The announcement comes not long after Avid's acquisition of Medea Corporation back in January. The new systems - the Avid VideoRAID RTR320 and RTR320X - are the first in a series of low-cost parity RAID storage systems. Unlike other competitive RAID products that suspend performance in the event of a drive failure, the new VideoRAID line delivers uninterrupted realtime performance, even during a drive rebuild.
The VideoRAID products leverages the combined bandwidth of multiple drives - with capacity of either 250GB or 500GB per drive - in storage arrays that provide realtime access to SD and HD media assets. Both the RTR320 and RTR320X are built around five-drive and 10-drive storage arrays, respectively, with one of every five drives functioning as a parity drive to deliver robust data protection without interrupting performance during drive rebuilds. The line has already been qualified on the following Avid editing systems: Liquid Chrome HD; Liquid Pro; Xpress Pro; Xpress Studio; NewsCutter XP (with or without Avid Mojo); Media Composer Adrenaline and Media Composer Adrenaline HD; NewsCutter Adrenaline; DS Nitris; and Symphony Nitris.
"Avid's storage products are recognized industry-wide for their guaranteed real-time performance capabilities," says Chas Smith, VP and GM of Avid's video division. "With Medéa's low-cost RAID offerings in our portfolio, we now have a tremendously compelling entry point to the Avid family of storage solutions."
Martin Bock, former president of Medea and recently appointed VP of business development for the Medea product family at Avid, adds, "Our VideoRAID products have had great success in the market because of the unmatched resiliency of our parity RAID technology and the realtime, high-bandwidth performance that enables completion of multi-stream SD and HD projects in record time. When compared to competitive RAID solutions, customers will find that Avid VideoRAID systems deliver superior performance at a lower price per gigabyte."
Pricing for a 1.25 TB solution with five 250 GB drives starts at $3,929.