Sun Helps HBO Go Digital

In a sign of how systems vendors are looking for customers in the
entertainment business, Sun Microsystems
Friday said its mid-range and high-end servers are
powering a digital programming repository for 15 HBO and Cinemax networks.


Financial details of the deal, announced as JavaOne winds down in San
Francisco, were not made public. Two Sun Fire 6800 mid-range servers will be
used to manage and stage content and two high-end Sun StorEdge 9980 systems,
will be used in a mirrored configuration for the HBO repository.


With those servers, Santa Clara’s Sun will help HBO meet its goal to move
from a tape- and server-based platform to a digital server architecture,
capable of holding as much as 5,000 hours of content, over the next three
years.


The catch is that HBO wants to preserve as much of the quality of its
content in the process. HBO said this move to digital will make its content
transfer operations more efficient and cost-effective.


The move is symptomatic of the digitization of the infrastructure world as
many broadcasters move to replace more costly tape-based systems to digital
storage for “to-air” content. Sun rival IBM has already dipped into this
digital media well , launching a
new digital video platform aimed at helping broadcasters switch from
analog-based tape editing systems and deploy storage area networks.


One could make the case that IBM might have provided HBO the same service.
As it is, one of IBM’s main customers for its platform is Seoul Broadcasting
System (SBS) of South Korea.


The Sun StorEdge’s QFS file-system will store large files created by video.
Sun said the servers will ensure compatibility across multiple platforms,
and aligns with HBO’s strategy to develop its Video Network systems with
Java.


The digital programming repository stores five terabytes (TB) of storage and
can expand to 50TBs, sustaining a constant data rate of more than 300
megabytes-per-second to HBO’s suite of Grass Valley Group Profile XP-based
playout systems using fibre channel interconnections. This system can
support as much as 900 MB per second in recovery mode, allowing HBO to
deliver content to-air without a reduction in playout bandwidth while
restoring the repository within a single broadcast day.


“Sun worked with us for close to a year to design this digital programming
repository and was the only UNIX vendor to meet and exceed our system
requirements with off-the-shelf components,” said Charles Cataldo, senior
vice president of broadcast operations at HBO.

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