Media Distribution Facilities

Media Distribution Services operates a production and distribution facility on the Centennial Campus of NC State University, but the production process spans the entire NCSU campus.

MDS has worked diligently with our colleagues in VCS to create an end-to-end Digital Media System. The content origination begins in VCS “video classrooms” with the production of classes that are encoded into MPEG-2 files “real time” as the class is taught. The resulting file is transferred over the IP network to our MDS archive.

The MDS archive is a combination online, near line and off-line system. Class files are kept online in a RAID array for a period of time so master DVD creation and playback over cable channel 18 can be readily accomplished. The digital files are then written to DVD storage in a Pioneer FlexLibrary DVD system for future retrieval and long term storage (the near line component). As the FlexLibrary reaches capacity and as semester offerings of DVD classes change, DVD “magazines” are removed from the FlexLibrary so additional DVD’s may be made available. The system “knows” which files are not in the FlexLibrary device and will prompt staff to take them off the shelf and re-load them when those files are needed (the off-line component).

Interfacing with the storage system are a variety of devices and software applications that perform specific tasks.

The Pictron Video Gateway provides encoding resources and publishing capability for entering assets into the archive.

The Pictron Media Gateway houses the file metadata for searching of digital assets and provides overriding digital asset management.

The SelectNet system provides one-stop DVD authoring, prior to transfer to Rimage Autostar and DLN 5200 CD/DVD duplication systems that actually create the final product.