05 Apr 2016

An independent review - MiniSPACE reviewed in TM Broadcast International

GB Labs MiniSPACE - The Portable Black Box

Test bench made by and review written by Pablo Martínez and arranged by TM Broadcast International.

You can review the original content source beginning on page 105 in TM Broadcast here.

There were lots of questions from the audience, following which both GB Labs and our partner MediaTek were invited to a VIP lunch with the CEO of TRT a great honour.

Introduction

In this new issue of TM Broadcast I will be analysing one of the products of the GB Labs SPACE series: The MiniSPACE. The British company, GB Labs, have been manufacturing storage systems since 2000, through the continuous innovation of its products it has achieved considerable success. They have shown commitment, among others, for the post-production market, where they have extensive knowledge on main non-linear editing environments, which enables seamless system integration.

The MiniSPACE is a portable storage unit, perfect for any work environment, optimised for digital content management anywhere. It provides simplicity and advanced performance, along with centralised storage in any situation, both in fixed locations and possible editing facilities. When using it, you know for sure that editors work is supported at all times. It has a simple and user-friendly interface that can easily be integrated with highly advanced editing software; its installation does not need constant technical supervision, which makes this small black box a major stake in environments where reliability, speed and security are paramount, and this is definitely what we are looking for these days.

The SPACE series works with standard protocols, and therefore works with any existing infrastructure. With open Linux XFS, this servers file system offers maximum compatibility and guarantees access to data with no vendor lock-in.

One of the things that caught my attention most about GB Labs is its five golden rules, which apply to the manufacturing, development and implementation of its systems, and are based on 5 very clear concepts:

  • Fast
  • Easy to own
  • Expandable
  • Scalable
  • Feature Rich

They give us what we need to assess their products; they are designed to be quick in production environments. Plus, they use file systems and open standard network architecture, which guarantees that their systems are easy to install, update and maintain. Similarly, we should note the growing capacity by adding expansion modules, and its scalability to work with groups of 2 or 100 users, depending on the needs and integration of third parties. The SPACE series supports open standard file structures, and is compatible with all media formats, and with projects created by leading editing systems, effects and 3D applications. Its open architecture makes it the perfect complement for audiovisual asset management solutions, transcoding farms and animation and rendering systems.

Lets know more about it:

  • Portable storage system for use on location or in small studios.
  • Performance: Ideal for small-sized HD workgroups.
  • Connectivity: 1 Gb or optional 10 Gb.
  • Capacities: 4 TB or 8 TB.
  • Unit dimensions 270mm x 410mm x 220mm.
  • 8 hot swap drive compact portable model.
  • RAID 6 operation for ultimate data protection.
  • Supports any mix of Windows, Mac and Linux clients.
  • No user licensing costs.
  • No client software to install.
  • Quiet operation ideal for small office workgroups.
  • 4 off 1G Ethernet (GbE) ports for client connections.
  • 2 off 1G Ethernet (GbE) ports for system monitoring.
  • 1 off IPMI Ethernet port for hardware monitoring.
  • No new cabling or card adaptor.
  • Whether teams are using Adobe Premiere Pro, Grass Valley Edius, Avid Media Composer, AppleFinal Cut Pro or any other edit software, MiniSPACE delivers speed and stability for fast content creation.

GB Labs has turned the ownership and use of shared storage systems into a totally new experience. Mac, PC, Linux and OS in mix working groups can access files for their editing in an easy and quick way. Projects and content can be moved or copied into high-speed storage units, with integrated tools to manage automation data and a storage system connected to a level 1 network. It supports multiple HD simultaneous editors.