G-Technology by Hitachi Showcases its First 4 TB Hard Drives

Post production pros know that you can never have enough fast, cool and reliable storage. Dedicated to serving the Apple Mac and creative professional audio/video (A/V) markets, G‐Technology by Hitachi is demoing its first 4TB hard drives at IBC 2011 (Stand #7.D12a) in its two‐drive, RAID 0, G‐RAID solution. Continuing to develop innovative and creative storage solutions for those looking to push creativity beyond the limits, the 8TB G‐RAID demo shows how G‐Technology is making digital production faster, super‐sized and affordable, giving users a competitive edge in the demanding entertainment and film industry.      

G‐RAID with Thunderbolt  Ã¢Â€Â  More than Just High‐Speed RAID

Not only does the G‐RAID Thunderbolt demo showcase the fastest interface you can find with data transfer rates up to 10 Gbps, it shows amazing sustained throughput for handling multi‐stream compressed HD workflows including REDCODE, DVCPro HD, XDCAM HD and ProRes 422 . At 8TB it is also the highest capacity, two‐drive, RAID 0 external storage device in the world for storing hours of clips, composites, digital intermediate (DIs), proofs, effects and more! And that’s not all. Connected to an Apple MacBook ® Pro, the G‐RAID solution enables a portable editing workstation to take on the road, in the studio or even use from the comfort of your own home to complete projects after hours. With blazing speed and huge capacity, you can easily transfer, capture, process or edit SD or HD video virtually anywhere!

All G‐RAID drives come pre‐configured in a RAID‐0 for maximum throughput and are specifically designed for video editing with excellent cooling and air flow. Its sleek, all‐aluminum enclosure acts as a heat sink, keeping the drives nice and cool, while a super‐quiet smart fan makes it a perfect fit in any audio or video post production environment. For easy set up, the G‐RAID solution is ready right out of the box for use with Mac OS X systems and appears to the system as a single, big and fast disk drive. The G‐RAID solution also supports Windows systems with a simple reformat. ¹    

Hitachi GST’s 4TB Hard Drives

Leveraging the high‐quality and time‐to‐market strength of Hitachi GST, G‐Technology by Hitachi will be incorporating Hitachi’s 4TB 7,200 RPM drives into its G‐RAID and G‐DRIVE solutions.  With ever increasing capacity needs with the use of high‐quality HD video formats, G‐Technology’s 4TB‐based solutions enable greater return on investment. By using the highest capacity drives, G‐Technology customers save by lowering the cost per GB of storage as compared to having the same total capacity using multiple lower capacity external drives. In addition, customers benefit from needing fewer external drives, which take up space and power, and create cable clutter. Just how much storage do you need?    Since there are substantial differences in storage requirements for the different types of high quality HD video files, G‐Technology provides this guide to show how much storage space ² you may need.

Every 1TB holds up to:

• 84 hours of HDV 1080i
• 17 hours of DVCPRO HD 1080/60i
• 30 hours of 2K RED
• 10 hours of ProRes 422 HQ
• 10 hours of 10 bit SD
• 2.5 hours of HD 1080/60i

“We understand the process of creation, and today, digital video editing is no longer facility‐driven ‘ It’s driven by the places and lifestyles of the people doing the work,” said Steve Pereira, vice president, Hitachi GST, Europe Middle East and Africa. “Our G‐RAID Thunderbolt demo connected to a MacBook Pro shows how our customers can get lightning speed and huge capacity in a single RAID 0 storage solution to easily edit anywhere. Built like a tank, our G‐RAID solution has been the cornerstone of our business, and we look forward to bringing our Thunderbolt‐based family and 4TB‐based solutions to the market. With G‐Technology’s high quality, high performance commitment, our customers can continue to focus on their work and not on their equipment.”    

G‐Technology will begin shipping its 4TB‐based G‐RAID and single‐drive G‐DRIVE solutions with eSATA, FireWire 800 (FireWire 400 via cable) and USB 2.0 ports in October. First in a family of solutions, the company’s Thunderbolt 4TB‐based G‐RAID and G‐DRIVE solutions will ship in Q4.

For more information: www.g-technology.com.