XenData, Marquis Broadcast launch low cost archive of Avid projects

XenData and Marquis Broadcast have announced the launch of a new version of Project Parking software that is tightly integrated with XenData digital video archives.

Project Parking analyses all content on shared edit storage allowing Avid projects to be copied to a XenData archive. Finished projects may then be deleted from expensive edit storage, freeing up valuable space. For current projects, snapshots may be copied to the XenData archive and then updated incrementally to provide data protection. The new combined solution allows the seamless management of offline LTO or Sony optical disc archive (ODA) cartridges, giving system administrators the ability to easily migrate projects to much lower cost storage with unlimited space.

By combining Marquis Broadcast’s new Project Parking software with a XenData archive, users may move content to secure low cost LTO or ODA cartridges, which are then externalized and held offline. The cost per TB of an LTO cartridge is typically less than 5 percent of edit storage. When and if a project needs to be restored, Project Parking will now identify any offline cartridges, allowing the user to easily migrate the whole project or selected content back to edit storage by importing the cartridges into a robotic library, or inserting into an ODA/LTO drive.

“Project Parking allows you to take control of your Avid shared edit storage because it understands the relationships between Avid projects, folders and bins, and all its media,” explains Simon Fearn, product manager, Marquis Broadcast. “Then having obtained this full picture, it is easy to select projects for transfer to the XenData archive.”

“The lack of data protection for content on shared edit storage has been a major problem within the industry for years, and a failure of the edit storage will typically have disastrous consequences,” says Phil Storey, XenData CEO. “Now, we’ve addressed this issue for Avid users with the enhanced Project Parking. It is easy to implement a two part strategy where completed projects are moved to secure LTO or ODA cartridges, freeing up space on the edit storage, and current projects are backed up using the incremental snapshot capabilities of Project Parking.”

The new Project Parking is certified for installation on XenData’s SX-10 archive appliance and the XenData SX-520 Series of archive servers. Project Parking may be installed elsewhere on the network, but when installed on the XenData archive, it creates efficient data paths and avoids the need to purchase an additional server.