Last week in class we talked about how information systems is in the entertainment industry. Something that stuck out the most to me was how a lot TV broadcasters are going to be showing everything in HD. Since everything is stored in HD that means that it has better picture quality. The better the quality the picture the larger the data file is. With everything being stored in large databases, and everything being HD wouldn't the storage in the database fill up with files really quickly?
I think HD was a great idea, but to store everything from football games to daily news casts the storage systems will will up really quick. Where will they store all this data at especially if they are constantly adding more data on a daily basis. Since there is such a large growth for storage Engineers are working on a way to be able to start storing these large amounts of data.
The first order of business is to determine how much storage your facility will actually need. Which shared storage system you choose will ultimately depend on how efficiently and quickly it can manage the millions of bits of media data required for real-time HD editing projects, so it's important to know how much capacity it must handle. A general rule of thumb is to assume you will need about five times the amount of storage for HD as you currently use for SD. To come up with this number, first determine how many workstations in your facility will need to be connected to the storage system. Take into account any new systems that you may add as part of the storage system installation. Then think about the specific projects typically performed on an application basis on each station:
* Which applications require (or will require) the management of uncompressed versus compressed HD files?
* Which ones perform the most complex functions (such as special effects), require editors to add handles or perform cross fades, or may need extra bandwidth and capacity for other items?
* Which ones require the playback of more than one track on a particular timeline?
A thorough understanding of these issues — down to the application level — will give you the best estimate of the amount of HD storage capacity you will need.
As you look at your editing systems, remember to take into account bandwidth as well as capacity. Real-time HD playback requires a lot of bandwidth. For example, about 1TB of HD storage capacity for every hour on the timeline requires 277MB/s bandwidth just to be able to play an HD file back in real time. Most facilities have more than one editing application trying to access the storage system at the same time, so it may be necessary to multiply this number by the number of editing systems in the facility.
I think the biggest problem with technology is that is is always growing so quickly and you never have enough space on whatever system you buy. In many situations, I have bought technology that I thought would last me for a long time, having all of the space I need to store lots of information. Very soon, the technology becomes obsolete, and the space is never enough. Therefore, I am always hesitant to buy something new because I do not want to spend a lot of money on something that is not going to last me for very long. HD sounds great, and everything is converting over to it. But does anyone know how long it is going to last? Also, I think it is great that you gave a way to figure out how much space I am going to need, because this is always an issue for me. I am not very good with technology, and therefore I was wondering how long this calculation will be good for before the calculations will need to change as technology grows?
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