Sony Unveils Second Generation of Optical Disc Archive

New High-performance Hardware and Media Double Transfer Speeds and Increase Storage Capacity to 3.3 TB

Dubai, UAE, April 20, 2016:   Sony is unveiling the second generation of its Optical Disc Archive System which adopts a new, high-capacity optical media developed jointly by Sony and Panasonic.  

This newest media is rated with a 100 year shelf life, doubles the capacity of a single cartridge to 3.3 TB and comes to market at a new, reduced price. Generation 2 of Optical Disc Archive System also introduces 8-channel optical drive unit¹ doubling read/write speeds over the previous generation, accommodating 4K video in real time and meeting the storage market’s ever-increasing data needs. 

Reliable long-term storage with broad compatibility

Optical Disc Archive was launched in 2013 and is already widely used by broadcasters, sports organizations, corporations, schools and production companies. It delivers extremely reliable long-term storage and provides stable operations with eco-friendly power consumption.   Sony has long embraced an open platform approach for broad compatibility, providing technologies and support to encourage other manufacturers to develop supporting products for Optical Disc Archive.  As of April 2016, 42 companies have announced their support and have created interfaces for Optical Disc Archive.

Most modular, scalable system 

Optical Disc Archive technology is designed for use in near-line applications, deep archive storage or disaster recovery systems. Hardware configurations range from stand-alone - to large scalable robotic archive systems. The main components of Optical Disc Archive Generation 2 include: a stand-alone USB drive unit (ODS-D280U), an 8Gb fibre channel library drive unit (ODS-D280F), for use in robotic systems, and the Optical Disc Archive media cartridge (ODC3300R).
“Optical Disc Archive is one of our most modular technologies,” said Vivian Saldanha, Business Head – Broadcast & Media, Sony Professional Solutions MEA. “It can scale from a table top drive accepting a single cartridge at a time up to a library that supports petabytes of data. This technology crosses a number of markets and applications, and can be tailored to meet the unique requirements of individual organizations.” 

Expanding Optical Disc Archive Customers

Acceptance of Optical Disc Archive has been steadily growing with the following new customers:

Customer Name: Alabama Public TV APTV (US), ATM Grupa (Poland), ATV (Turkey), Beijing Television (China), Capitol Broadcast (US), Carolina Panthers (US), China Central Television (China), China Education Television (China), KUAC-TV (US), National Film Board of Canada (Canada), San Marino RTV (San Marino), Sun TV Network Limited (India), Universität Mozarteum Salzburg (Austria), Wells Fargo (US), WRAL (US)

Furthermore, in order to achieve higher efficiency based on improved Read/Write performance and higher capacity, the key broadcasters listed below are planning to adopt Optical Disc Archive Generation 2 into their daily operations:

Customer Name: Artear (Argentina), Golf Channel (US), KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) (Korea), RTRS (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation (Japan), University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland)

Several key broadcasters, such as Polsat, Sony Pictures Television and ZDF, also plan to conduct “Proof of Concept” (PoC) trials using the Optical Disc Archive Generation 2.  

• Polsat (Poland) will evaluate Generation 2 library as candidate technology for their Disaster Recovery solution.
• Sony Pictures Television (US) is looking to utilize an automated workflow to employ Optical Disc Archive as the primary archival medium for original camera negative.  
• ZDF (Germany) will evaluate a small Generation 2 library as candidate technology for future solutions.

Promoting the Wide Use of Optical Disc 

Sony Optical Archive Inc. (US), a fully owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, recently announced a new library system called Everspan.  The new system incorporates both the newest optical media and newly designed drives for large-scale robotic systems targeted specifically at data centers. This market expansion further advances the use of optical media in the storage market and facilitates a stable supply of both optical media and drives.

Sony will continue incorporating new technological advances into its archive systems, ensuring continued reliability for decades to come.

The new Stand-alone USB Drive Unit (model ODS-D280U), fiber-channel library drive unit (model ODS-D280F) and Optical Disc Archive Cartridge (model ODC3300R) are planned to be available in summer 2016.

1.    As of April 2016, according to Sony investigation.