Sun first to introduce industry's most scalable, affordable video servers for the enterprise

Business Wire, Oct 10, 1995

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 1995--Sun Microsystems Computer Company today unveiled the first complete line of video servers targeted at the enterprise, offering the industry's best scalability and affordability and designed specifically for network-based interactive video.

The Sun(TM) MediaCenter(TM) 5, 20 and 1000E build on Sun's server, networking, and client/server expertise and feature unique software that now allow companies to manage, distribute and integrate video as a common data type into existing corporate networks.

The new Sun MediaCenter systems, optimized for continuous video delivery, provide a cost-effective platform for the development and deployment of enterprise video solutions. The systems scale from workgroup to enterprise performance levels and feature a low cost of entry and modular growth path.

"With these systems, we have essentially overcome server performance bottlenecks to deliver uninterrupted, full-motion video streams across enterprise networks at an affordable price," said Anne Schowe, vice president and general manager of Sun's Interactive Services Group (ISG). Sun MediaCenter systems give businesses a unique, tightly integrated and balanced system design featuring Sun MediaCenter software, device drivers and state-of-the-art Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) and ATM (155 Mbps) network interfaces.

From Box to Business in About an Hour

Shipped fully pre-configured, the Sun MediaCenter is quickly plugged in and network-ready in about an hour. The open architecture of the Sun MediaCenter supports multiple client types, including workstations, PCs and interactive set-top boxes. Clients can be location-independent of the Sun MediaCenter and can receive video streams over the enterprise network, the Internet or any WAN or VAN (value-added network). The modular design and flexibility of these systems enable companies in industries such as retail, telco, financial services and broadcast/cable and in educational institutions to rapidly develop and deploy interactive services.

The Most Affordable Interactive Solution

"While SGI, Hewlett-Packard and others have chased the widely-publicized consumer market, Sun has focused on a more immediate and pragmatic opportunity -- the enterprise," said Ed Zander, president of Sun Microsystems Computer Company. "No one else has the partners, the product line, the entry price and the price/performance that Sun offers today."

The Sun MediaCenter product line is the industry's most scalable and affordable platform for video-on-demand (VOD) and near video-on-demand (NVOD) applications. Delivering up to 12 MPEG-2 (or 33 MPEG-1) concurrent video streams at a sustained throughput rate of 50 Mbps, the Sun MediaCenter 5 is ideal for workgroups and as an interactive solutions development platform. Priced at US$29,995, the entry-level configuration of the Sun MediaCenter 5 includes 8.4 gigabytes (GB) of media (video) storage, which provides capacity for six 30-minute true VOD MPEG-2 (or 16 MPEG-1) titles. An additional 2.1 GB of internal general purpose storage is provided for interactive solutions development.

The Sun MediaCenter 20, starting at US$62,995, is well-suited for small- to mid-sized organizations. Using two SuperSPARC(TM)-II processors, it supports up to 25 MPEG-2 (or 70 MPEG-1) concurrent streams with a sustained throughput of 100 Mbps. The system's 16.8 GB Media Storage Array has capacity for twelve 30-minute MPEG-2 (or 32 MPEG-1) titles.

The Sun MediaCenter 1000E, designed for large department and enterprise applications, reaches 100 concurrent MPEG-2 (or 270 MPEG-1) streams at a total throughput of 400 Mbps. Starting at US$279,995, the Sun MediaCenter 1000E incorporates four SuperSPARC CPUs and a 63 GB Media Storage Array with the ability to store and deliver fifty 30-minute MPEG-2 (or 130 MPEG-1) titles. All systems will ship in December 1995.

The Sun MediaCenter Software and Solaris(TM): High Performance and Rich Functionality

The Sun MediaCenter software runs on the Solaris(TM) 2.4 product, the industry leading UNIX operating environment. The Sun MediaCenter software incorporates multiprocessing, multithreading, a specially designed Media File System supporting RAID 4 parity disk and file striping, highly-optimized network and device drivers and network management tools. Remote or local system administration is made easy through the use of tools for creating, deleting and reconstructing the Media File System and for managing streams and system and server software over the network via SNMP agents.

An integral part of the Media File System software is the comprehensive Media Services layer. These services provide for content and asset management, title load/unload, stream scheduling, data migration and video streaming to the network interfaces.

For developers of enterprise interactive and value-add applications, the Media Services API (application programming interface) provides an open, public client/server interface for accessing all Sun MediaCenter software services, including stream scheduling, content and system management. The API is compatible with popular multimedia authoring tools, the SunSoft(TM) developer toolsets, and Sun's Java(TM) and Hot Java(TM) technologies.