Governing data
Adelaide’s Flinders University has seen the first Australian deployment of a new large-scale high-capacity storage system for CCTV data.
The ADPRO by Xtralis V3500 has previously been deployed by the European Parliament in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg, as well as in multiple locations by DHL, Volkswagen, and Renault, among others. Designed for deployment in an enterprise data centre, the V3500 is suited to government, logistics and critical infrastructure applications.
The high-capacity digital recorder/server provides virtually unlimited encrypted network video storage using Xtralis’ patent-pending process to dramatically reduce power consumption, Cold Disc Technology (CDT).
CDT systems have been designed to power up only the minimum number of hard discs required for recording, reducing energy consumption without compromising performance. Unlike other storage servers, such as RAID, that use constantly running hard discs to record video streams and security data, the V3500 server with CDT dynamically routes data to multiple on-board hard disc storage modules. This distributed approach to data storage allows modules to be powered down when not in use, offering a reduction in energy consumption and heat dissipation of more than 50 per cent compared to traditional storage options. The V3500 storage modules are also hot swappable, allowing for simple data archiving and infinite scalability.
The V3500 system comprises a number of parallel storage channels connected to a network via a dual Ethernet connection. The collection of channels forms a storage cluster, which handle the pulling of the connected devices using an individual data stream.
The dual channel Ethernet port connection gives the system architecture a simultaneous connection to two network switches, reducing risk of switch failure. Storage boxes are interfaced over a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) bus to the server in a daisy chain connection. Each of the storage boxes is a ‘just a bunch of discs’ (JBOD) type box, allowing the server full individual control of each disc.
All data is encrypted on the disc, allowing disc reading in any V3500 storage box protected by an encryption key. A proprietary formatting process prepares a disc for storage, writing data to the disc in a secure mode and keeping track of origin data and lifetime.
The recorder stores proprietary formatted video streams on each disc and as this process is an almost exclusive write operation, it minimises the need for hard disc head movement.
When a hard disc approaches capacity, another disc with available space will begin to spin up under command from the management system in the server. When the disc is full, it will get a spin-down instruction. Spin up/spin down of the hard discs prevents premature mechanical failure, and reduces electric power and air-cooling energy consumption. This also simplifies hard disc caddy swapping and provides for high-volume archiving.
The archiving software stores in its database all recording stream starts/stops on a V3500 disc, making the link between time, camera, and disc-unique ID. The disc-unique ID is generated in the formatting process and can be optionally attached as a label or RFID tag to the physical hard disc caddy.
For ease of use, the system provides the operator with a search facility and will either offer the stream live on screen, or provide the unique ID of the hard disc caddy on which the images can be found.
An V3500 cluster is able to split camera streams over two separate channels, providing redundant recording with the highest reliability that can be obtained and avoiding any single point of failure. The V3500 server and storage system is able to store video streams coded in MJPEG, MPEG4 and H264 from different sources simultaneously.
In most cases, the V3500 is provided as a complete hardware and software solution, but original equipment manufacturer opportunities exist for creation of a storage channel with specific servers and a JBOD-type storage box. The V3500 software monitors activity, fault detection and performance per channel, and controls and reports alarm conditions to the control centre.
Energy-efficient initiatives reap significant cost savings in an economic environment where every operational cost is closely scrutinised. For the end-user, the ADPRO V3500 and CDT system by Xtralis delivers these energy savings, alongside service-friendly architecture with auto-balancing processing and storage, and high-reliability central and decentralised storage support.