XenData and Avid Team Up

XenData, provider of digital video archiving solutions tailored specifically to serve the media and entertainment industry, announced its recent collaboration with Avid Technology, Inc.

Avid and XenData have teamed up to develop a new interface for Avid’s FastBreak automation solutions. FastBreak automates workflows for broadcast operations and is capable of fully automating daily master control playout functions as well as facilitating ingest, archiving, media management and traffic system interoperability.

The new interface has been developed for time and resource-strapped operators nationwide to combine Avid’s Automation Archive Manager with XenData digital video archives, running XenData?s X64 Edition software. This creates a cost-effective, standards-based archive solution for FastBreak Automation users.

XenData’s archiving solution enables reliable archiving of video assets to high-performance LTO-5 data tape. XenData’s LTO-5 archive also provides the following benefits:

• High performance due to the capabilities of LTO-5 data tape combined with the advanced RAID caching techniques employed by XenData software.
• High storage capacities provided by LTO-5 tape libraries within the XenData Archives. A typical entry-level system will store over 60 TB near-line, representing over 5,000 hours of video at DV25.
• Use of the open standard tar format when archiving to LTO which means that files may be restored using a variety of third party platforms including native Linux, Unix, Windows Services for Unix, as well as XenData software.
• A file system interface, meaning that the investment in the archive can be used for other applications within the TV station without need to purchase additional software from XenData.
• The ability to automatically produce replica LTO-5 tapes, enabling a copy of each tape to be held offsite ensuring data integrity.

"We’re pleased to complete integration with the XenData solution. It provides a new, additional archive option for FastBreak Automation users and reinforces our commitment to supporting industry standards," says Bill Hadsell, Avid Product Manager.

Initial installations were scheduled for January 2011 and supporting FastBreak configurations using Omneon Spectrum and Omneon MediaDeck video servers.

"We recognize the headaches and tight constraints broadcasters are working with today and are pleased to be working with Avid to answer demands of FastBreak Automation customers," states Dr. Phil Storey, co-founder and CEO of XenData.