SeaChange MediaLibrary 6000 debuts

SeaChange introduced its new MediaLibrary 6000 and new advantages for television operators in the era of multichannel and high-definition transmission at NAB.

“Based on a scalable, open and modular concept our MediaLibrary/MediaClient family is decreasing costs and increasing productivity throughout the broadcast enterprise,” said Stephane Jauroyou, director of marketing, Broadcast. “The SeaChange broadcast product line capitalizes on a proven client/server architecture fused with broadcast technologies to provide unparalleled cost-performance for multichannel television operators.”

SeaChange’s new MediaLibrary 6000 (ML 6000) is a transmission storage system providing a low-cost entry point for small and mid-sized broadcasters and other content producers. With IP network capability, like the Broadcast MediaLibrary 24000e, the ML 6000 provides centralized, online access to every video/audio file, helping to streamline on-air operations. The ML 6000 scales incrementally from 730 gigabytes to as high as 12 terabytes. With SeaChange’s MediaCluster ‘single-copy’ advantage it provides fault-resilience without mirroring, providing a significant advantage in reliability and economy.

Utilizing fundamental IP technology, the ML 6000 provides guaranteed I/O bandwidth via specialized IP accelerator Gigabit Ethernet ports. It can scale up to nine nodes, providing incremental increases in bandwidth and storage. This capability enables the ML 6000 to satisfy real-time broadcast I/O requirements for High Definition and Standard Definition as well as seamlessly connect to best of breed production environment systems for content exchange.

IP-Attached MediaClients for Transmission Play-Out

One of the key features in the next-generation SeaChange multichannel transmission server is the series of Broadcast quality software-based MediaClient codecs (MCL) that separately perform the real time encoding or decoding operations. MediaClients support the wide range of compression formats and file wrappers used in transmission, editing and production.

MediaClients support MPEG-2 long GOP format in SD and HD, as well as frame-based formats such as IMX, DVCPro and DVCam. MediaClient also supports natively MXF and recently added Quicktime. Any format will play back-to-back frame accurately from the same decoder output. Now completed material from the production servers no longer needs to be transcoded or dubbed back to tape for ingest, before playout from the Transmission server, reducing operator intervention and significantly shortening time from production to on-air.

The MediaClient 5110 can provide HD frame-accurate encoding of MPEG2 420 & 422:HL as well as this year’s NAB introduction of HDV. The MCL 4102 delivers HD playback and the powerful MCL 4201 provides simulcast SD/HD output. Small 1 & 2RU units, each of the five MediaClient models provides various I/O options, and can even be upgraded to support HD capability.

“With software encoding and decoding on the MediaClient platform, SeaChange has delivered a versatility previously unknown with hardware based Codecs,” said Jauroyou. “MediaClient codecs offer an economical, modular approach to serving the growing demand for High Definition programming worldwide and, capitalizing on the interoperability enabled by Common Internet File Standard, are tightly integrated with the MediaLibary.”

New SeaChange MediaGateway Debuts at NAB

The new SeaChange MediaGateway (SMG) facilitates media assets exchanges between best of breed acquisition and production systems with SeaChange MediaLibrary storage systems. In essence, the SMG simplifies complex network workflows offering a truly tapeless environment.

The SMG automatically creates appropriate metadata and manages the media file transfers from third-party clients such as XDCAM, e-VTRs, non-linear editors and near online archive libraries such as SeaChange MLX 12100e. It supports best-of-breed products such as editors from Avid, Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Canopus, Incite and EVS. The SMG enables content to be directly ingested into centralized MediaLibraries at faster than real-time speed while preserving the original quality of media. Regardless of simultaneous activity, the MediaLibrary’s high-speed CIFS (Common Internet File Standard) gigabit access ensures bandwidth in and out of storage.