Software Generation Supporting FOR-A’s LTR Series

Software Generation, Ltd, provider of content archive and storage management software for media and entertainment, has announced support for FOR-A’s LTR Series, LTO-5 Video Archiving Recorder.

Using SGL’s XML-based API, FOR-A has enabled integration between SGL’s FlashBrowse archive management application and its LTR Recorder.

FOR-A’s LTR Series is a standalone video archiving recorder fitted with an LTO-5 drive. Capable of recording up to 1.5TB of LTFS file data, the LTR series recorders can be used as platforms for material or program exchange.

Using an LTFS workflow, the combined FOR-A and SGL offering enables customers to archive material that’s been recorded on the LTR, directly to LTO-5 tape. This material now contains all versions including thumbnails plus high resolution and low resolution clips. This means that once in the SGL FlashNet Archive, the material is available for use via FlashWeb, SGL’s user interface.

This workflow is advantageous for production environments where new material, including live-event feeds, is ingested. In addition, if a customer adds SGL’s standalone archive system FlashBox, thereby creating a full archive, they can store thousands of hours of material directly from the LTO-5 tape to the archive without requiring a MAM system. This transforms the archive workflow.

LTO has grown to become one of de-facto tape format installed in tape libraries by broadcast-centric organisations implementing tape (and disk)-based archives.

LTFS provides a way of writing the LTO data to standard, off-the-shelf IT storage media. It presents an open standard for broadcasters to provide interoperability between systems. Any tape written according to the LTFS specification can be read by any other system using the same specification.

Raj Patel, SGL’s product manager says: "The integration between SGL FlashBrowse and FOR-A’s LTO-5 Video Archiving Recorder redefines the media archive workflow. It puts the archive much further forward in the production process, placing it alongside the ingest element of the chain. Instead of ingesting in the traditional sense, the material can now be moved directly into the LTFS archive. "

There was a FOR-A  LTO-5 Video Archiving Recorder on the SGL booth at IBC 2013 and a demonstration of the workflow.