Sony Expands Portable Storage Line

Sony Corp.‘s new 2TB portable storage HDD drive takes the worry out of backup in the field, and gives professionals reliable, bus-powered high-speed storage.

This new 2TB HDD drive (c) expands Sony’s line of portable storage drives, and joins three current models including a 500GB and 1TB (PSZ-HA50 and PSZ-HA1T) HDD model and a 256GB solid state drive (PSZ-SA25).

Each drive has a heavy silicon cover and protective case to withstand the rigors of field production and reduce shipping damage. Built-in shock resistance can absorb falls of up to 2.3 meters for SSD and up to 2 meters for HDD. (Dropped onto an industrial carpet on 6 sides of SSD/HDD.)

“The data rates being used to acquire content in the field are continually increasing, making reliable, high-capacity backup even more important,” said Wayne Desmond of Sony’s media and application solutions division. “For example, as 4K production proliferates, so do the challenges to maintain a consistent, safe, high-speed workflow. The addition of a 2TB HDD drive lets users carry more storage in a smaller space, and eliminates the anxiety of running short of backup. This new shuttle drive gives professionals the speed and durability they need, and more important, the peace of mind knowing their content is stored safely in a hard case ready for transport or storage.”

The drives are compliant with MIL-STD-810G standard, the IP5X dust-resistant standard and the IPX4 splash-resistant standard so data can be used in a range of environments and conditions. Dust-resistant/splash-resistant performance is achieved only when the interface doors are firmly closed.

Pre-installed formatting software lets users easily switch between exFAT, FAT32, HFS+ and NTFS formats, and an LED indicator lets users know the status of data transfers. The drives are also stackable for easy daisy-chaining with a design that allows for increased airflow between each to reduce heat build-up. Sony recommends no more than two drives daisy-chained as performance may be compromised depending on computer power source, and no more than three drives stacked to prevent heat build-up.

Each drive features one USB 3.0 and two FireWire 800 interfaces, allowing users to transfer video at up to 400MB/s with the SSD model and 120MB/s with the HDD models via USB 3.0. At these speeds, users can transfer approximately 30GB of video to the SSD drive in less than 90s via USB 3.0.

The PSZ-HA2T HDD drive is planned to be available in June 2014. Sony drives come with a three-year limited warranty and support including technical assistance.