Rorke Data's StreamMine™ DVD-RAM Archiving Solution Now Supports Grass Valley Group's Profile® Digital Video Platforms
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) 2001, RAI Congress Centre, Stand # 2.229, Sept. 17, 2001 - Rorke Data, Inc., a subsidiary of San Jose-based Bell Microproducts, Inc. (NASDAQ: BELM), announced today that the company now supports the Grass Valley Group (Nevada City, CA) with StreamMine DVD archiving systems for the Grass Valley Profile line of digital video platforms. Rorke has developed a complete and integrated archiving system based on the company's series of scalable DVD-RAM libraries, which attaches to Grass Valley Group's Profile line of video servers and media platform systems via a Fibre-Channel interface.
Rorke Data teamed with storage management software developer SGL (Software Generation Limited) to produce the new high-speed DVD archiving solution for the Grass Valley Group, said a Rorke spokesperson. The Rorke archiving package is available in a variety of different formats and capacities to suit customer archiving needs, and is composed of DVD-RAM storage library with an integrated NT, Windows 2000, or UNIX-based server running SGL's Flashnet storage management package. Flashnet communicates seamlessly with the software interface provided by the Grass Valley Group, and the overall system receives command and control information either from an integral, automated system or from a manual interface that runs on the Profile digital video platform and which specifies the files that are to be archived and/or restored.
The Profile line has more broadcast content stored on it, and more units installed, than any other server. It is also the industry's most open platform, supporting both the high-quality standards required for broadcast television and low-resolution required for the Internet, as well as MPEG, DVCPRO, HD, and MPEG Transport Streams (MTS) formats.
"Our customers are interested in the capabilities and lower costs offered by DVD technology and have expressed a high level of interest in an integrated DVD solution with the Profile line of digital video servers and platforms," said Roger Crooks, director of Profile marketing for the Grass Valley Group. "We are pleased that Rorke Data and SGL have teamed up to offer our customers this level of support. By adopting the industry standard SMPTE-360M file interchange format as the storage format (as all Profile digital video servers and platforms support), this provides customers with a safe, long-term archive strategy based on industry standards rather than a proprietary standard."
"Rorke Data has created a complete archiving system that can literally be rolled into a station and set-up within just a few hours," said Joe Rorke, Vice President of Marketing. " The entire system occupies slightly more floor space than a standard file cabinet, yet it can hold thousands of hours of video content. Retrieval of the files is simple: request a video file and the robot loads the appropriate DVD disk. Within 30 seconds the requested file is being transferred to your station."
Automated management of the flow between the archiving system and the Profile digital video platform systems is based upon the playlist needs that are communicated. The requested video file is transferred to or from the archiving system via a high speed Fibre-Channel interface, and the user can choose whether digital tape or random-access DVD-RAM best suits their needs.
Rorke's StreamMine video archiving system is centered around a 7 TB or 13 TB DVD-RAM library with a complete video archiving server built into its base. The new system's integrated video archiving management software and built in Fibre-Channel interface require only two connections to set-up and run the archive. By using rewriteable DVD-RAM media in the library, the user can manage a simple database without expensive software, and the system allows the administrator to assign media to groups or pools, allowing video clips to be located next to each other for faster retrieval.
Since DVD drives are random access devices, data can be appended to the media disk at any time, said Chris Stone, Business Development Manager of Bell Microproducts, Rorke's parent company. "This system is far superior to writing video to DVD-R," said Stone, "since DVD-R must be set up as a session write and the disk then closed out when writing is complete, which prevents the system from appending files to that disk."
Rorke's DVD-RAM libraries can be easily expanded as its users add video content to the archive. The robotic library can be expanded by adding cabinets (up to eight on a single system). Further, the number of drives available for recording and playback can be adjusted to suit the number of end-users accessing the video archive.
"DVD-RAM drives work just like a hard disk drive," noted Chris Stone, "with defect management on the media and the ability to store video data at any encoded bit rate. These drives can play back mpeg files at up to 22 Mb/sec data rates without caching onto a hard disk drive. The DVD-RAM's life is greater than 100,000 rewrites with a storage life of 30-plus years, without the special treatment that archived tape requires."
The StreamMine 1450V archive can store up to 3,800 hours of content at 8 MB/sec MPEG 2, all accessible within 30-40 seconds, and is expandable to over 30,000 hours of near-line content at 8MB/sec. The StreamMine 750V archive can store up to 1960 hours of content at 8 MB/sec MPEG 2, and is expandable to over 15,000 hours of near-line content at 8 MB/sec.
About Grass Valley Group
The Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than anybody else-especially as video goes digital. The Internet. Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Interactive television. It's a world of Digicasting-one that demands Media Without Bounds™ solutions. Whether online or on the air, the Emmy® award-winning Grass Valley Group, a privately held digital media leader, has the hardware, software, and new media technologies to get content wherever it needs to go. For the latest Grass Valley Group product information visit www.grassvalleygroup.com.
About Rorke Data
Rorke Data is a full digital storage solutions provider with expertise in Fibre-Channel RAID, SAN, DVD, tape and optical libraries, Unix, NT and Mac environments, high bandwidth networks, digital asset and document management, and engineering and maintenance services. Founded in 1985, Rorke Data, together with its European subsidiary, Rorke Data Europe, located in Emmen, The Netherlands, is composed of six divisions: Medical Archive Applications, Audio/Video, Prepress, Imaging, Document Management, Engineering and Installation Services. More information about Rorke Data can be found at www.rorke.com. Rorke Data is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bell Microproducts, Inc. (Nasdaq: BELM).
About Bell Microproducts
Bell Microproducts is an international value added provider of a wide range of high technology products, solutions, and services to the industrial and commercial marketplace. The company's offering includes semiconductors, computer platforms, peripherals, and storage products of various types including desktop, high-end computer and storage subsystems, Fibre-Channel connectivity products, RAID, NAS and SAN storage systems and back-up products. Bell Microproducts is an industry-recognized specialist in storage products and is one of the world's largest storage-centric value-added distributors.
The company's products are available at any level of integration from components, to subsystem assemblies, to fully integrated, tested and certified system solutions. The company adds value with a broad range of services including testing, software loading, kitting, mass storage system integration, and computer system integration. Trained and certified technical personnel complete each of these processes at Bell Microproducts' ISO 9002 facilities. Bell Microproducts markets and distributes more than 125 brand name product lines, as well as its own BellStor storage and TradeMark computer brands, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract electronic manufacturing services (EMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system integrators in the Americas and Europe. More information can be found in SEC filings, or by visiting the Bell Microproducts website at www.bellmicro.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current views of future events and financial performance, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or facts to differ materially from such statements for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to: the ability to successfully integrate the operations of recent acquisitions, industry conditions, changes in product supply, pricing, and customer demand, competition, other vagaries in the computer and electronic components markets, changes in relationships with key suppliers, foreign currency fluctuations and the other risks described from time to time in the Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K). Investors should take such risks into account when making investment decisions. Shareholders and other readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. The company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements.
For more information, contact: Rorke Data, Inc., 7626 Golden Triangle Drive, Eden Prairie, MN 55344; +1 (800) 328-8147 or +1 (952) 829-0300; fax: +1 (952) 829-0988; website: www.rorke.com.
