Industrial Media Capture

NVMe RAID Solutions for High-Resolution Media Capture.jpg

Media capturing systems are utilized by a wide range of fields and applications; everything from live streaming services, filmmaking, and news broadcasting, to automated manufacturing, and scientific research. As networking, resolution, and frame rate requirements continue to rise, so does the need for faster, denser storage solutions. Unsurprisingly, conventional SAS and SATA storage solutions are increasingly unable to keep pace with advances in media capture technology. Modern, high-speed networking infrastructure is capable of accommodating transfer rates in excess of 10,000MB/s. To put this in perspective, you would need a RAID 0 array comprised of 20 SATA SSDs capable of delivering 500MB/s of sustained performance in order to reach the 10K threshold. Conversely, a pair of off-the-shelf M.2 NVMe SSDs can easily satisfy this requirement, with performance to spare! Despite SAS/SATA’s longstanding superior dollar-to-gigabyte ratio, it’s near impossible to ignore the stunning 10:1 performance advantage of NVMe media.

Increasing demands for High Resolution Media

High-resolution capturing solutions are in demand across many industries and professions; and not just those focused on journalism, art and entertainment. High-resolution imaging systems are of critical importance for many scientific and medical applications, such a treatment and study of cancer and contagious disease, space and deep-sea exploration, automated manufacturing systems, and a slew of military/defense applications including satellite and drone technology.

Media Capture Hardware Platforms

Many professional grade media capturing systems utilize a range of recording devices linked to a host-system/server using an ethernet based network. Footage (video/audio) captured by these devices is then transferred to the system’s storage solution (which may be separate from the server hardware), via a second network connection. As such, storage solutions employed by media capture system must be able to keep pace with the entire network infrastructure, and may be called upon to fulfill multiple roles, such as that of a recording device, asset library and active workspace.

Applications

A wide range of media, scientific and industrial workflows rely on high-resolution media capturing systems. Such platforms require compact, fast and dense storage solutions capable of keeping pace with high-speed networking infrastructure.

Industrial Cameras

Solutions

NVMe RAID AICs

SSD7540

SSD7580B

SSD7140A

SSD7180/7184

NVMe RAID Enclosures

SSD6744

SSD7650/6540M

Such applications require high-speed network infrastructure, and storage devices capable of housing and rapidly processing a vast quantity of data over prolonged periods of time; an ideal environment for an NVMe RAID solution, such as a HighPoint SSD7500 series M.2 NVMe AIC. These compact, single-width PCIe cards directly host up to 8 M.2 SSDs and are available in half-height or full-height form factors. SSD7500 AICs are built to withstand the rigors of industrial applications and feature robust active cooling systems to ensure the NVMe media and critical controller componentry operate within manufacturer thresholds, even under heavy load.

Industrial Media Capture Applications

Digital cameras are employed by a wide range of industrial applications such as automated/robotic assembly lines, roadway traffic control, and safety/warning systems in factories and construction sites. Commonly classified as Industrial Cameras, these type of capture devices are generally compact and robust in construction, as they are often integrated directly into articulated machinery and operate in hazardous environments.

Despite the rugged nature of their working environments, industrial cameras often have high resolution requirements, as they must be able to reliably capture small moving objects in great detail. Examples include Quality Analysis and Control solutions that need document the activity of an automated production line, or traffic monitoring systems that are required to capture unique identifiers of hundreds or even thousands of passing vehicles, such as branding information or license plates.