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LaunchPad: Sun StorEdge Media Central

It used to be easy to think about the television and the computer as two entirely different mediums, each with their own distinct audiences and preferred uses. But advances in digital technology are making those distinctions less obvious today, and along with the explosive growth of the Web, new broadcasting models are emerging that are changing the media landscape dramatically.

Not only are companies looking for new solutions that can simplify the management and distribution of their video assets, they are also looking for ways to rein-in their operational costs and leverage opportunities from the traditional world of broadcasting all the way to the Web.

A Truly Open Digital Media Platform

To help companies address these new challenges, Sun is announcing Sun StorEdge Media Central Platform, the first truly open digital media platform for managing and distributing digital media. StorEdge Media Central is the only platform in the industry designed to merge the worlds of broadcast and the Web. Once stored, digital assets can be searched for, retrieved and edited for reuse in many different ways for a variety of media distribution channels. For example, digital news feeds used for the 11:00 news can be repurposed and sent over the Web .

The extensible software platform allows third-party developers to rapidly customize digital media applications for a broad range of markets and platforms through Java APIs. StorEdge Media Central enables time-saving solutions for a wide range of media industries via three core technologies:

Video Storage Manager - a guaranteed rate file system that loads and unloads data.
Video Server Session Manager - which handles interfacing with the codecs for capture and playout as well as the management and manipulation of video streams.
Video Component Manager (video beans, components written to the Java programming language) - which facilitates the quick and easy plug-in of third party or custom applications.

Despite the fact that digital content management and distribution solutions will enable new levels of efficiencies for media companies, many companies are grappling with choices that are limiting because of the proprietary solutions vendors now offer. StorEdge Media Central continues Sun's long standing tradition of providing open computing platforms.

Sun is already working with multiple strategic allies in the developer community to take digital media solutions to the next level. In addition, Sun is making StorEdge Media Central available through the community source licensing model which means the source code is available for research and development purposes at no charge.

Long Live The King

In the media world, content is king, and for most media companies managing and distributing content is a mission-critical task. This makes the move to digital media more compelling than ever before. With StorEdge Media Central, Sun combines the rich feature set found in proprietary systems with the flexibility, choice and low-cost benefits of an open market solution.

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