EVS Xfile Version 2.19 - November 2012 User Manual - Manual (Page 11)

XFile Version 2.19 – User Manual
EVS Broadcast Equipment – November 2012
Issue 2.19.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.
All Super-motion clips, created on any networked EVS video server, are stored by XFile
amongst the normal files. The 75 fps nature of such material is maintained during