In conjunction with Omneon’s introduction of the Omneon MediaGrid active storage system at NAB2006 (“Omneon MediaGrid Delivers Affordable Enterprise-Level Active Storage for the Broadcast and Video Industry”), a number of leading broadcast application developers are enthusiastically endorsing the new system and pledging their integration support. To that end, 10 companies will be demonstrating automation and media management applications integrated with MediaGrid at the show.

The Omneon MediaGrid was designed for easy integration with workflow and content management systems through open file protocols and APIs. Additionally, since MediaGrid allows applications to manage and process media files while the files remain in place on the system, these applications become more active in the workflow, functioning in parallel with other activity, and tying together what once were individual digital islands.

The best-of-breed application developers who have committed to supporting the Omneon MediaGrid to date include Anystream, Ardendo, Blue Order, Crispin Corporation, Florical Systems, Front Porch Digital, Ibis, Konan Digital, MassTech Group, OmniBus Systems, Pebble Beach Systems, Pharos Communication, Pictron, Probel, Rhozet, S4M, Snell & Wilcox, Sundance Digital, Starfish, TMD, Tektronix, Telestream, and Venaca.

“Application developers have quickly realized that the MediaGrid is a totally different kind of storage platform,” said Jason Danielson, senior director of solutions at Omneon. “Affordable, scalable centralized storage is just the first part of the MediaGrid concept. It is also a unifying platform that pulls the whole broadcast chain together, allowing a wide array of applications not just access to the storage infrastructure, but better overall performance. The end result will be a much smoother operation for the broadcaster.”

Up to now, many developers have had to deploy their applications with generic application servers and file storage that were not designed for the needs of broadcast workflows. In addition to propagating separate islands of storage, incompatibilities and integration complexity created a heavy support burden for developers. MediaGrid addresses these issues by providing solution providers with a single shared storage environment capable of integrating multiple functions to increase workflow productivity and simplify application deployment. 

“Gone are the separate islands of storage, as well as the heavy support burden developers have faced,” added Danielson. “MediaGrid delivers what broadcasters and application developers need, from a company whose sole focus has been the needs of broadcasters since day one.”

The Omneon MediaGrid is the first content storage system that plays an active part in the broadcast workflow. More than just high-performance shared storage for all users within a facility, MediaGrid constantly adapts to a facility’s changing resiliency and bandwidth requirements while simultaneously performing media processing functions on stored content.

MediaGrid combines grid storage with grid computing through the use of multiple intelligent, interconnected-yet-independent storage servers to create a system that scales in manageable increments of capacity, bandwidth, and media processing power. The unique MediaGrid architecture eliminates traditional bottlenecks to ensure that clients and applications have the fastest possible access to media content at all times.

About Omneon
Omneon is a leading provider of flexible media server and active storage systems that optimize workflow productivity and on-air reliability for the production, distribution, and management of digital media. Omneon is a pioneer in the use of advanced IT technologies and open systems for broadcast applications, producing a modular and expandable video server architecture in the Omneon Spectrum. The company's MediaGrid active storage system delivers centralized content storage that is scalable in capacity, bandwidth, and media-processing power. The company has an extensive global presence with customers in 45 countries on six continents. Omneon is on the Web at www.Omneon.com.

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