BBC Broadcast of Millennium Kick Off to Rely on Powerful Visualization System from Ciprico and SGI UK.Business Editors & Technology Writers MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 28, 1999 Ciprico Inc. (Nasdaq:CPCI See CompactPCI. ) today announced that the BBC's (British Broadcasting Corporation (company) British Broadcasting Corporation - (BBC) The non-commercial UK organisation that commissions, produces and broadcasts television and radio programmes. The BBC commissioned the "BBC Micro" from Acorn Computers for use in a television series about using computers. ) 28-hour New Years' broadcast 2000 Today will be relying on Ciprico Fibre Channel high-speed digital storage to support unique real-time special effects special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. generated by SGI Onyx The SGI Onyx is a series of visualisation systems designed and manufactured by SGI, introduced in 1993 and offered in two models, deskside and rackmount. The Onyx's basic system architecture is based on the SGI Challenge servers, but with the notable inclusion of graphics hardware. 2(TM) computers with InfiniteReality2(TM) visualization subsystems. The millennium broadcast is co-produced by WGBH Boston and backed by a consortium of 61 television stations worldwide that will dynamically provide and share in the programming seen worldwide by an audience estimated at 800 million people. The ambitious project will enable viewers on every continent to share in the excitement of the dawn of the new millennium with a truly global celebration. Beginning at 9:15 a.m. GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) See UTC. GMT - Universal Time 1 (3:15 a.m. US CST CST abbr. 1. Central Standard Time 2. convulsive shock treatment CST Central Standard Time Noun 1. ) on December 31st, the broadcast will follow the sun westward across 24 time zones to provide a unique glimpse of the world as the new millennium arrives. 2000 Today will include both live feed and pre-recorded video content contributed by the BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. and the other members of the consortium (via satellite), which will then be woven into continual programming and distributed back to the participants on a different satellite distribution system. Each station will be able to cut in for however much of the broadcast they wish to carry. In all, 60 satellite paths, several thousand miles of fibre optic cable Noun 1. fibre optic cable - a cable made of optical fibers that can transmit large amounts of information at the speed of light fiber optic cable transmission line, cable, line - a conductor for transmitting electrical or optical signals or electric power and some 2000 cameras will be deployed. Special effects Program developers are also planning World Locator special effects that will realistically pinpoint the individual broadcast locations for 2000 Today by viewing the earth in 3D from a vantage point in space and zooming in on it. SGI's European headquarters in the UK developed the special effects applications specifically for 2000 Today, providing technical guidance and equipment to the program's developers to make it all happen. World Locator offers an unprecedented level of functionality and quality of image resolution. "Based on what the 2000 Today production team described for us, we knew that only SGI Onyx2 processors with Ciprico 7000 Series Fibre Channel disk arrays could accomplish what they wanted to do," said Rob Jenkins, SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. Consulting. "Because the programme is live, the application has to be manipulated in real time to respond to last minute schedule changes. It also demands first class quality graphics. These requirements have traditionally been mutually exclusive Adj. 1. mutually exclusive - unable to be both true at the same time contradictory incompatible - not compatible; "incompatible personalities"; "incompatible colors" because the rendering of high-resolution images is extremely time consuming. It was clear that using the Ciprico disks for the image library with the Onyx were a must. The applications themselves drove the need for them," he continued. "Nothing else would have worked." "The sheer amount of data needed to generate these real-time rendered images is quite amazing," said Ciprico Market Manager Dennis Pederson, "but the 7000 disk arrays have proven they have the performance to carry it off well. Furthermore, the 7000s' RAID capabilities ensure that, come New Years Eve, that image storage library will be up and running, and those images will be available. The engineers who are coordinating this dynamic project can have confidence that the arrays will continue running at full performance levels, allowing 2000 Today to be broadcast around the world without a hitch." To learn more about the broadcast In the US, 2000 Today will be carried by WGBH, PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, , and ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. . Additional information about the broadcast can be found at the following websites: www.wgbh.org/wgbh/tv/pipeline www.bbc.co.uk/info/news/news118.htm www.pbs.org/whatson/press/winspring/pbsmillennium.html About SGI SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with European headquarters based in Theale, Reading, the company is located on the Web at www.sgi.com/global/uk/. About Ciprico Ciprico designs, manufactures and markets high-performance, direct-attached and networked storage solutions, including intelligent hardware, software and professional services. Ciprico storage solutions are designed for visual computing applications ranging from high-speed data capture, through processing and analysis, to real-time playback at sustained performance levels. Ciprico is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. More information about Ciprico is available on the World Wide Web at www.ciprico.com. (c) 1999 Ciprico Inc. Ciprico is a registered trademark of Ciprico Inc. Products mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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