-10 archive appliance and the XenData SX-520 Series of archive servers. It may be installed elsewhere on the network, but when installed on the XenData archive, it creates data paths and avoids the need to purchase an additional server.