Sony is unveiling the second generation of its Optical Disc Archive System, which adopts a new, high-capacity optical media developed jointly by Sony and Panasonic. This newest media, rated with a 100-year shelf life, doubles the capacity of a single cartridge to 3.3 TB. Generation 2 of Optical Disc Archive System also introduces an 8-channel optical drive unit, doubling read/write speeds over the previous generation, accommodating 4K video in real time and meeting the users’ increasing data storage needs.
Optical Disc Archive, launched in 2013, is widely used by broadcasters, sports organizations, corporations, schools and production companies. It delivers reliable long-term storage and provides stable operations with efficient power consumption. Continuing its open platform approach for wider compatibility, Sony is providing technologies and support to encourage other manufacturers to develop supporting products for Optical Disc Archive. Currently, 42 companies have announced their support and have created interfaces for Optical Disc Archive.
Most modular, scalable system
Optical Disc Archive technology is designed for use in near-line applications, deep archive storage or disaster recovery systems. Hardware configurations range from stand-alone to large, scalable robotic archive systems. The main components of Optical Disc Archive Generation 2 include: a stand-alone USB drive unit (ODS-D280U), an 8 GB fiber channel library drive unit (ODS-D280F), for use in robotic systems, and the Optical Disc Archive media cartridge (ODC3300R).
“Optical Disc Archive is one of our most modular technologies,” said Ellen Heine, Marketing Manager at Sony Electronics. “It can scale from a tabletop drive accepting a single cartridge at a time up to a library that supports petabytes of data. This technology crosses a number of markets and applications, and can be tailored to meet the unique requirements of individual organizations.”
Expanding Optical Disc Archive Customers
Acceptance of Optical Disc Archive has been steadily growing with the following new customers: Alabama Public TV APTV (US), ATM Grupa (Poland), ATV (Turkey), Beijing Television (China), Capitol Broadcast (US), Carolina Panthers (US), China Central Television (China), China Education Television (China), KUAC-TV (US), National Film Board of Canada (Canada), San Marino RTV (San Marino), Sun TV Network Limited (India), Universität Mozarteum Salzburg (Austria), Wells Fargo (US), WRAL (US).
Sony Pictures Television (US) is also planning to use an automated workflow to employ Optical Disc Archive as the primary archival medium for original camera negatives. ZDF (Germany) will evaluate a small Generation 2 library as a candidate technology for future solutions.
Promoting the Wide Use of Optical Disc
Sony Optical Archive Inc. (US), a fully owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, recently announced a new library system called Everspan. The new system incorporates the newest optical media and new drives for large-scale robotic systems targeted specifically at data centers. This market expansion further advances the use of optical media in the storage market and facilitates a stable supply of both optical media and drives.
The new stand-alone USB Drive Unit (model ODS-D280U), fiber-channel library drive unit (model ODS-D280F) and Optical Disc Archive Cartridge (model ODC3300R) are planned to be available in summer 2016.
