Avid adds increased options to Nexis storage

The introduction of lower cost nearline storage and a new SSD flash storage system gives yet more options for users to shape Nexis storage to their own individual needs.

First out of the gate, Avid NEXIS | Cloud Nearline Storage has been launched with the idea of easing data storage costs for content creation teams. Nearline storage complements high performance storage, making it more economical to store long-term assets, such as camera originals, stock footage, and music libraries in the cloud. And, because it’s part of the Avid NEXIS storage offering, it works seamlessly with Media Composer, as well as the growing list of certified third-party solutions integrated with Avid | Edit On Demand.

Indeed, as an economical new storage tier, the company reckons this makes Avid | Edit On Demand an even better fit for more facilities, enabling them to easily spin up editing workgroups in the cloud as needed, with the flexibility to spin them back down when projects are complete. 

No detail on costs yet, but Avid does say that it let users store shared content assets at "a fraction of the per-terabyte cost of online storage."

Avid’s new NEXIS | F2 SSD storage, meanwhile, has capacity to scale from 38.4TB to 307.2TB per engine. It is equipped with Avid NEXIS media packs that now deliver in excess of six gigabytes per second, while exceptional media protection and high availability are achieved with a redundant storage controller and hot spare SSDs.

Dual redundant 100 Gbps Ethernet connections per storage controller are standard, providing the highest-performance network connectivity, while the ability to right-size configurations ensures businesses pay only for what they need. With flexible updates to capacity, workflows and configuration, Avid reckons that the NEXIS | F2 SSD provides the flexibility post teams need to tap into increased performance, reliability and continuity that keep them competitive and current.

Very handily, it is compatible with all current Avid NEXIS systems. When used with Avid NEXIS online or nearline storage, that means administrators can seamlessly move a workspace between performance tiers, maintaining read and write access while the media is moving. 

And last but not least, over on the live production side of the company's business, Avid is also promising a tech preview of its new Avid | Stream IO, a new flexible software-based platform for production ingest and playout delivered through "the convenience of subscription."

The new platform has some interesting features, particularly its ability to be configured to ingest or playout IP streams and SDI streams, which will help make that transition to IP from legacy equipment that bit easier. Indeed, it supports all common production formats​ including SDI, Compressed IP streams - SRT / RTMP / NDI, with ​SMPTE 2110 due later this year​. 

Avid | Stream IO also supports Avid’s proven fast-turnaround workflows, including shot-listing, craft editing and logging—all while tightly integrating with Avid’s MediaCentral production platform.  Commercial availability is billed as later this year.