Video and media servers, 2nd ed.

Video and Media Servers, Second Edition provides a technical understanding of video-analog or digital-with answers to many questions that surround tapeless, digital disk, and server based video distribution. Up-dated to address the universal shift towards the use of servers for the storage and delivery of video media, this book covers such timely issues as digital television broadcasting, the acceptance of compressed digital video and storage, video-on-demand, pay-per-view, and streamed media on the internet. The new edition includes: updates on changes in digital disk recorders, theories of storage area networks (SAN), and streaming media. Covering comparisons of network attached storage (NAS) vs SAN, principles of ftp and gigabit Ethernet, and how the video server is being purposed for web and internet, this new edition offers readers invaluable insights into the most modern technologies. Theories of servers (at the local server domain and in CentralCasting), non-video based servers, how to bridge IT based servers to video servers and vice versa, more on fibre channel networking, and an introduction to MAM (media asset management) are also included.

CONTENTS: Video and Media Servers: The Journey Begins, Disk Recording: A Brief History, One Step Before the Server, Distinguishing the DDR from the Video Server, DDRs Emerging into Sideline Uses, Selecting the Video Server, Video Server Systems, Server Configuration Basics, Media Server Architectures: The Front End Processor, Media Server Architectures: Video Server I/O, The Disk Dilemma, Where Servers Fit, Issues with Servers and Digital Systems, Living in the Digital Domain, Digital Storage Solutions for the Long Run, Storage and Information Retrieval Management, Media Management and Automation, Facilities for the Information Age, The Model Changes, Shared and Distributed Server Environments, Video Server Systems, Storage Area Networks, Streaming Media Servers, Clustering, Non-Video Based Servers, Large Scale Systems, Network Basics, Connections at the Network Level, Introducing Packets, Inside ATM

Technical staff and technical management at video/broadcast facilities and networks, as well as technical/engineering staff in related broadcast/video systems and equipment development and manufacturing companiesSystems integration firms, a