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Large-Scale Video Archiving?

Posted by Cliff on from the now-that's-a-lotta-data dept.

BondHeadGuy asks: "Ok, say you have 1000+ cameras emitting 30 frames/second worth of 640x480 grayscale video...and you have to store it indefinitely. What do you do? This is a real question, believe it or not. 30 frames/s * 300 KB/frame = 9 MB/s per camera. 100:1 video compression brings that down to ~90 KB/s. But 90 KB/s * 1000 cameras = 90 MB/s, or ~8 terabytes/day. Retrieval, though, can be essentially arbitrarily slow. Reliability should be good enough to not be annoying long term. Is there a solution that: has 8 TB/day storage capacity, can handle the 90 MB/s write speed, and lets you save some bucks on the (slow) read side?"

16 of 494 comments (clear)

  1. easy solution by donabal · · Score: 2, Funny

    simply get 1000+ computers with as many large SCSI hard drives as possible.

    [1000+ can easily be 10000+ or 100000000+, but lets be realistic :) ]

    not for nothing, but is this for either
    1. a reality based web-tv show
    2. some bizarre web porn thing
    3. some actual legitamite venture
    4. security issue ?

    hope you pull it off.

    --donabal

    --
    Safety First Day?
    1. Re:easy solution by athakur999 · · Score: 3, Funny

      1000 monkeys, $4000000
      1000 typewriters, $100000
      1000 cameras, $30000 per day

      Capturing the moment when one of the monkeys types the complete works on Shakespeare? Priceless.

      --
      "People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
  2. I think not p0rn... by Master_Ruthless · · Score: 3, Funny
    Didn't you notice the "retrieval can be arbitrarily slow" clause ? : )

  3. 1000 cameras? by GiorgioG · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's alot of simultaneous pr0n recording...

  4. Celestial Solution by kc0dby · · Score: 4, Funny

    and you have to store it indefinitely.

    Retrieval, though, can be essentially arbitrarily slow

    Oh, so your looking for a storage medium with infinite space but slow retrieval time?

    Easy. Free-Space Medium.

    Just use an extremely high gain antenna, a ton of power, and the space around us. Transmit the compressed data stream, aimed at a distant planetary body of your choosing. I would reccomend something in the 100 light year range or so. Now, when the waves hit the body and are reflected back to earth, you will have what is essentially a 100 light year long piece of storage.

    And when the waves get back to earth, the technology for terrestrial storage will be extremely inexpensive, and the reception equipment will be too.

    --
    I apparently forgot that sig != uptime...
    1. Re:Celestial Solution by p3d0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Right. So the waves that bounce off that mirror Mr. Alien is holding up won't come right back to us.

      I think a better idea is to aim the signal to intergalactic space, and then when you need the data, just wait for warp drive to be invented so we can fly past the data stream and receive it as it passes by.

      --
      Patrick Doyle
      I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  5. THE answer to your problems by Lalakis · · Score: 2, Funny
    I think /dev/null will be very happy to accept as much Terabytes you want. Write speed shall be no problem at all.
    Now, for data recovery as you said it may be as slow as it gets, something /dev/null certainly is.

    Throw your stuff to /dev/null and it will be very happy to watch your videos.

    1. Re:THE answer to your problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Given a retrieval time that is truely arbitrary (and approaches infinity), you can recover all your data from /dev/random. Actually, you don't even need to record your data to be able to recover it!

  6. Whole lotta TiVO's by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 3, Funny

    Get a thousand TiVO's. Why settle for AVI quality when you can see your terrorists and burglars in stunning MPEG-2?

  7. Who would need such a system? by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you work for that new "Homeland Security" agency??

  8. How About.... by John_Booty · · Score: 5, Funny

    /dev/null ???

    Pros: Extremely high write speed
    Cons: Hard to get data back out, but since "Retrieval... can be essentially arbitrarily slow" you've can just re-film whatever it was that you missed. With the money you save on the video gear, you should have a nice little production budget, too...

    --

    OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
  9. hah! by austad · · Score: 3, Funny

    Like we're going to tell you Mr. NSA/CIA/FBI/Big Brother. :)

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    Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
  10. Re:welll... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You could probably use the distributed file system capabilities built into Windows 2000 to help out with the storage and retrieval. It allows for integration with "jukebox" archival products, or can keep track of a "work queue" for manual retrieval of offline media, all very point and click and user friendly.

    Of course, nobody around here wants to hear that, so why don't you just go with some Linux thing where the user has to type "cat /dev/tape_retrieval/x123908473 >grep /poopoo/ -s -u -c -k|tar -xvf < make compile|more|less" to retrieve an image.

  11. I've got it. by anotherone · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just pay everyone on slashdot $10 to run a special version of morpheus. Then just send everyone feed from one camera. When you need to access it, just hope they're online.

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    Username taken, please choose another one.
  12. Re:Real-time 100:1 compression? by Theodrake · · Score: 2, Funny

    How does real-time compression take longer then real-time?

  13. Wait ten years by dotslash · · Score: 2, Funny



    Given Moore's Law, if you wait ten years, I will then lend you my palm top. It will probably be a bit overkill, but hey!