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VIDEO SURVEILLANCE Considering the 3- to 4-year lifespan of spinning disks, the 30-year longevity of LTO helps users avoid maintenance costs, ongoing monthly operational costs of electricity for all that spinning disk, and the cooling costs to keep those SAN/NAS units spinning. LTO as a video surveillance storage medium. Just as in the Hollywood market, there needs to be a way to reference the original video stored on LTO data tape without any prolonged delays. Just like Hollywood's video editors, video surveillance operators cannot afford to wait to search and playback recorded video. By implementing the use of low-resolution companion files, these reference files can be stored on spinning hard disk and consume a far smaller file size — thus storing a significantly longer period of time — and allow for quick and easy video playback. As in almost every video surveillance investigation, there is a fair level of forward or backward "scrubbing" to actually find the video of interest to review. These low-resolution companion files generate very low network bandwidth use with a great side effect of loading and playing very quickly. Lowresolution companion files enable operators to bounce around recorded video looking for something specific with little overhead. Then, just like a Hollywood editor, a surveillance video operator can select the snippet of video needed to deliver to HR/Police/ Court/etc with the companion file timestamp directing the system to the specific original, untouched and unaltered video clip located on the specific LTO cartridge. This taking but a few minutes of transfer time to complete. This best-practices approach to multitiered video storage also delivers appropriate "chain-of-custody" needed to submit the video as evidence in a court of law. However, it is the speed that surveillance video operators will care about most with the ability to quickly find the video they are interested in. Considering the 3- to 4-year lifespan of spinning disks, the 30-year longevity of LTO helps users avoid maintenance costs, not to mention the ongoing monthly operational costs of electricity for all that spinning disk and the cooling costs to keep those SAN/NAS units spinning, which tend to add up quickly. Implementing a sound multi-tiered video storage infrastructure with spinning disk for low-resolution companion files linked to unaltered original video stored on LTO enables more video to be stored for less cost and headache. Creating an LTO-Based System for your Customers The Business Case for LTO From a cost standpoint, this video storage system becomes a more superior infrastructure. Compare the acquisition costs of terabytes and petabytes of spinning NAS and SAN to the cost of an appropriate LTO data tape library, complete with robotics. The LTO implementation is significantly less expensive. 58 How do we create a disk-and-LTO infrastructure to provide customers what they need in video storage without breaking the bank? When contemplating a 21st century surveillance video management solution, a spinning disk-only approach harkens back to pre-Columbus days — there are better ways to reach the destination. Your customers generally want to store as much video as they can, they want to record at the highest resolutions and frame rates, and they want it as affordable as possible. So why not learn from our colleagues in the Hollywood market? I am confident that the video surveillance market will indeed adopt these workflow concepts that have been perfected in Hollywood and you will see increasing usage of metadata, low-resolution companion files and LTO storage devices. Embracing the sequential data structure format of video along with the use of LTO data tape delivers an ideal storage solution. Thanks Hollywood. ❚ Jay Jason Bartlett is the VP of WW Sales and Marketing for SoleraTec, software publishers of Phoenix VCM and Phoenix RSM video lifecycle management products for both the M&E; and video surveillance markets. Request more info on the company at www.securityinfowatch. com/10604799. www.SecurityInfoWatch.com | SD&I; | September 2013