Video and Media Servers: Technology and Applications

The switch in the direction of digital television broadcasting, the acceptance of compressed digital video and storage, video-on-demand, pay-per-view delivery, and multichannel satellite are all elements in this universal shift toward servers for storage and forward delivery of video media. The book discusses both operational and technical issues related to disk-based, digital recording and the implementation of video server and media server based technologies for broadcast and non-broadcast applications. It also includes developmental and technical discussions of optical, magnetic, and silicon based disk systems. Major sections are devoted to media and video server technologies and their evolution, while others cover the implementation into production/post- production, graphics/animation, and broadcast operations, including news. There is a section on networking theory as it applies to server implementation. Other sections include drive and system-bus architectures (SCSI< SSA, Fibre Channel). The material presented includes both introductory and in-depth discussion aimed at the users of the technology: the electronics technician, the maintenance engineer working in a video facility, and the technical manager whose job it is to recommend and advise upper management on current as well as future technological choices in advanced television. The applications portions will also be helpful to the operations technicians or managers already working in a broadcast facility with server systems, or one that is considering integrating video and media server technologies into the plant. Based on author's highly respected series of columns in TV Technology Provides answers to many of the questions that surround the whys and hows o tapeless, digital disk and server based recording