Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 16, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
At its trade-show press conference, Quantel presented its new infrastructure solution for postproduction houses, which the company calls “Genetic Engineering”. This system is an expansion of the existing SAN infrastructure and makes it possible to work with the same files simultaneously on any number of computers at different resolutions. The system consists of three new components: GenePool, Sam and Max.
A film that was scanned in 2K, for example, exists on the central GenePool file server only as a file in 2K. Quantel’s “Resolution Co-existence Technology” then converts the files into the right format for each system in real time without creating a copy of the file: if, for example, an SD editing program accesses the 2K files, Quantel Resolution Co-existence Technology converts them in the background in real time into the required format without using extra storage space.
GenePool is available in a version up to HDRGB and in a 4K version with a size of up to 80 TByte. The 4 K version enables the simultaneous playback of 4K streams on several computers in real time.
Because GenePool works with proprietary data formats, Quantel developed Sam, system software that enables any other Windows-, Linux,- and soon also Mac OS system to access GenePool or to store data there. The connection is made via CIFS (also known as the SMB protocol) and shows all clips as virtual image sequences. Any compositing or editing software can then access these image sequences, even when other programs are using the files in parallel.
The third component of the system is Max, another workstation in this network that increases the efficiency of the overall system. Max handles background tasks such as conforming, playout and quality control. It also watches over the defragmentation of the files in the background.
Quantel did not give prices for GenePool, Max and Sam, as they depend on the overall size of the installation.
Another tool for the DI and postproduction workflow is “Mission”. This is a Media Asset Managment Tool. At its core is the “Mission Central” database, which is accessed via the “Mission Tracker” client software. This software is installed on all Quantel systems and manages the metadata of the clips used. In addition, there is a web-based interface called “Mission Webview” that enables remote access to the server.
Optional modules also include “Mission Store” and “Mission Archive”, two backup solutions with a tape archive for intermediate backups and final storage of projects.
Further links:
- Quantel
