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Swiss Broadcaster TPC Goes To Luxor

  Merging Technologies’ Luxor Media Server Chosen As The Backbone For Their Post-Production Workflow

Zürich, September 2011: TPC (Technology and Production Center Switzerland AG) has recently boosted their audio/video workflow efficiency through the addition of a failover cluster managed high-capacity Luxor media server. TPC has had long standing success with Merging products and has been progressively deploying Pyramix DAWs and VCube video players in their studios and mobile units since 2007 with a total of 12 Pyramix systems and 4 recently upgraded VCube HD units to date.

From a technological point of view Pyramix and VCube have always provided real-time audio and video streaming to and from any location in a shared network without restrictions like having to use dedicated SAN volumes, iSCSI emulation, or any other restrictive storage management protocols. Any network connection allowing for sufficient bandwidth may be used to stream media to and from Pyramix and VCube, whether copper-based 1/10Gigabit, optical Fiber Channel or mixed. This flexibility is why TPC has opted to centralize their entire audio production and post-production workflow on a Luxor which is specially designed, certified and installed by Merging.

Their 16 Terabyte Luxor consists of two clustered Microsoft Windows® Server Enterprise 2008 R2 64bit servers attached to an ultra-high performance 16 disk fiber channel storage bay. Luxor is seen by up to 70 clients as a single storage volume with full read/write access to all media volumes. All hardware components have fully redundant power supplies and redundant 10Gb fiber channel cabling. “Failover Cluster” managed dual-server allocation architecture insures automatic switching of control from the primary to the secondary clustered server, averting down-time in the event of a critical hardware failure of either one. So in the unlikely event that either server actually fails, the whole system recovers in just a few short seconds at full throughput capacity. Both clustered servers are attached to a 10Gb FC switch as well as the workstations allowing each Pyramix to run at full read/write track count capacity while each VCube streams HD picture leaving plenty of headroom for future expansion.

TPC’s Studio and Post-Production engineer, Martin Jacober had this to say: “Now we have almost completed our migration to a full MXF-based tapeless workflow, having a central server with “no-single-point-of failure” is absolutely essential to our facility. We have found that Luxor follows the Merging tradition and is a very efficient solution to speeding up our workflow.”

		TPC studio equipped with Merging hardware and software

About Merging Technologies

Merging Technologies SA is a Swiss manufacturer with over 20 years of experience in developing groundbreaking, professional Audio and Video products for a wide range of entertainment and media industries. With a dedicated user base in the elite end of the music, film, television, mastering and performances industries, Merging is committed to developing product ranges with unrivalled quality and flexibility, no matter what the application. Merging builds tools for people who want more from their systems, have an inherent need to push boundaries, and believe that quality always comes first, every time.