Bitcentral Integrates Max-T Sledgehammer
As the shared storage component of its news station deployments
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on February 1, 2008 at 4:34 pmMaximum Throughput Inc., developer of software-based solutions for networked storage infrastructure and media management, announced that Bitcentral, a California-based company delivering the Precis end-to-end digital news production and broadcast play-to-air solution, has integrated Sledgehammer as the shared storage component of its news station deployments.
Sledgehammer is an extremely fast network-attached storage (NAS) device employed by post production houses and broadcasters to fulfill their high-speed online storage needs. Sledgehammer is available in many different configurations that suit the varying requirements for capacity, redundancy and high availability.
“We’re very pleased that Bitcentral has standardized Sledgehammer as the shared storage component of their revolutionary digital newsroom automation solutions,” said John Miller, Max-T’s Vice President of Worldwide Sales. “Our systems have been designed from the core to deliver the speed and reliability necessary to effectively deliver the stringent requirements for getting news on air, on time.”
Bitcentral’s Precis, an innovation in digital news production systems, is a non-proprietary, fully turnkey play-to-air digital news management system. The all file-based workflow solution is browser based and highly scalable, with virtually no limits on the number of users that can access the system. The system delivers an integrated on-line archive with virtually unlimited, inexpensive commodity storage for SD or HD video content, as well as provides the stations with a complete “eco-system,” featuring full integration with iNews, ENPS and editing software of choice, including Canopus Edius, Sony Vegas, Adobe Premier Pro and Apple Final Cut Pro.
In just two short years, the Precis system has been deployed in more than 10 percent of all news producing stations in the United States. Bitcentral recently uprooted and converted nine television news stations to HD and the Precis in nine weeks, sweeping from coast to coast.
“We evaluated a number of solutions before choosing Sledgehammer as the NAS storage component for our Precis solution,” commented Fred Fourcher, President and CEO of Bitcentral. “Our customers, which include some of the largest and most complex television news stations in the country, have very demanding needs. When we analyzed the big three requirements of reliability, redundancy and performance, the Sledgehammer was the clear winner. We are pleased to integrate Max-T’s proven broadcasting and content creation technology. The combined solution of Sledgehammer and Precis is poised to become the unbeatable standard for the highest levels of television news broadcasting.”
“The Sledgehammer has proven to be a solid, reliable NAS solution,” added Pete Sockett, Chief Engineer at WRAL-TV/DT in Raleigh, North Carolina, a television news station currently running HD on Bitcentral’s Precis system. “Past solutions we’ve used here have saturated with our team running as few as five edit suites. We’ve thrown all 12 edit suites at Max-T’s solution and it doesn’t skip a beat; it’s been smooth and problem free.”
Subscribe to our free daily newsletter
