Iomega REV debuts in Grass Valley recording, storage devices

Iomega Corporation, celebrating 25 years of business, has announced the introduction of the Iomega REV drive portable storage system as a built-in storage standard in a new IT-based line of next-generation Grass Valley acquisition, recording and storage devices.

Grass Valley, a recognised leader in broadcast and professional acquisition and production, unveiled its new Infinity series of products that incorporate Iomega`s REV technology as a new recording medium at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam last week.

To provide the portability and cost-effectiveness of videotape with the speed, flexibility and ease of use of non-linear hard drive technology, the Grass Valley Infinity Digital Media Camcorder and Infinity Digital Media Recorder include the new REV Pro drive and removable disk.

These products are the first to use off-the-shelf Iomega REV removable disks as recording and playback media. The REV Pro 35GB disks will allow users to record more than two hours of SD (standard definition) or 45 minutes of HD (high definition) video with complete flexibility in the use of encoding and compression schemes.

"Iomega`s REV drive offers the professional audio/visual markets a superior cost-effective storage platform with remarkable capacity, throughput and durability," said Werner Heid, president and CEO, Iomega Corporation. "Grass Valley`s new breakthrough products showcase the superior capabilities of REV technology for professional storage needs in this market."

Grass Valley`s new REV Pro hardware is based on the Iomega REV 35GB drive, introduced in April 2004. To date, over 125 000 REV drives and 600 000 REV disks have been sold by Iomega to individuals, small businesses, government agencies and corporate offices as portable backup and archive storage solutions.

Grass Valley`s REV Pro disks will offer users superior performance at wide extremes of humidity, temperature and altitude. Master and user passwords provide content security with guaranteed corporate access. Each Grass Valley REV Pro disk will come preloaded with software for viewing, editing and metadata modifications on any PC.

"Our collaboration with Iomega to create the Grass Valley REV PRO disk has achieved one of the great goals of our industry - a completely open and extremely affordable recording medium for acquisition," said Marc Valentin, President of the Grass Valley business within Thomson. "With REV PRO we can deliver true random access while reading writing without losing portability or making the user pay a high price."

The Infinity camcorder is the first to use off-the-shelf Iomega REV or REV PRO removable disks and professional-grade CompactFlash solid-state memory as recording and playback media. The REV Pro disk provides video professionals with tremendous workflow efficiencies, including non-linear random access to video files, simultaneous playback while recording, and estimated 30-year archival storage.

Ideal for multi-format acquisition as well as migration from SD to HD, the Infinity camcorder provides a choice of video formats and standards selectable within the camera: 525i60, 625i50, 1080i50, 1080i60, 720p50, or 720p60. SD formats are selectable in either 16:9, 4:3 or letterbox aspect ratios. Users can encode video as DV25 (compatible with DVCam and DVCPRO), MPEG-2 for SD or HD, or the powerful JPEG 2000 compression scheme.

The Infinity Digital Media Recorder (DMR) is a low-cost VTR replacement that eliminates the compromises of tape-based video editing and playback. It uses off-the-shelf Iomega REV or REV PRO removable disks and professional-grade CompactFlash solid-state memory as recording and playback media.

This low-cost VTR replacement can be used anywhere a traditional VTR is used: as a field recorder, preview station, playout machine, or for ingesting material into editing environments. The Infinity Digital Media Recorder offers both SD and HD recording, choice of compression, and connectivity options. With multi-stream capabilities, the DMR can transfer SD video data while another source is being recorded.

REV Pro removable disks replace traditional videotape in the Infinity DMR because they are more rugged and durable, transfer video data at the speed of a hard drive, and offer random access to stored video clips. REV Pro disks replace videotape in the field, in preview rooms, in edit bays, in control rooms - anywhere VTRs are used. In addition, the DMR can be connected directly to a non-linear editing workstation or, for greater accessibility, it can be attached to a file server for immediate enterprise-wide use.

The extremely durable REV Pro removable disks provide the portability and cost-effectiveness of videotape with the availability, speed, flexibility and ease of use of true non-linear media such as hard disks. Smaller than a deck of playing cards (10 x 77 x 75 mm), the compact REV Pro disk stores 35GB, enough to record more than two hours of SD or 45 minutes of HD video.

REV PRO products use standard laptop hard drive components but are engineered to provide all the benefits of portability, removability and archivability. For the video professional, REV PRO products offer many advantages over standard REV products, including enhanced bandwidth capacity (110Mb/s real-time record/playback for throughput for HD video) along with the needed overhead support for audio, time code, and metadata tracks. REV PRO products also offer simultaneous record/playback capability and faster rendering speeds for non-linear editing systems. On-board applications include reverse, stop and forward, and browsing, logging and trimming.