NAB 2012: Front Porch Digital Highlights LYNX Technology

Front Porch Digital will feature several products at Booth N5806, including LYNX, an integrated, cloud-based environment for managing assets on a global scale, from any device and any location.

Front Porch Digital’s LYNX project is the company’s largest R&D investment in more than a decade and offers media organizations a next-generation approach to global asset management, with a range of benefits in adaptability, on-demand scalability, capital cost reduction, and simplified maintenance.

“Our vision for broadcast video archiving has always been different — not just about delivering mission critical, scalable storage solutions, but an archive that is open, active, and connected,” said Michael Knaisch, president of Front Porch Digital. “The products we are highlighting at NAB are perfect illustrations of that strategy in motion.”

LYNX applications and services are tightly integrated with the company’s DIVA technology and are designed to fit the needs of media organizations facing not only the traditional pressures involved in managing mission-critical assets securely and with flexibility, but also the many additional challenges of successful operation in today’s industry. Constantly changing organizational structures, the need to consolidate operations, and the increasing reliance on outsourcing all create stresses on a media business. LYNX technology provides a route to sustained profitability in such fluid and competitive operating conditions by offering infrastructure deployment on demand, matching IT investment to revenue opportunities, and making it easier to bring new channels to market.

Leveraging the latest cloud and Web services technologies, LYNX will underpin a range of networked and distributed solutions, including a hosted disaster recovery service for existing DIVA customers, a private/hybrid cloud service allowing global media enterprises to centralize critical assets and consolidate operations, and a public cloud service with DIVArchive functionality offered on a SaaS (software as a service) basis.

DIVAdirector V5.0
Front Porch Digital DIVAdirector is a media asset management (MAM) system that enables operators to search, locate, and retrieve stored media assets directly from their desktops using their Web browsers. At the 2012 NAB Show, Front Porch Digital will introduce DIVAdirector V5.0, with a host of new features for versatile media asset management. V5.0 boasts HTTP-based adaptive streaming support, whereby client Internet browsers can switch between different video and audio bit rates depending on available network conditions and CPU power. The resulting user experience is one of reliable, consistent playback without stutter, buffering, or “last mile” congestion. In addition, DIVAdirector V5.0 offers portability across operating systems (Windows 7, Mac OS), browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox), proxy formats (WMV & H.264), and an increased number of concurrent users.

DIVArchive V7.0
Also at NAB, Front Porch Digital will showcase its DIVArchive V7.0 content storage management (CSM) system. With its support for complex DPX packages, DIVArchive V7.0 enables video-like operations on film-carried content.

DIVArchive V7.0 implements the new open Archive eXchange Format (AXF) technology developed by Front Porch Digital to protect, preserve, and facilitate the exchange of content among storage systems today and for the future. This new open AXF implementation represents a step toward replacing outmoded legacy formats like TAR with a truly open and storage-agnostic approach ensuring long-term accessibility to valuable content.