Forty-three members and guests heard a talk by Bruce Vernon, Product Specialist on the Philips Media Pool. Bruce described the subsystems that make up a Media Pool, including input/output, data transfer, storage and control. The flexibility in the system allows it to be configured with up to 12 input/output channels at 1:1 or compressed in various ratios.
Single or multiple disk arrays can be accessed
simultaneously by each I/O at full bandwidth and can provide hundreds of
hours of on-line storage. RAID level 3 is used, permitting the use of
hot-swappable drives which rebuild themselves automatically in the
background.
The user controls the system through a network of Unix-based GUI
workstations that allow any function to be performed with no
practical limit to the number of workstations or users. Software allows
VTR emulation, dubbing and basic editing, on-air cart machine emulation,
and offline archive management. The system will communicate with other
devices using Louth and Sony protocols as well as its own protocol, and
can control other devices such as routers, cart machines, etc.
Networking using the developing SDTI interface is available, and the company is working on handling MPEG-2 streams and compressed 1080I HDTV streams.
After playing a videotape showing how various TV facilities are using their Media Pools, Mr. Vernon and Philips Midwest regional sales representatives Jeff Gouch and Tom Tisch took small groups of attendees on a tour of the operation of the Media Pool at WKBD.