Catapult® Server


catapult disk access demonstration
Catapult disk access demo

Networked Media Transfers and Review for Global Post-Production Workflows

Redefining networked media transfers and review, the Catapult® suite of products delivers unprecedented point-to-point performance by utilizing standard networking infrastructure. The Catapult® protocol addresses the shortcomings of common network protocols such as FTP, NFS and CIFS and bridges the gap between local and wide area transfers, which extends to film scanning and remote review of uncompressed frame sequences.

Using any standard Ethernet or InfiniBand interconnect, Catapult® Server is capable of delivering the same local throughput performance of storage arrays out to network connected systems irrespective of local or wide area connections. Disk fragmentation caused by out-of-order block writes to disk arrays is a major problem for most storage vendors. Th Catapult® protocol has been designed to solve this issue, see "Catapult® disk access demo" for more details.


Features
Slingshot
Flipstream
Catapult® Control
Product Matrix
 
WAN transfers with Encryption
Catapult® Server's highly efficient transport protocol supports wide area networks (WAN). High latency (200ms+) WAN throughput is maximised for low bandwidth (<1 Megabit) through to high bandwidth networks (10 Gigabit).

Bandwidth management provides precise on-the-fly control of WAN utilisation, allowing for dynamic adjustment of in-progress transfers. 256-bit AES encryption is provided for data traversing untrusted networks, for both file transfers and frame review.

Lossless WAN transit compression

Transfer speed graph

Transfer comparison
The Catapult® protocol provides integration with JPEG2000 for seamless transit compression options. Uncompressed DPX frames can be transfered at virtual speeds of up to 2x of the actual network bandwidth for lossless and 10x for visually lossless (DCI Quality).

In addition to DPX frames, matching JPEG2000 frames can be written on both sending and receiving sides.
Turn your existing shared or local storage into Catapult-enabled storage
Catapult® Server is ideal for environments with existing SAN and local attached storage infrastructure. High speed storage can be shared easily over standard Ethernet LAN connections at SAN speeds. Disconnected local storage arrays become more accessible, and SAN quality access expanded without additional SAN licenses. Catapult® Server's predictable stream access characteristics make for SAN friendly loads, with large, in order, read and write sizes. These features present unique pipeline performance improvements in the areas of frame sequence migration, frame quality assurance and frame acquisition.
Scan 2K and 4K over Gigabit Ethernet
Catapult® Server fully supports Arri film scanners. Transparent integration with ARRISCAN host servers provides a one step, full speed, scan and transfer to any Catapult® Server over single or dual Ethernet connections. Frames are optimally stored on disk arrays, ready for immediate real-time streaming. No more waiting for scans to complete and transfer to realtime capable storage. No more waiting for a compressed proxy process (e.g. Quicktime, AVI). With Flipstream, uncompressed DPX files may be reviewed immediately over inexpensive Ethernet infrastructure.

Additional Features & Benefits
  • Utilise multiple Gigabit Ethernet interfaces simultaneously for a single point-to-point transfer.
  • Supports 10GbE Ethernet or the latest 10, 20 and 40 Gigabit InfiniBand interconnects.
  • Move 8K+ frames around your facility with ease.
  • Transfer data efficiently from and to external USB or Firewire storage
  • Supports multiple concurrent Slingshot and/or Flipstream client connections.
  • Wiretap Support for direct access to StoneFS volumes.
  • Results are substantial even for single Gigabit connected commodity desktop systems.
Contact XDT for more information on Catapult® Server