Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, introduces major enhancements to its NEXIO™ family of servers and storage solutions at the 2008 International Broadcasting Convention (IBC). The advancements include significant software developments for the NEXIO AMP™ advanced media platform, and dramatically increased storage and scalability for the NEXIO storage area network (SAN).
NEXIO AMP 2.0
The award-winning NEXIO AMP advanced media platform, which pairs a high-performance, high-definition/standard-definition (HD/SD) server architecture with best-in-class content protection, reaches unprecedented levels of power and versatility with the unveiling of NEXIO AMP 2.0™ at IBC2008. Leveraging key advances in server software development, the NEXIO AMP 2.0 platform features dramatically increased processing power and I/O density, now supporting four HD video I/O channels. It is also the broadcast industry’s first 3 Gb/s-ready server, capable of ingesting and playing out 1080p signals to enable the highest video quality.

“The new version of NEXIO AMP™ possesses twice the power of the first-generation NEXIO AMP platform,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications. “This additional muscle allows customers to take advantage of two channels of HD ingest – a feature that offers real cost savings, since customers can use fewer servers to ingest multiple HD feeds.”

The raw processing power of NEXIO AMP 2.0 provides additional benefits, including the hosting of integrated, software-enabled media applications right on the server. This capability allows customers to further reduce hardware expenditures and improve workflow efficiency. At IBC2008, Harris delivers the first available media applications:
• NEXIO AMP Logo™ – An on-air branding system, allowing each playout channel on NEXIO AMP™ to feature unique graphic elements and animated sequences
• NEXIO AMP ChannelView™ – A multiviewer I/O monitoring application, enabling up to two NEXIO AMP inputs and four NEXIO AMP outputs to be viewed in real time
• NEXIO AMP Track Editor™ – A versatile, user-friendly audio track and captioning metadata manipulation tool

Harris also is showcasing ADC™ automation running on the NEXIO AMP server. Integrated ADC ingest and playout automation tools allow each NEXIO AMP node to provide time-based play to air of video clips.

To address the growing demand of broadcasters to achieve greater operational efficiency, NEXIO AMP 2.0 features a number of file-based workflow enhancements, including:
• Integrated software codec support for the Panasonic ® AVC-Intra™ and Sony ® XDCAM ® HD 35/50 formats
• MXF file exchange improvements to enable greater interoperability with files from third-party vendors such as Avid and SeaChange
• Support for GXF file import
• Native support for Pinnacle MediaStream™ files
• Interoperability with Harris ® mCAPTURE™ compressed media stream recorders
• Support for AFD (Active Format Description), which optimizes video aspect ratio conversion for broadcasters migrating to HD
• Expanded timecode capability

“The NEXIO AMP server platform meets the needs of virtually any broadcaster – no matter where they reside on the SD-HD continuum,” continued Thorsteinson. “With the release of our media applications and introduction of new file-based workflow enhancements, NEXIO AMP 2.0™ delivers on its promise to go far beyond the capabilities of competing servers. It has truly become the industry’s most powerful and flexible video server platform.”

New SAN Options
In addition to core server enhancements for NEXIO AMP™, Harris introduces dramatically improved storage and scalability options for the NEXIO SAN. Shared storage capacity triples from 24 TB to 72 TB through the use of new 450 GB storage drives and doubling the number of available drives, and near-line storage on Harris NXIQ™ clustered storage systems grows by 50 percent, from 1 PB to 1.5 PB of usable capacity.

Also new is a new Media Host architecture option that extends the NEXIO SAN’s storage protocol and data transfer capabilities to run over Gigabit Ethernet, enabling SAN access by up to 400 channels. In addition to allowing the NEXIO SAN to scale to unprecedented channel counts, the Media Host architecture features N+1 redundancy to eliminate single-point-of-failure vulnerability in the SAN.

“We continue to build on the inherent scalability and reliability of the NEXIO SAN to make it easier than ever for broadcasters to add channels and storage as their requirements change,” said Thorsteinson. “We have more than doubled the number of drives we can support and are now able to deliver a SAN with hundreds of channels. The Media Host architecture allows customers to take advantage of the full bandwidth capabilities of NEXIO™ without the limitations imposed by Fibre Channel connectivity.”

Harris booth visitors also can see the first showing of NEXIO Navigator™, a Windows ®-based software application that enables control of NEXIO servers using the Harris ® CCS Navigator™ advanced network monitoring and control graphical navigation application. Features include an easy-to-use setup wizard and GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) that visually represent the server environment.

Harris Broadcast Communications offers products, systems and services that provide interoperable workflow solutions that span the entire media delivery chain. The Harris ONE™ solution brings together highly integrated and cost-effective products that are ideal for emerging media business models and for customers upgrading media operations to digital and high-definition services.

www.harris.com