Active Storage Unveils New Workflow Storage Solutions

Active Storage, a provider of storage solutions for media and creative professionals, introduced a new series of  workflow storage solutions. mMedia Platform is a complete a end-to-end solution for post and broadcast production. As a part of the platform, mRAID is a high-capacity, high-performance and high-availability RAID storage solution and mVault, which is the company’s first ever high-density archive expansion system.

mMedia Platform
The mMedia platform centers around an enhanced ActiveSAN high- performance metadata controller appliance, and adds two exciting new products, mRAID and mVault (also announced today, see related releases), along with optimized management software; all were combined and demonstrated for the first time, live, on the Storage Visions show floor to reveal a complete, unified mMedia platform installation.

With scalable performance and capacity, mMedia provides content producers the components to assemble complete storage solutions that meet their individual needs plus the integration and management software that lets them choose the best production tools in the industry. Together mMedia is more than a collection of components; it’s a complete media creation storage platform for storing and managing content from ingest to archive.

“mMedia is the platform of the future for broadcast production,” said Alex Grossman, founder and president of Active Storage, Inc. “mMedia provides an integrated workflow storage platform with the performance, scalability and configuration flexibility to meet nearly every broadcast and post-production facility’s ingest, on-line and near-line archive capability.”

The mMedia platform leverages Active Storage’s strong partnerships with industry leaders by offering an open platform that works with other production solutions.

“The mMedia platform is a very exciting development for the Levels Beyond Reach Engine,” says Art Raymond, CEO of Levels Beyond. “We deploy to some of the largest and most demanding creative workflow sites in the world, including major MSO’s, Studios, Broadcast Networks and Live Sports distributed globally. We’re very enthusiastic about the potential of deploying our solution leveraging the new mMedia Platform to deliver even tighter integration, speed and management for a more advanced customer experience than exists in the market today.”

“Our technology on Active’s mMedia platform can support significantly more capable Media Asset Management solutions for Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut and Avid workflows,” says Danny Gold, VP Client Solutions of Levels Beyond. “The combination of Reach Engine and the new mMedia Platform is a complete game- changing way to deliver cost-effective, seamlessly integrated high- performance archive solutions.”

mRAID Storage Solution
mRAID provides key high-capacity on-line production storage for the new mMedia platform (see related release, dated today) which delivers an end-to-end workflow storage solution for post and broadcast production.

“The mRAID is unlike any storage you have used in a creative workflow,” said Grossman. “It’s fast, smart, scalable and easy. As heterogeneous workstation environments are becoming the norm, and increased resolutions and more distribution formats make ad-hoc approaches unworkable, the mRAID changes the game, making it easy to host powerful applications and support multiple Petabytes of connected storage.”

The new mRAID starts by offering 48TB of storage capacity in three rack-units (3RU) with the unmatched throughput and low latency to power high-bandwidth post and broadcast production environments with the same ease of deployment and management for which ActiveRAID is known. In addition, mRAID is engineered to handle the current and next generation of Intel-based storage processors, with an entirely new, superior CrossFlow cooling system, a new high-speed bus interconnect between RAID controllers, new multi-core aware software, and a new, next-generation Environmental Processing Engine.

The mRAID’s new CrossFlow cooling design provides equal airflow and cooling to hard drives, RAID controllers, backup batteries, and I/O systems to eliminate hot spots and component failure, even in mobile, temporary production environments. The CrossFlow cooling design is highly efficient, not only using less power under normal conditions, but also providing ample cooling headroom when used in less than ideal conditions.

The new high-speed bus between RAID controllers maintains cache coherency, with a parallel data path that allows the system to saturate the 8x 8Gb Fibre Channel ports, and move data at full speed between Fibre Channel and the multiple 6Gb SAS ports to hard drives in the expansion enclosures. The mRAID’s new next-generation, multi-core aware software design works with the new Intel processing engine to take advantage of additional power, providing more memory for cache and applications.

The new, hot-swappable Environmental Processing Engine (ENV) manages UPS communication, and allows mRAID and connected expansion systems to be remotely powered up and down, and managed securely through the Active Admin management suite.

Current ActiveRAID users can seamlessly integrate their ActiveRAID systems under the management of mRAID. A simple upgrade allows ActiveRAID installations to take full advantage of the improved processing power and added capabilities of mRAID with no reconfiguration.

The mRAID is available today in a 48TB configuration for US MSRP $25,999 from Active Storage resellers worldwide <http://www.activestorage.com/buy.php>.

mVault Storage Solution
With a small footprint of only 4U of rack space, the new mVault packs a staggering 180TB of content storage in any resolution from proxy to 8K. The new mVault provides superior cooling and reliable data paths to keep archived content safe and within reach of your work-in-process SAN. On the mMedia platform, the mRAID provides the processing to host one or more mVault archive systems.

In collaboration, mVault and mRAID allow fast and easy content movement from primary on-line storage to mVault near-line storage, with support from industry-leading applications. Together, mRAID and mVault deliver 228TB of storage in only 7U. mVault answers the need for high-density, small-footprint solutions increasingly required by top media and creative customers for their data centers.

“With mVault your content will be available nearly instantaneously as you need it,” explained Alex Grossman, founder and president of Active Storage, Inc. “Adding mVault to an ActiveSAN network can also provide better performance from the primary on-line volumes by keeping the amount of storage under management to a reasonable amount. We’re extremely excited about our first ever dedicated archive storage solution.”

The integration of ActiveSAN, mRAID and mVault, when combined with ActiveStats and the Active Admin management suite, provide the power to the mMedia platform. The mMedia platform gives content production the media optimized throughput and capabilities of an expensive, specialized proprietary system at a much lower overall and on-going cost (TCO), without lock-in, plus adds additional flexibility and customization by enabling integration with other industry-leading solutions.

The mVault expansion system requires mRAID and is available today in a 180TB configuration for US MSRP $69,999 from Active Storage resellers worldwide <http://www.activestorage.com/buy.php>.