The future of tape storage - scale and security

In today’s content-hungry world, the media and entertainment industry faces an exponential increase in digital content creation.

James Cameron’s film, Avatar, required over 1 Petabyte (PB) of data.

To put that into perspective, 1 PB is equivalent to 13.3 years of HD TV video.

With so much content being produced, the media and entertainment industry needs to find a way to easily store – and protect – that content without breaking the bank.

But what solution can do both? The answer is LTO tape technology.

The introduction of LTO-7 Technology marks a new era in tape technology.

With its massive cartridge capacity of 6TB uncompressed (up to 15TB compressed) and fast transfer speeds of up to 300MB per second (up to 750MB/sec compressed), storing these important projects has never been easier.

Production companies continue to seek ways to protect their video assets in real time.

LTO-7 Technology cuts down the time it takes to protect assets significantly. Increased transfer speeds, even allow users to simultaneously stream 8K footage directly to an LTO drive.

Additionally, offloading camera data directly onto tape allows post-production teams to have a quick copy for editing and archiving.

Very few production companies are in the same facility where filming is taking place, but because LTO tape can be easily shipped, it gets data where it needs to go in a timely and safe manner.

It’s also much less expensive to ship than to send those massive files via a file transfer online.

LTO technology with the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) has helped transform video storage in the media and entertainment industry.

LTFS makes categorizing and retrieving files in post-production easier than ever before – simply drag and drop files to and from the tape! It works just like a flash drive.

LTFS is important to the media industry in assisting with large file movement when bandwidth is constrained.

It also provides cross-platform and cross-vendor functionality.

Media professionals can have confidence in LTFS technology, which was recently named an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard (ISO/IEC 20919:2016).

Even more casual users like a wedding videographer can benefit by investing in LTO technology.

Taking into account the ceremony, reception, multiple cameras and pictures, all photos and videos from a single wedding could take up over 4 TB of data.

Much like production companies, these users will want to hold onto their footage for potential revenue sources down the line.

LTO has a whole line of products that work for any business, no matter their scale.

Backward compatibility is another bonus for customers who plan to hold onto tape for long periods of time.

Every generation of LTO drive is backwards compatible. Today LTO-3 drives, which can read the original LTO-1 tapes, are still being manufactured.

LTO technology is mapped out through ten generations. That means that tape will continue to be a cost-effective and reliable storage option for those managing post-production in the media and entertainment industry for years to come.