Media Managed Storage Solutions by Axle Video and Qnap

Axle Video, LLC. and network appliance vendor QNAP are teaming up to deliver a range of storage solutions geared to the rising need of government and non-profit video production teams for storage with media management.

The solutions are available from axle and its reseller channel partners.

The task of managing and sharing large amounts of media files was an elaborate undertaking, with storage systems and customized media management software. Total costs of a deployment could stretch into six figures. However, by combining axle’s media management appliances with QNAP’s networked storage, the two companies have been able to bring total system costs into the $5,000-$20,000 range. In addition to acquisition costs tuned to government and non-profit budgets, these solutions offer much shorter deployment time (hours or days instead of months) and are far easier to use.

Three configurations announced :

axle AQ-12 – Holds about 500 hours of HD footage. 12TB usable networked storage with four GbE interfaces configured with RAID-6 to allow data protection in case of multiple drive failures, plus a simple browser-based media management system. Compact desktop hardware fits into any office environment. MSRP is $6,995.
axle AQ-36 – Holds about 1,500 hours of HD footage. 36TB of usable networked storage with four GbE interfaces configured with RAID-6 to allow data protection in case of multiple drive failures, plus a simple browser-based media management system. Compact desktop hardware fits into any office environment. MSRP is $9,995.
axle AQ-60 – Holds about 2,500 hours of HD footage. 60TB of usable networked storage with four GbE interfaces configured with RAID-6 to allow data protection in case of multiple drive failures, with a simple browser-based media management system plus the added ability to transcode media to a variety of formats. Rackmount hardware fits in 3U of standard rack enclosure space. MSRP is $17,995.

The systems all integrate seamlessly with non-linear editing (NLE) video editing systems from Apple (FCP7, FCPX) and Adobe (Premiere Pro CC, Prelude CC). Optional modules allow for integration with Avid Media Composer workflows, Adobe Anywhere distributed editing solutions, and a range of LTO tape based archiving solutions from vendors such as Archiware and XenData.

These systems come with unlimited user access to the storage, and a 5-user license for the axle media management software including a year of software updates. Additional 5-user licenses for media management are priced at $1,995 each including a year of updates. A $599 hardware option adds two high-speed 10GbE network ports in place of two of the standard 1 Gigabit ports, to support workflows involving real time HD editing across multiple workstations. A third option, available in January 2015, adds axle Edit, a rough cut editing application for the iPad allowing remote editing workflows.

“For the first time, these solutions bring the power of affordable NAS storage together with the capabilities of simple media management” said Sam Bogoch, CEO, axle Video.” We know government and nonprofit customers are looking for cost-effective storage options for their media catalogs; now, they can accomplish this with very affordable complete systems.“

The companies weree demonstrating the systems at GV Expo, December 3rd-4th at the Walter Washington Convention Center,