Quantum tunes LTO for video workers

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 19 April 2007 11:44

Business IT - Technology

Quantum is set to offer network-attached LTO tape drives capable of transferring digital video content in a fraction of real time.

The LTO-3 A-Series drives, due in June, are able to transfer 25Mbit/sec DVCPRO content in nearly one-twentieth of real time, and 100Mbit/sec DVCPRO HD material in about one-sixth of its duration.

The capacity of LTO is very attractive for video work, as one cartridge can store 400G, "equivalent to more than 30 hours of 25 Mbit/sec high definition content" according to Quantum officials.

Since each tape contains its own file system and therefore can be treated as if it was a disk by operating systems including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Another reason why the LTO-3 A-Series is suited to video work is that the drives are MXF (Material eXchange Format) aware, allowing files to be treated as if they were videotapes complete with timecode and fast access to metadata.

Previous A-Series drives have been based on slower and less capacious Super DLTtape II drives.

"As the industry continues to embrace file-based workflows, video professionals are demanding higher capacity, performance and reliability," said Mark Ostlund, director of rich media storage for Quantum. "Quantum's new LTO-3 A-Series helps meet those needs and underscores our commitment to offering broadcasters and video professionals a complete, scaleable and low-cost archive solution when it’s time to move their content off expensive disk."

LTO-3 A-Series drives are due to ship in June, with prices starting at approximately $US8000/$A9500. LTO-3 cartridges sell for around $US60/$A90.