Gear & Now: Portable Storage Devices Offer Mobile Real Estate

Tag : international adapter

LaCie , long known for its stylish storage devices, has just announcedits biggest, littlest such device yet—the Little Big Disk(LBG) Quadra. With storage capacity up to 1 Terabyte (TB) andtransfer speeds of up to 110 Megabytes per second (MB/sec) viaeSATA or 80MB/sec over FireWire 800, the LBG is a terrific answerto the question, "How fast, and how much, storage do I need forprofessional content creation?"
There are already 500GB and 400GB (7,200 RPM) versions, so this newportable Little Big Disk really ups the ante with two 2.5" harddisks that work together in a built-in RAID 0 configuration. Theunit also has one eSATA 3Gbits, two FireWire 800 (FireWire400-compatible with included adapter), and one USB 2.0 interface,so it can work with cross-platform compatibility in almost anyproduction environment.
In spite of the two disks inside, the unit is powered entirely bythe FireWire interface. It has a proven heat sink design, developedby Neil Poulton, and it operates quietly, without a fan. It weighsin at a little more than 1.4 pounds, so it can be a very portablestorage solution.
Fully plug-and-play with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard (including TimeMachine) and Windows Vista, the Little Big Disk Quadra comespreloaded with the LaCie Setup Assistant, a utility that optimizesthe drive according to your needs (Mac, Windows, or cross-platformenvironments). The unit comes bundled with advanced backup andrestore software EMC Retrospect Express for Mac and Windows. It canalso be daisy-chained using one of the two FireWire interfaces withother LaCie hard disks or DVD±RW drives. The 1TB LaCie LittleBig Disk Quadra is available now at $699.99.
Sonnet
At a somewhat similar price ($695) is Sonnet ’s new Fusion F2. Together with MacBook Pro computers and AJAVideo Systems’ Io HD video cards, the Fusion F2 can be thehub of an entire mobile production studio. Fusion F2 portable RAIDstorage systems work at up to 640GB capacity in a ruggedlow-profile design measuring 5.9"x6.2"x0.72". The system includestwo 5400 RPM 2.5" drives, mounted side by side in a 3/4"-thinaluminum enclosure that you can slide into a briefcase or camerabag. Each drive is individually shock-isolated, and themanufacturer says that the side-by-side placement of the drivesincreases the case’s cooling surface area so, like the LaCie,there is no fan to generate noise. The F2 draws power via FireWireport as well.
The storage system also has two eSATA connections (with the SonnetTempo SATA ExpressCard/34 adapter, it can be used with MacBook Proand Windows notebooks). By transmitting data via its 2-port SATAinterface, Fusion F2 also handles portable video capture inconjunction with an AJA Video Systems’ Io HD.
For safety and security of your files, you can configure the drivesin RAID 1 mirrored mode and still capture Apple ProRes HQ HD fedfrom an AJA Io HD. With its drives configured as a RAID 0 stripedvolume, Fusion F2 is capable of 126MB/sec read and write sustaineddata transfers (compared with 66MB/sec connecting via FireWire800), thus providing the ability to capture and play more streamsof compressed video for mobile editing.
AIC
AIC ’s latest portable storage solution is called the MiniBOD(or, more colloquially, the XJ-SA01-008-A1). Its 2.5" driveconfigurations are said to read and write high-volume graphics andvideo files at 2.4Gbps bandwidth (up to eight small form factor2.5" SAS/SATA drives) can be used. AIC says the MiniBOD supports upto 1.2TB capacity and adds that future enhancements will beavailable later this year, including embedded RAID functionalityand the ability to configure four conventional 3.5" HDDs.
With its lightweight design and small footprint, the MiniBOD ishighly portable. It offers plug-and-play access, with the abilityto connect to host servers of the same RAID setup through theSFF8088 connector. AIC says it expects the MiniBOD XJ-SA01-04-A1(4"x3.5" version) to be available later this year.
Fast Forward Video
Fast Forward Video (FFV) should now be delivering the Elite HD, described as the firstcamera-mounted digital video recorder (DVR) to harness the JPEG2000 (J2K) compression codec for recording HD-SDI video signals.Until now, videographers had to rely on the internal recordingcapabilities of their cameras to record and play back HD-SDI video;however, few recorders can match the video quality of the camerasignal itself (often using proprietary and expensive storage mediato do so). In some workflows, such storage media require anotherdevice to read the video and transfer it for editing.
Designed to mount on the back or base of a camcorder, the Elite HDaccepts an incoming HD-SDI video signal with up to eight channelsof embedded audio and uses J2K to record at data rates up to 100MB/sec with virtually no loss in signal quality.
Video is stored to an off-the-shelf, hot-swappable 2.5" SATA drive,which provides up to 10 times more storage at a greatly reducedcost. In addition, the Elite HD enables streamlined, file-basedworkflows with its modular design, which can be easily detachedfrom the camcorder and connected directly to an NLE system via USB.
The Elite HD supports all HD-SDI camcorders and other video sourceswith compatible rates, including the the Canon XL H1 and G1; theSony F900, XDCAM HD, and XDCAM EX; and the JVC GY-HD250. The EliteHD also works with any HD-SDI switcher with a compatible outputformat, making it ideal for live events.
Transcend
Transcend is now shipping and pricing its newest storage device, the 250GBStoreJet 2.5 SATA portable hard drive. The StoreJet 2.5 uses ahigh-speed USB 2.0 interface and data transfer rates up to480MB/sec in its plug-and-play configuration. Inside theStoreJet’s streamlined shell is a single 250GB SATA HDD.
The StoreJet 2.5 SATA HDD features a convenient "OneTouch"Auto-Backup button and comes bundled with Transcend’s ownStoreJet elite 2.0 software, which offers intelligent backupscheduling, security, and power saving functions. The StoreJet 2.5SATA is available without a hard drive as a sleek externalenclosure that’s 100% compatible with all brands of 2.5" SATAhard drives and is offered in silver, blue, or red.
Priced around $150, the StoreJet 2.5 supports Windows2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9/OS X, and Linux 2.4.2 or later.
DVC
They are not truly portable devices, but storage solutions fromGerman manufacturer DVC are worthy of some consideration by those needing lots and lots ofstorage. The new Boxxster is a relatively compact uncompressed diskrecorder, able to record and play back all popular HD, SD, and DCIformats.
It too uses 2.5" hard disk technology, so low noise, low powerconsumption, and reasonable weight factors (up to 20 pounds,depending on capacity—the unit is available with 480GB,720GB, or 1.2TB of storage) are featured. Boxxster has its owninternal QuickClip software platform, acting like a VTR, for remotecontrol by RS.422 and Sony 9-pin protocol. Boxxster also combinesdisk recorder functions, including playlist, loop-mode, clipmanagement, and batch-recording, available as well via a Java orHTTP user interface. In addition to digital SD/HD-SDI I/O, Boxxsterhas analog interfaces. A DVI version supports event presentationsand live playback.
VideoPhill
If physical portable storage isn’t portable enough, onlinestorage may be what you need. There are risks with online storage(access, security, backup, and privacy), but the advantages includeunlimited storage and access to the latest tools, technologies, andcodecs.
VideoPhill , a company with both hardware- and software-based storagesolutions, is offering a licensed software solution for archivinghuge volumes of video. It is used by broadcasters for compliancetesting and by production houses to archive and analyze capturedvideo. For wedding and event videographers, it can offer a videorecord, archive, storage, and even replay service.
VideoPhill uses multiple hardware codecs and software compressionalgorithms and licensing fees that reflect total data volumes andvideo qualities (video streams from storage are available at up to2,048Kbps, and storage capacities up to 600GB are priced monthly).Various frame rates, bitrates, and international video formats aresupported through Osprey encoding tools, and customized time stampsand error reports are available.
Lee Rickwood (lrickwood at goodmedia.com) is a media consultant and freelance writer.