Broadcast Video Expo Review

Broadcast Video Expo 09 is a few weeks behind us now so I thought I would try to pickout the highlights of the event for OM:

Better than I/we had expected. Quiet in the mornings as expected and also a good smattering of students/obligatory random people but in general impressed by the numbers of quality/relevant people hitting the two stands we stood on (thanks NMR and Video Rescue). 

Archive. Convenient I know but true. We had dozens of conversations based on people really struggling with the “IT” side of their creative flow. Creative pros from one person outfits, to small audio shops through to the big broadcasters are all coming to terms with the fact that they need to do something with all the content they are creating. Even in these uncertain times content is being created more than ever which is driving organisations to look at more cost effective alternatives. Tape is just not appropriate for many so they are looking to disk for the answers. With disk sizes and efficiency increasing this trend is set to continue.

OK, maybe I should have known but a tonne of organisations are moving creative in house that once would have been contracted out. In doing so they are looking for the best edit and asset management workflow to fit a reasonably small budget which leads them nicely down the Final Cut Pro and Server path. We are talking about big name banks, utility companies, charities, hospitals etc all with 10 to 40 FCP seats, a growing XSAN and now moving towards FCS. 

The potential for FCP/FCS is much bigger than we anticipated now that take up is being witnessed outside the traditional creative spheres.

Met with some great companies with great tech, here are a few:

Company : Gridiron

Product : Flow

Description : Flow is a very powerful visual workflow manager, it  gives you a total understanding of your project, visually and intuitively. In one simple interface, you’ll see all your project files, how they’re related to each other, and where they’re located—on a local drive, on a network volume, and hopefully soon on a MatrixStore cluster.

Company : Square Box

Product : CatDV

Description : Digital Asset Management suite that provides workflow to mixed environments (Avid and FCP). The first app I am aware of that can service both in the same workflow.

Company : Active Storage

Product : XRAID

Description : Ok, we knew the guys from Active when they were at Apple and we both have the same disty. Their kit is shiney and new and the interface experience is very very nice. We expect to see customers using their tin deployed in the SAN very soon. 

Apart from the tech mentioned above we also stumbled upon some other very interesting and relevant kit:

3D Television – OK apologies for not having the names of the companies or the tech here but I was totally blown away by the 3D TV experience. the depth of field when watching sports events was just .. cool. I want one. Also this tech will for sure push the bounds of storage capacities for anyone aiming to produce content for this market.

File Transfer Speeds

Signiant have some very impressive performance figures for pumping large files over long distance wires. Maybe an opportunity to work with this in the future.

Content is being created. Lots of it in fact and increasingly captured on disk in HD format. This drives the need for cost effective, management free clustered storage that can allow organisations to realise the value in that content. A game we play very well. 

Thanks to NMR and Video Rescue for showing off our tin and getting the message just right. It was very nice to meet up with Mr Wiggins at long last and also many thanks to Mark at Hogarth Worldwide for showcasing our tech during his presentation on the Apple stand (very much appreciated).

Oh and I must buy some “conference shoes”