EVS Xfile Version 2.16 - November 2011 User Manual - Manual (Page 11)

XFile Version 2.16 – User Manual
EVS Broadcast Equipment – November 2011
Issue 2.16.A
1
1. Introduction
Digital Archiving on removable media
The XFile has access to all footage recorded on EVS video servers through the
SDTI network. When a clip is created on one of the servers, a copy is
automatically transferred to XFile in the file format selected in the setup.
This copy is a background process, and has a lower priority on the network
compared to real-time transfers between servers for remote playback, in order not
to disturb the live production in any way. If the network is not very busy, the
transfer to the removable media can be performed several times faster than real-
time. As soon as real-time transfers are required on the network, the backup
process is slowed down to make enough bandwidth available to guarantee these
new requests.
Each clip is saved as a separate file on the removable media, including not only
video, audio and time code information, but also all metadata associated with that
clip: name, descriptors, creation date, original location (server s/n, register), etc.
The transfer between an EVS video server to the XFile is a data transfer, i.e. no
decoding/encoding process takes place at any point, preserving the original
quality of the footage, including super-motion character if applicable.
The XFile is installed on a XF2 which is equipped with 2 removable media. They
can work as mirrored drives: each clip is automatically saved as 2 separate files
on these drives. This provides a security copy in case of drive failure, and also
gives the possibility to send these 2 drives to 2 different locations/studios after
the show. Each removable media has a capacity of 1 TB or 2TB, 85 or 170 hours
of footage at standard bit-rate. More XFile stations can be inserted on the network
if more archive copies are required.
The XFile can also be used as a security backup of the network: should one server
lose its footage for any reason (accidental delete for instance), clips can be
restored from the XFile to any other EVS video server on the network.