Sony Corp's Akiro Endo and Dinesh Sawhney focused on media asset management, a topic that offers vast potential in the burgeoning broadcasting industry in India. They dwelt on the company's product offerings, which help convert analog video archives into digital tapes that are easily catalogued, accessible and secure.

According to Sawhney, CNN has already used Sony software in a two-year-old project to convert 50,000 hours of video archives in this fashion. Analog tapes, the conventional method of storing data, suffer from quality deterioration as well as outmoded methods of searching for particular files. The Peta site mass storage system and the Peta serve HSM system, patented by Sony, allows search and re-purposing of content, enables news broadcasters to provide comprehensive information, as well as allows them to prepare for video on demand (VOD) services that may enter India in the near future. Upto 11.2 petabybes of information can be stored in a modular and scalable manner.

Archive migration in digital mode thus allows organizations to create a multi media repository, which will allow local as well as remote access using web browsers to trawl for data. Sony's HSM system also enables partial retrieval of files, making broadcasting newsrooms more efficient while searching archives, Sawhney said.

Citing another example, Sawhney said that HBO too has used the Peta serve system for video archive storage, and uses its automated facility for pre-programming up to 48 hours of its promos, so that no manual intervention is necessary to play them on the channel during that period.