Evertz Mediator-X and Cloudian
With the explosion of content being created and consumed in today’s mediasphere, broadcasters face a number of operational challenges.
First is the ever-increasing need for more storage capacity. Traditional tape-based media asset libraries can sometimes present problems in keeping up with this growth, including potential downtime for expanding or upgrading existing libraries and complicated processes for migrating to new tape formats. Simultaneously, faster production cycles require that assets be accessible quickly, and from anywhere. Maintaining consistent asset libraries in tape archives spread across distributed sites can drive redundant installations of enterprise middleware, driving up CAPEX and OPEX expenditures. These scattered archives often do not provide a fast, searchable view of all assets in the enterprise.
Adding to these challenges is the need to dynamically scale infrastructure in a fast and agile manner. Tight schedules for sports, live entertainment, and special events often prohibit the use of the traditional “rack-and-stack” and purpose-built broadcast video appliances.
Evertz Mediator-X
Evertz is addressing these challenges and more with Mediator-X, the latest version of their IP and cloud centric enterprise CMS/MAM solution. Utilizing highly integrated cloud-ready software modules, the Mediator-X platform provides both the scalability and portability to take maximum advantage of the latest public and private cloud technologies. The implementation of a master Elastic search index provides for a federated view of assets across geo-distributed sites, effectively breaking down the limitations of traditional storage “silos.”
When Mediator-X is combined with Evertz’s OvertureRT-LIVE playout engines and RenderX transcoding nodes, a virtualized broadcast center can be provisioned in private or public clouds in a matter of hours and dynamically scale up and down on-demand.
Cloudian HyperStore
Cloudian’s HyperStore petabye-scale object storage platform provides an elegant, cost-effective solution to storage capacity growth. Zero-downtime upgrades of existing nodes in a Cloudian cluster with newer, higher capacity nodes eliminates costly overprovisioning. Cloudian’s automatic data verification and self-healing functions provide reliability and resilience against hardware failures, while it’s data encryption in-flight and at rest safeguard valuable assets against threats of deletion or theft via malware. Policy-driven data replication between sites means assets are always backed up and available where they are needed automatically, without manual asset management.
Cloudian + Evertz Mediator-X Multi-Site Solution
Cloudian HyperStore’s policy-based replication ensures that key assets are automatically copied and available at two or more sites, providing failover instances if the primary site goes offline. When combined with Evertz Mediator-X’s federated search across the Cloudian storage clusers, assets are always visible and accessible across the enterprise.
The Evertz and Cloudian Solution
When combined with Cloudian’s HyperStore platform, Mediator-X turns object storage into an actionable repository for all of the atomic components in a broadcast workflow. Proxy media objects can stream to Mediator-X web clients for review and QC. Mezzanine media objects and ancillary data objects (caption files, alternative language audio) can be used by Render-X transcoders to create ‘just-in-time’ file versions and multiple format deliverables. These same objects can be used by OvertureRT-LIVE devices that create real-time linear TV channels.
By virtualizing all of the hardware components in the traditional broadcast workflow as software modules and/or IP flows, Evertz and Cloudian liberate media companies from the physical constraints of the old “rack and stack” model. Software Defined Video Networks (SDVN) from Evertz can be used create special steams like sports and live entertainment and then torn down at a moments notice.
In this model, S3-protocol object storage provides a key enabling technology, as the same system designs that use media assets to playout channels on-premises can be seamlessly migrated to “cloud playout” instances hosted in public cloud services. And since the object storage functions as an instantly accessible “active archive” of media assets, operation schedules are no longer hampered by the long delays inherent in restoring assets from tape libraries to online disk storage.
Cloudian + Evertz Mediator-X Media Factory Solution
Cloudian object storage provides a single repository for all of the atomic elements required in media asset versioning. When combined with the capabilitites of Evertz’s Mediator-X ecosystem, the creation of “just-in-time” media deliverables becomes easily automated.
SOLUTION FEATURES & BENEFITS
- Virtualized broadcast center utilizing IP networks provides fast, easy scalability
- Industry-standard S3 storage protocol eliminates expensive tape library middleware
- Cloudian provides zero-downtime capacity upgrades with no hardware vendor lock-in
- HTTP network storage protocols provide global access to key assets
- Data encryption protects valuable assets from malware deletion or theft
- Cost-effective, petabyte-scale storage
