The News: NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters conference taking place in Las Vegas on April 15-19 is a showcase for all things related to broadcasting and video production. While not specifically identified with broadcasting and video, information storage is a crucial element for the industry and has a significant presence at NAB.
How NAB Provides Insight into Information Storage
Videos that are broadcast really exist as data – bits of information stored and managed on some equipment capable of maintaining the information and providing access. In the video industry, there are differing requirements for information depending on the circumstances in the workflow, commonly called use cases in Information Technology. For example, post-production editing requires high-performance access to video information usually stored as files on high-performance block storage. Broadcast usually begins with video data stored in a large repository, although it may be staged to a higher bandwidth system for transmission. Other variations lie between the high-performance access and the less costly repositories.
The amount of storage consumed by videos eclipses many of the business systems used by corporations in the broadcast industry. The scale (size) and growth are dramatic as the resolution technology improves (an example is moving from 4K to 8K), driving demand and cost. Another factor is the longevity. Video information is not transitory – it is kept for a very long time, if not forever.
This leads us to NAB and the storage industry. With requirements that continue to increase and the unending demand for the number of videos (information) to be stored, the broadcast industry is a major consumer of storage systems. Storage vendors are a big part of exhibitors at NAB. The opportunity attracts not only major vendors but many specialty ones as well, featuring a mix of offerings targeting a variety of use cases and parts of the workflow.
NAB is a great opportunity to meet with vendors, see what is new, and explore how the various challenges of the industry are being addressed. Not only are the storage systems part of the ecosystem but management and movement of information are critical elements and are represented as well. This is a major financial opportunity for companies in the storage industry.
For our work with clients across many industries, NAB is a major show where products and solutions can be discussed to obtain a greater understanding, helping us with comparisons and recommendations
More insights from Evaluator Group:
The Evaluator Group has extensive information regarding different technologies for products including technical insights, primary research, product reviews, comparative information, and evaluation guides. An introduction to the available information is available on the Evaluator Group website. The material is updated as new technologies and products (and products updates) are released.
Specific to the broadcast industry, information on high-performance file storage and block storage is available at:
NAS EvaluScale Comparison Matrix – High-End
SAN EvaluScale Comparison Matrix – High-End
Disclosure: Evaluator Group, wholly owned by The Futurum Group, is a research and analyst firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article. Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually.
Author Information
Randy draws from over 35 years of experience in helping storage companies design and develop products. As a partner at Evaluator Group and now The Futurum Group, he spends much of his time advising IT end-user clients on architectures and acquisitions.
Previously, Randy was Vice President of Storage and Planning at Sun Microsystems. He also developed disk and tape systems for the mainframe attachment at IBM, StorageTek, and two startup companies. Randy also designed disk systems at Fujitsu and Tandem Computers.
Prior to joining The Futurum Group, Randy served as the CTO for ProStor, where he brought products to market addressing a long-term archive for Information Technology and the Healthcare and Media/Entertainment markets.
He has also written numerous industry articles and papers as an educator and presenter, and he is the author of two books: Planning a Storage Strategy and Information Archiving – Economics and Compliance. The latter is the first book of its kind to explore information archiving in depth. Randy regularly teaches classes on Information Management technologies in the U.S. and Europe.
