Overview

Managing the digital assets of the facility involves a multitude of hardware and software devices, married into an integrated solution that is efficient, highly available and extensible. The alternatives in digital tape systems for digital media asset management and storage continue to provide advanced resources for those broadcasters, producers and content delivery facilities utilizing video and other media.

The near-line storage archive provides part of the extensibility equation of the video/media server. The modern digital archive is best implemented using an automated tape library that allows a seamless growth path and a scalable design. A "fiber-ready" design with field upgradeable transports and multiple media capability completes the basic system definition for a flexible library system.

As the predicted migration to non-videotape based operations advances, the benefits of digital tape will become evident in a variety of structures and dimensions. The elements contributing to the integration of tape transports with the server storage subsystems include hardware and software subsystems deeply rooted in the database IT world, coupled with operations management software that allows the facility to remain efficient and streamlined for the future.

Building out the archive requires components that work together efficiently. The key elements, the tape transports, are usually chosen in concert with the automated tape library system they will work within. As the diversity in tape drives and formats crosses the library vendor's boundaries, it is now possible to mix tape transports (digital tape and even conventional videotape) into third party suppliers' robotics library systems. Those library...