For More Information:
Wendy Hills Pathlight Technology, Inc (607) 266-4000 x353
Robert Russo Design Media (415) 641-4848
Jerome LeNoble CFE (33) 1-694-12727
M.C. Patel Discreet Logic (44) 1635 580444
Tom Patrick McAuliffe FAST Multimedia, Inc. (415) 295-3500
Jamie Carr in:sync corporation (301) 320-0220
Janet Matey Matrox Video Products Group (514) 969-6037
Patrick Rafter Media 100 (508) 460-1600 x877
Helen Shortal Scitex Digital Video (415) 599-3093
Laurin Herr Truevision (408) 496-4085
Bill Pinkerton IBM (408) 256-9331
Mike Mihalik La Cie (503) 520-5574
Judy Palfi Locom Corporation (408) 654-7979
Bruce Beck Mercury Computer Systems (508) 256-1300
Juergen Heidegger Siemens Nixdorf (49) 896-36-42535
Roger Nixon Xyratex (603) 642-7808
Mike Skibra Digital Marketing International (908) 521-1370
Nick Gross EIS (415) 969-5212
PLEASE HOLD FOR NAB RELEASE - BOOTH I5253
VIDEO
INDUSTRY SUPPORTS IMAGENET II FOR WORKGROUP COMPUTING SOLUTIONS
Pathlight Technology Products
Provide Shared Access to Data Today Using SSA
(Las Vegas - April 7, 1997) As the worlds of computer and video continue to merge, the issues of workgroup computing have become more important. This is especially true in the area of non-linear editing, which often forms the hub of a video production or broadcast enterprise. True collaboration reduces the amount of time and money needed to create outstanding content.
At this year's NAB, an impressive group of hardware and software companies have come together with Pathlight Technology to endorse ImageNET II as a desirable AND DELIVERABLE solution for collaborative production. This group includes many major suppliers of non-linear editing systems as well as a number of storage subsystem suppliers.
"ImageNET II, which is based on SSA technology, is particularly well suited to the video production industry," says Alex Lieb, vice president of sales and marketing for Pathlight Technology. "We are very proud to have our products and this technology recognized as the key to providing workgroup computing solutions today."
ImageNET II uses SSA to create a "tuned environment" for video professionals. The speed of the computer, the bus, the peripherals and the network are all compatible - there are no bottlenecks and the architecture supports multiple concurrent streams of high resolution video and audio. Within this environment, production professionals can share data using a bandwidth of up to 80 MegaBytes per second (MBps), which is enough for multiple streams of uncompressed D1 video. In fact, the total available bandwidth increases by adding more workstations and storage devices. In the near future, SSA's speed will increase to 160 MBps with a clear and easy migration path - Pathlight and its partners are committed to backward compatibility.
As the high bandwidth demands of the video industry push the development of computer technology, other architectures claim to offer high-speed networking and/or storage solutions for workgroup computing. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether a technology is truly available or is simply being previewed for sale at some later date. Because of this, more and more purchasers of broadcast video goods and services are challenging manufacturers to prove their products work with the equipment that is already installed.
"This is the type of challenge we enjoy," comments Said Rahmani-Khezri, vice president of research and development for Pathlight. "ImageNET II, based on SSA technology, provides a reliable, high performance workgroup solution today. And, since we support the SCSI protocol on SSA, we are 100% compatible with existing video solutions."
In a world of possibilities, Pathlight Technology and SSA provide a concrete solution for video workgroups. ImageNET II in a video production environment increases performance and connectivity without requiring any changes to existing applications. ImageNET II is expandable and reconfigurable to satisfy the growth and changes of the video industry, now and in the future.
The many benefits of ImageNET II have been attracting a large number of strategic players in the video world. All of them have their own specific reasons for supporting this solution based on SSA.
Design Media
Design Media recently installed an ImageNET II system to be
used with their Media 100 non-linear editing stations. According
to Robert Russo, Post Production Supervisor for the
company, "ImageNET II allows our Media 100s to operate over
a state of the art networking system, sharing the same media
files when needed. With it, we can simultaneously digitize and
edit projects. Another major advantage is that productions are no
longer 'locked' in a single edit room."
CFE
"We are extremely pleased to be working with Pathlight
as a partner," states Jerome LeNoble, President of
CFE. "This is a relationship that we have enjoyed for one
year. We believe that SSA is the best technology today for
implementing workgroup solutions using true uncompressed video.
The CFE Gallea, which does not use any compression, requires a
reliable, extremely fast and efficient storage architecture.
Pathlight understands these requirements and works closely with
us to bring the best video to the marketplace."
Discreet Logic
"Discreet Logic is very satisfied with the way SSA works
in our demanding environment," explains M.C. Patel,
Director of Hardware. "Pathlight's SSA products are a
part of Pebbles, which is the video I/O and storage solution we
use in our Flint RT system. Since December, we have been
delivering this solution to video customers in both the broadcast
and post-production areas. They are all very happy with the
performance of SSA and the smooth manner in which all of the
pieces fit together. The system speeds the creative process,
thereby providing an opportunity for our customers to increase
their revenues."
FAST Multimedia, Inc.
"We have chosen to support the Pathlight ImageNET II SSA
system with blue., our new Windows NT based, all-format digital
editing system launched at NAB 1997," states Matthias
Zahn, Founder and Chief Technology Architect of Fast
Multimedia. "The revolutionary architecture of blue.
combines MPEG-2, DV and uncompressed 10-bit digital video for
digital end-to-end production. Blue. also supports SDI, QSDI and
10-bit analog component interfaces. The advantages of working
with native digital video in a networked environment can only be
realized with extremely fast, reliable and sharable storage
subsystems like SSA."
in:sync
"ImageNET II makes Speed Razor even faster,"
comments Jamie Carr, President of in:sync corporation. "You
just plug it in and it goes, allowing audio and video editors to
share their work and collaborate on creating a better
result."
Matrox
"Matrox is happy to announce that we are now supporting
the Pathlight SSA controller in DigiSuite, our Windows NT, open
architecture, digital media platform," says Alain
Legault, vice president, product development for Matrox Video
Products Group. "The combination of the Pathlight PCI bus
mastering feature and the Matrox DigiSuite zero wait-state,
memory-mapped architecture, allows users to enjoy optimal
bandwidth performance from SSA technology."
Media 100
"Increasingly Media 100 clients like universities, ad
agencies, corporations, broadcasters, government and military
facilities need the ability to link video, graphics, and
animation workstations together to share digital assets across
platforms," states John Molinari, CEO of Media 100
Inc. "SSA is simple, scalable, reliable, and available now,
which translates into immediate productivity gains."
Scitex Digital Video
"SSA is a superior solution for the requirements of
video and audio data transfer," says Scitex Digital Video President
and CEO Randy Hood. "Pathlight's work with SSA and
high-speed media transfer represent an important breakthrough for
the entire video industry. We've worked closely with Pathlight to
develop a superior implementation of SSA, and the architecture of
Scitex Digital Video's Sphere platform is designed from the
ground up to take full advantage of high-speed networking
solutions like SSA. Sphere workstations can simultaneously handle
media transfer and creative tasks, without exiting the editing
application or tying up the entire system. This delivers
exceptional connectivity and creative freedom to our
customers."
Truevision
"Truevision has been driving the state of the art of
desktop video with its award winning, high performance TARGA
cards," explains Laurin Herr, Vice President for
Strategic Development. "Our TARGA 2000 SDX with Serial
Digital Interface (SDI) now features JPEG compression at up to 15
MegaBytes/second which requires a very high performance disk
system. Using the TARGA 2000 SDX with ImageNET II not only
provides the performance we need, but also supports shared media
from multiple desktops. This is something our customers are
looking for." Herr also points out that ImageNET II is
compatible with "all the TARGAs, whether Mac or Windows
NT," allowing existing customers to install ImageNET II with
their current products.
IBM
"IBM originally developed SSA for the fast-emerging
world of network computing, where high-performance, reliability
and scalability are absolute requirements," states Bill
Pinkerton, director of marketing for IBM Open Systems Storage
products. Recently IBM announced that SSA 160 technology will be
available next year. With this announcement, continues Pinkerton,
"We're extending our storage leadership in serial technology
and reinforcing our commitment to develop advanced serial
solutions.
La Cie
Mike Mihalik, Vice President of Product Development for La
Cie Limited, says "We've integrated SSA storage products
with Macintosh computers to provide fast, cost effective and
reliable video storage subsystems. Our SPEED2 Video Storage
Solution allow users of Power Macintosh computers to edit video
in an open system environment."
Locom Corporation
"The performance of digital computing and video
equipment has been limited by access to storage," explains Tom
Palfi, President, Locom Corporation. "SSA is a major
step in reducing this bottleneck. ImageNET II is optimized to
take advantage of SSA's salient features, resulting in
unsurpassed performance."
Mercury Computer Systems
"In developing ImageNET II, Pathlight Technology has
integrated Mercury's SuiteFusion software into a
comprehensive workgroup environment based on SSA
technology," says Bruce Beck, vice president, Digital
Video Products Group, Mercury Computer Systems. "SSA
provides a scalable, robust, high-performance networking and
storage architecture demanded by the video industry. This
technology platform enables workgroup video editing to become a
long awaited reality."
Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems
According to Juergen Heidegger, Director OEM Marketing and
Sales for Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, "SSA's
ability to have multiple conversations on a loop provides
superior implementations for the video industry. ImageNET II also
provides inherent reliability and availability due to SSA's full
duplex, bi-directional links and dual ports."
Xyratex
"As the industry moves to digital video, storage becomes
increasingly important," says Piotr Nahajski, Vice
President of Storage Systems, Xyratex. "With the Media
100 community adopting SSA as a desirable, alternative advanced
storage system, we are now in a place to extend that to the
Windows NT environment. Additionally, the availability today of
the new control software products, which allow 16 seats in a
loop, makes SSA an even more compelling and complete solution for
the video production industry."
DMI
"Digital Marketing International is glad to be working
with Pathlight to bring SSA solutions to its reseller base,"
comments Mike Skibra, Vice President/General Manager of
DMI. "In addition to Pathlight, DMI distributes the CFE
Gallea and Siemens Nixdorf SSA arrays, thus providing
uncompromised video solutions for professionals. The solutions we
are able to provide are unparalleled in the industry. There isn't
a comparable system to Pathlight, CFE and SNI."
EIS
"Since we are a value added reseller," states Nick
Gross, Director of Digital Video at EIS, Inc., "our main
concern is giving our customers the best service and support.
This means providing tools and systems that genuinely enhance
productivity, creativity and quality, all at a reasonable price
and with a high degree of reliability. As a media storage system,
SSA with Pathlight controllers meets every one of these criteria.
With it, we can design systems for media creation and
distribution that provide an unprecedented degree of flexibility
in terms of workflow, backup and multitasking video for
distribution."
# # #
Pathlight Technology, Inc. is the leading provider of high performance workgroup solutions and a leading manufacturer of SSA products. The company is headquartered in Ithaca, New York. For more information, visit Pathlight on-line at www.pathlight.com or contact sales at (607) 266-4000
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