We play well with digital media...
Traditional analog video has been around since the 1950s and that same basic technology is used by most CCTV systems today. But just as CDs and DVDs have replaced audio cassettes and VHS tapes, digital networking and video storage systems are replacing analog. Digital storage is clearly the best choice, and doesn’t require the replacement of existing cameras. Implementing a networked storage solution which incorporates Wasabi’s VMX iSCSI SAN allows the images from dozens of cameras to be stored on a single storage server, and at a fraction of the cost of an FC SAN.
Our iSCSI SAN products are an ideal companion for high performance pre and post production video applications and we have lots of users using them now as proof. The VMX storage arrays work well with many video production software systems including Avid and Final Cut series from Apple. With entry level iSCSI appliances starting at 2 terabytes of storage and expandable all the way up to 60 terabytes (raw capacity), we can meet your requirements now and in the future.
A VMX iSCSI based appliance provides many dif ferent configuration possibilities to accommodate performance, retention, redundancy, and budgetary requirements. When determining how to configure storage, there are some parameters that must be taken into account. In general, two parameters will determine how much storage capacity is required – data rate and video retention time. Data Rate Requirement
Several factors will determine the required data rate. These include video resolution (e.g.: CIF, 2CIF, 4CIF, etc.) frames per second (or frame rate), amount of video compression being used, and whether video data is constantly being recorded or records only when motion is detected. Retention Time
How long will video data need to be saved before it can be discarded? Depending on the type of facility, retention times of 30 days or longer may be required. As an example of how much disk capacity is required, it is not unusual for cameras in highly sensitive locations such as military installations and casinos to have resolution and frames per second (FPS) requirements that result in data rates of 1 megabit per second (Mb/s). In addition to determining how much storage capacity is needed, how storage is configured and al located al so needs to be considered. While it is possible to configure all of the hard disks into a single RAID array and allocate a portion of the total available storage to multiple video surveillance servers, depending on the data rate required by each video surveillance server, this may not provide optimal per formance. In a typical multi-camera server, where each camera is writing to its own folder, there is some randomness to the data, and therefore the hard disk heads must move back and forth across the disk in order to access data. For modest data rate requirements it may be perfectly fine to have 4 or more video surveillance servers using storage provisioned from a single RAID array. If higher data rates are required, then it may become necessary to create multiple RAID arrays so that each server has its own dedicated RAID array. Creating multiple RAID arrays will result in slightly less available storage capacity, so testing that approximates real-world usage as close as possible should be done to find the right balance of performance and capacity. To maximize performance, you can aggregate up to 6 GbE Ethernet ports and achieve up to 650 MB/Sec of continuous streaming throughput to the iSCSI array, easily matching or exceeding the speed of Fibre Channel in an easier to use and deploy system at much lower cost. The VMX 2000 opens up new windows to the high-growth video surveillance market with iSCSI storage solutions that provide the security, scalability, and flexibility advantages of iSCSI SAN video surveillance customers require at a price that they can afford.
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