Accom on Monday demonstrated universal-format support for its Abekas 6000 Production Server, a professional digital media server used in broadcast and post-production video facilities worldwide. Housed in an 8RU rack-mountable chassis, the Abekas 6000 supports up to eight channels of Standard Definition (SD) video or up to four High Definition (HD) channels. Users can mix and match formats in the same server. Accom also introduced WSD/HDe, a new universal format multi-definition digital disk recorder. Both systems work with the Mac.
Accom introduced a new version of the Abekas 6000 operating system — v4.5.0 — at this week’s NAB 2004, offering expanded networking capabilities with Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel. An updated Content Management Panel application allows any network Mac or PC full transport control of clips, browsing and clip management capabilities as well as live “Jump to Time of Day” timecode capabilities, all through a Virtual Control Panel (VCP).
Accom plans to release the new universal-format Abekas 6000 in the fourth quarter of 2004. You’ll be able to upgrade your existing system through a board exchange.
Apple also introduced WSD/HDe, a new universal format multi-definition digital disk recorder aimed at long-form applications like telecine, digital film, DVD encoding, post production and more. WSD/HDe captures both SD and HD uncompressed video, with 2.5 hours of built-in recording capacity at 24p format using RAID-3 storage.
WSD/HDe is controlled using a Web browser-based “NetPanel” interface that’s compatible with multiple platforms including Mac OS X. It’s a Java-based applet that works with Netscape-based browsers, according to Accom. Accom makes available an Application Programming Interface (API) to control the WSD/HDe disk recorder using remote shell, login and copy commands. An optional plug-in is also available for Adobe After Effects.