Omneon Video Networks is a name that, after only eight years, has become synonymous with file servers and content storage.
Premiering at NAB2006 is the Omneon Spectrum MediaDirector 4202, a key component in the Spectrum system. The 4202 doubles overall system bandwidth, supporting enhanced throughput.
The product incorporates multiple IEEE-1394b 800 Mbps busses to gain speed, translating to greater throughput. In addition, MediaDirector 4202 has additional Fiber Channel connectors and Gigabit Ethernet ports to support higher numbers of HD channels. The new MediaDirector supports all current Omneon storage and media interface components.
Making its debut at NAB2006 is ProBrowse, a system designed for creating low-resolution browse content copies. It monitors content directories within Spectrum servers and automatically generates lower-resolution versions, including new material just being ingested or copied. The resulting proxies are immediately available for viewing on networked PCs with Windows Media Player or QuickTime Player.
Omneon has also extended its multiformat capabilities by including support for the Avid DNxHD format. With this enhancement, Spectrum server users will be able to record and play back DNxHD files with the Avid DNxchange codec. Files are immediately available for editing with Avid editors and the finished products can be played out immediately.
OPEN ARCHITECTURE
As with all of Omneon's technological strides, the concept of "open architecture" is maintained. This feature has made the company's server products a logical choice for supporting third party applications.
Modularity is, and has been, another key feature in the Omneon product line. This concept offers users a great deal of flexibility in scaling systems to address needs as applications and demands grow. The complete scalability that comes with Omneon products enables high-definition operations "in any format."
This approach is ideal for broadcasters wishing to follow a "wait-and-see" path to HD migration. With the company's servers, there is no need to "tear out and start all over" when the time does become right to add HD service.
From the first introduction of products, Omneon has been a provider of servers and server technology alone. The company markets no "applications."
This is where the philosophy of open architecture comes to the forefront, as Omneon integrates very nicely with numerous other vendors' wares, including Apple and Avid editing applications.
Another example of this is Omneon's recent partnership with Snell & Wilcox to provide a united system for MPEG encoding and storage. In this arrangement, Omneon is marketing the Snell & Wilcox Memphis HD encoder along with its own Spectrum server product.
"The deployment of our Memphis HD encoder alongside Omneon's flexible server solutions offers a unique degree of control over media assets during ingest, with the benefits of exceptional MPEG-2 encoding quality and both SD and HD compatibility," said Simon Derry, Snell & Wilcox CEO.
EDUCATION SEMINARS
In a slightly different role, Omneon has also partnered with Linear Acoustic and Miranda Technologies to educate the industry about HDTV, jointly sponsoring a series of educational seminars entitled, "HDTV: Making the Transition."
"We are quite pleased with the response we have received to our new seminar series," said Geoff Stedman, vice president of marketing for Omneon.
"The information we present in this new seminar series comes both from our own in-house technical expertise as well as from real-world experience. This is not a sales pitch at all, which makes the seminars all the more valuable to attendees."
The first of these educational ventures was conducted in New York, with others to follow this year in Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Miami.
