SGI Open Broadcast Initiative Delivers Maximum Flexibility for Data-Centric Workflows

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., IBC Stand 7.204 (September 9, 2005)—Silicon Graphics Broadcast Europe is the dedicated media business unit from Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) offering IT-based broadcast solutions and systems integration services to European broadcasters. At IBC 2005, SGI will present the success achieved in the first year of its inception with major integrated digital IT infrastructure projects across Europe.

Having successfully managed the transition from a pure component supplier to an end-to-end solution provider and system integrator for digital conversation projects, SGI earlier launched the SGI Open Broadcast Initiative. This Initiative enables broadcasters to move away from proprietary-designed vertical solutions and to adopt the best-of-breed applications and solutions in their transition from analog to digital infrastructures—handling vast amounts of data more efficiently and cost-effectively and allowing for the ingestion, sharing and storage of content within and between facilities at speeds faster than real-time.

SGI® digital infrastructure solutions deliver interoperability and integration to convert a customer's video-based workflow into an efficient data-based workflow. These solutions are focused in the areas of digital production, digital newsroom, digital intermediates, server-based editing for news and sports, play out automation and play out consolidation, content management and archive integrating all facilities department versus separate departmentalized archive islands.

SGI is partnering with companies that favor openness. Significant Open Broadcast Initiative partners throughout the broadcast workflow include Ardendo, Aveco, Avid, Harris, iNews, in:sight, Intel, MassTech, Octopus, Omneon, Panasonic, Pinnacle, OmniBus, SGT, Sony and StorageTek.

"Broadcasters are looking for an IT solutions provider that understands broadcast workflow," said Stephan Schindler, general manager, Silicon Graphics Broadcast Europe. "With our deep systems integration experience in optimizing best-of-breed broadcast applications we have decided to open up our standards, our products and practices to give customers the ability to choose the most effective solutions to be incorporated into their broadcast solution designs and we can see that customers really appreciate our open approach."

SGI has expanded its installations at: Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), EuroNews, France Télévisions Publicité (FTP), France2, France3, and TF1, among others. Among its successful broadcast installations completed or currently underway are:

• In June, CIRIS, a Netherlands post-production facility, acquired a complete SGI® storage and server solution. This solution will enable CIRIS customers to store, search, browse and access broadcast and other content remotely. To provide a foundation for the CIRIS Dynamic Platform project—the first phase focused on implementing the server and storage infrastructure and an asset management system, CIRIS purchased a 30TB SGI® InfiniteStorage TP9300S storage array with a 6GB SGI® Altix® server running the Linux® environment with four Intel® Itanium® 2 processors, and a six-channel SGI Media Server™ for broadcast solution with an InfiniteStorage array. SGI partner Ardendo provided media asset management components, and worked with Silicon Graphics Broadcast Europe on custom integration and development. A Sony PetaSite system is connected to the SGI TP9300S array, allowing CIRIS to scale to one petabyte of storage capacity.

• Seeking to expand one of the world's most advanced, workflow-efficient news and sports broadcast facilities to include television program production, Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) again turned to SGI compute power and integration expertise, as it has done since the SGI and DR digital conversion pilot program began in 1999. For this new stage, SGI, as prime contractor, is currently halfway through the process of enabling DR's asset management and archive system (co-developed by SGI, Ardendo and DR) to handle workflow for program production which includes SGI integration of 300 Avid DNA-based editing systems. The June purchase also includes integrating a third SGI® TP9500 storage system, doubling the central SGI server system to 24 and 48 processor systems, doubling network and Fibre Channel connections, delivering and integrating 15 Ardendo Ardcap dual-channel SDI/SDTI ingest systems and SGI® video servers for studio productions, and developing ingest applications that support Panasonic P2 cameras.

• ORF, Austria's public service broadcaster, offers a wide range of TV and radio programs to its audience and produces thousands of hours of original TV and radio programming, and receives thousands more via satellite. ORF also operates an extensive digital archive and Internet site. Seeking to establish a standards-based, central editing storage infrastructure for 15 Pinnacle Systems editing stations, ORF purchased four SGI® Altix® 350 mid-range servers to act as network-attached storage (NAS) servers for a 14TB SGI® InfiniteStorage RM660 solution. Connected via SGI® InfiniteStorage shared filesystem CXFS™, the 15 non-linear editing (NLE) systems will share the storage resources, with help from SGI networked editing software and two Omneon video servers. Eventually, 30 NLEs will share the media data store. The project will be installed in phases with full implementation expected by the end of the year.

• Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR), a public broadcaster in southwestern Germany, has awarded SGI the contract for Phase One of its transition to a complete, integrated digital workflow for TV programming production and playout and archiving of TV and radio material. In June, SR ordered four SGI Media Server for broadcast systems, an SGI® InfiniteStorage NAS system with 22TB total storage for online/editing storage consisting of three SGI® InfiniteStorage TP9700 systems, 27TB of near-line and tape-based storage managed by SGI® Data Migration Facility (DMF), upgradeable to 65TB in Phase 2, and SGI networked editing software for efficient video editing workflows to shorten time-to-air. The SGI hardware and software will integrate with SGT media management and automation software, a Dalet OpenMedia newsroom computer system, and six Pinnacle liquid non-linear editing systems (an additional six editors are planned for the second phase). Trial operation is expected to commence in July 2006.

• Euskal Irrati Telebista (EiTB), the Basque Country Regional Television from the north of Spain, transmits 6 TV channels (2 regional, 2 Cable and 2 Satellite channels) plus 4 radio channels and an active Internet site. In order to move from a tape environment and being able to ingest, edit and playout and access the files remotely using more than 120 Pinnacle Broadcast seats, in June, EiTB selected an SGI solution based on a central storage SAN/NAS environment to act as the heart of their complex news and editing solution and a video server network to integrate with this storage solution. The order includes 5 SGI Altix 350 mid-range servers that offer SGI's industry-leading Altix architecture providing breakthrough capabilities for technical database, departmental server and throughput cluster applications, SGI InfiniteStorage TP9700 with 14TB of Fiber Channel Storage, 2x4100 Brocade Switches, CISCO networking, SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS, SGI networked editing software, 6 Omneon Servers with a total of 97 Media Ports.

• Capital FX, one of the UK's leading post-production companies, in the quarter ending in June, selected SGI InfiniteStorage as the solution for their new digital intermediate facility, based in London. The facility will enable the ability to complete the film making process from the digitization of raw shot rushes, through color grading, dust busting, editing, compositing and film write out. Installing an SGI InfiniteStorage RM SAN with CXFS, means that Capital FX is able to centralize its digital workflow, while allowing multiple operations to happen at the same time and reducing the requirement to copy data-critical in this market, where a 90 minute feature film in 4K resolution generates 16TB of data.

• The newly created post-production company iFILM, in August, upgraded their existing SGI InfiniteStorage SAN solution with two storage arrays, the SGI TP9500 RAID storage array and the SGI InfiniteStorage RM6660 built around two metadata servers and 15 client stations. A key selection criteria for iFILM has been the GRIO V2 quality of service (QoS) reservation architecture that allows ensured bandwidth to create, manage and distribute high-resolution content efficiently and cost effectively. The installation is expected to be complete in September.

• Lapospo is a new state-of-the art post-production house based in Barcelona operating in the advertising and movie industries. For its brand new facilities they purchased, in the quarter ending in June, an SGI InfiniteStorage SAN solution that provides a single, centralized filesystem and instant data sharing eliminating data access bottlenecks, ease administration and access as well as a single point of backup. The GRIO V2 quality of service (QoS) reservation architecture allows Lapospo to work in 2K and 4K and to store up to four 2K movies at a time ensuring real-time performance while allowing the facility to optimize the use of available resources.

• Telson, a post-production company based in Madrid recently decided to renew their entire SGI based installation by purchasing eight Silicon Graphics Tezro high-performance workstations to run Discreet® Smoke® and Flame® and upgrading their SGI® Onyx® visualization system to achieve the greatest visual realism, exceptional dynamic rendering, interactivity, and group collaboration, in the quarter ending in June.

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