READING, UK, 21 April 2015–aQ Broadcast Limited, which designs, develops and manufactures an integrated range of newsroom, scripting, automation and media management software alongside video server and production hardware, has announced the third generation of its video server hardware in ten new models that provide improved performance in a range of case sizes.
aQ Broadcast’s new ‘aVS’ Video Server range consists of innovative, modular hardware platforms that scale from a simple two-channel unit to very large, flexible and redundant storage, port and processing solutions.
The first new model in the range is a new 1U, two-port, entry-level server with 2 TB of storage utilizing software RAID. The unit is priced at the same level as the previous entry-level version, but with the added benefits of a more powerful hardware configuration, bi-directional ports and reference input at only half of the previous rack height.
The entry-level server is complemented by two other 1U models, a two-port and four-port version, each with redundant power supplies and hardware RAID providing 3 TB capacity. The two-port unit is also priced at the same level as the previous VS-02 model but in a more powerful configuration that includes hardware RAID and a redundant PSU. Importantly, the new servers require only a third of the rack space of the previous models.
A new 2U model will provide four ports and 6 TB storage. This unit replaces the previous model and is also smaller, more powerful and more cost effective.
Another new 1U model provides a four-port unit without internal storage. This is designed to work with one of the five new storage-only units, available in capacities of up to 72 TB, supplied in 2, 3 or 4U configurations. All of these storage units are more cost effective than the previous models. In particular, the new port node and new 2U storage node when taken together are priced at the same level as the previous VS-16 model, but are more powerful and provide 50 percent more storage capacity. The new model also enables large configurations to be built using considerably less rack space. For instance, an 8-port configuration now only requires 4U rather than 9U.
aQ Broadcast CTO Geoff Back said, “This is a significant overhaul to the aVS platform and demonstrates our long-term commitment to the product range. The new models immediately provide obvious benefits through increased capacity and reduced physical size, and the use of modular components enables other configurations to be easily produced as required for specific projects.
“Further, the use of server-grade hardware throughout the product range not only offers consistency from one model to another, but also provides a stable and predictable development map for future improvements.”
