Tape: Part of the Future of Storage

 

 

In a recent Broadcast Engineering article by Tom Coughlin (the president of data storage consulting company Coughlin Associates, not the coach of the new Super Bowl champs), we are given a look at what the future of content production and delivery may hold. We have long been saying that tape is alive and well, so it comes as no surprise to us that tape, as well as HDDs, are expected to be a part of that future. In fact, combined, the two storage methods account for 47 percent of recording media used by this article’s survey recipients in professional video cameras, as the chart below shows.

 

 

This is not surprising, as we continue to see our tape media – especially LTO-5 – used as a popular, cost-effective storage alternative. Our other tape and optical discs are also experiencing interest among broadcast and video professionals.

 

Coughlin, in his article, cites the usual suspects for an increase in requirements for digital playout and storage. They are HD content, as well as new distribution channels, such as the Internet and mobile. He is also predicting that digital storage capacity will increase about 4X from 2010-2016, which is slower than 5X growth for content used over the Internet and mobile networks.

 

All of these factors mean that broadcast and video professionals will need reliable, cost-effective media for storage and archiving. That sounds a lot like tape to us. It is also going to put additional emphasis on external sources of storage – such as hard disk drives (HDDs) – to help in the workflow.

 

We’d like to hear what you think about this. Comment on this post or find us on Twitter or Facebook.

 

To learn more about how Maxell Professional media products fit into the future of storage, go to www.maxell-usa.com.

Comments

[Lisa]

Great info about future storage.

[Administrator]

@Lisa We thought so too! Glad you liked it.