
-- --
SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE:
When it comes to the storage of media assets (or any data, for that matter), whether it's online or up on the cloud, there's no doubt that the immediate future of data storage remains magnetic tape. Recent technological advancements have given new life to hard drives, but when it comes to long-term archiving of assets, the tape or hard drive of the future could be something very old, something that everyone has inside them: DNA.
The first commercial digital-tape storage system, IBM's Model 726, could store about 1.1 megabytes on one reel of tape. Today, a modern LTO tape cartridge can hold 30 terabytes. Meanwhile, a single robotic tape library can contain up to 556 petabytes of data. While tape doesn't offer the fast read/write speeds of hard drives, the medium's advantages are many.
For starters, tape is reliable, with error rates four to five orders of magnitude lower than those of hard drives. They are energy efficient: once all the data has been written, the tape cartridge simply sits in a slot in a tape library without consuming any power until it's needed again. And tape is very secure, with built-in, on-the-fly encryption and if a cartridge isn't mounted in a drive, the data cannot be accessed or modified. The main reason why tape is so popular is simple economics. Tape storage costs one-sixth the amount you'd have to pay to keep the same amount of data on disks, which is why you find tape systems almost any place where massive amounts of data are being stored.
But, as mentioned, tape is slow, and so the development of hard drive technology continues. The longevity of hard disks, and the rapid rise of solid-state drives (SSDs), can be attributed to a continual improvement process to minimise the drawbacks of tape technology. The hard disk game changed dramatically in 2005 with perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), where, broadly speaking, magnetised bits stand perpendicular to the head of the hard disk platter instead of lying down, making room for more bits. However, after years of data density improvements using PMR (densities doubled between 2009 and 2015), researchers are once again hitting the physical limits: each magnetic bit' is becoming too small to reliably hold its data, increasing the potential for corruption.
Shingled magnetic recording (SMR), introduced by Seagate in 2014, is one way to fit more data on a disk's platter. In an SMR disk, when the write head writes a data track, the new track will overlap part of the previously written track, reducing its width and meaning more tracks can fit on a platter. The thinner track can still be read, as read heads can be physically thinner than write heads. Western Digital launched a 15TB SMR hard drive in 2018 targeting data centres, with plans to increase the capacity per rack by up to 60TB soon.
The next big thing is two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR). This is another Seagate technology, and aims to solve the problem of reading data from tightly packed hard disk tracks, where the read head picks up interference from tracks around the one being read. TDMR disks use multiple read heads to pick up data from several tracks at a time, then work out which data is needed, turning the noise into useful data that can be analysed and then discarded when not required. 14 and 16TB TDMR drives came onto the market in 2019.
The multiple read heads of TDMR disks can improve read speeds, but to improve write speeds while increasing data density you need to move away from SMR to the latest hard disk technology: heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). This aims to overcome the compromise of SMR by changing the material of the hard disk platter, to one where each bit will maintain its magnetic data integrity at a smaller size. As HAMR's name implies, the solution is to use a laser to heat up part of the hard disk platter before the data is written. This lowers the material's coercivity enough for the data to be written, before the heated section cools and the coercivity rises again to make the data secure. HAMR has the potential to increase hard disk density tenfold.
Therefore, both hard drive and magnetic tape technologies work for the storage and retrieval of data assets but the trouble is that technology is battling to keep up with the continual flood of data currently being generated, and forecast to be generated in the future. What's the solution? The hard drive of the future could actually be something very old, something that is inside every person reading this: DNA.
Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is the molecule that dictates how an organism develops. DNA can also hold a staggering amount of information: 215 petabytes (1 petabyte is about 100 million gigabytes) of data on a single gram. Just as impressive is its longevity. Traditional mediums like magnetic tape and flash memory tend to degrade, whether through repeated use or simply time. DNA degrades, too, but at a significantly slower rate: depending on the storage conditions, it can last thousands, or even tens of thousands, of years.
The idea of storing data on DNA was proposed back in the 1960s by Soviet scientist Mikhail Neiman. In the decades since, researchers have made great strides in making it achievable - though at a price. Currently, the most cost-effective DNA storage technique costs about US$3,500 per MB to write the data and US$1,000 per MB to read it, so don't retire your LTO or hard drive array just yet.
DNA's storage capabilities, however, are intriguing and have huge potential for computing in the future. For years, technology roughly followed the path laid out by Moore's Law, which stated that every two years or so, we could double the number of transistors that fit on a microchip. However, computer chips have become so small these day
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
27/04/2025
It's with deep regret that we share the passing of our dear friend Bruce Logan, ASC.
Bruce was not just a collaborator-he was family. He worked with us at ...
26/04/2025
NEW YORK Samsung Ads has debuted a new interactive advertising format, Creative Canvas, that helps automate and deliver interactive ads....
26/04/2025
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. Sinclair has appointed Vincent J. Sollecito vice president and general manager of WPEC, serving the West Palm Beach, Florida market....
26/04/2025
NEW YORK and DENVER AD-ID and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced that they are working together to promote the adoption of industry standards in ...
26/04/2025
Cobalt Scores a Trifecta of Awards at NAB 2025
Brie Clayton April 25, 2025
0 Comments
Company adds another Best of Show and two Product of the Year tr...
26/04/2025
FilmLight Colour Awards welcomes 2025 entries
Brie Clayton April 25, 2025
0 Comments
Entries open from 1 May 31 July to colourists on any grading pl...
26/04/2025
Blackmagic's Latest Products - Larry Jordan Guest Spots with Dan May at NAB ...
25/04/2025
Emily Watson, Isaiah Saxon, Helena Zengel, and Finn Wolfhard at The Legend of Ochi premiere (photo by Soul Brother/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
25/04/2025
Using its CORVUS portfolio, L3Harris created a highly adaptable battle network t...
25/04/2025
Agile Content joins forces with Tiscali to introduce a new platform in Italy, of...
25/04/2025
The company positions Agile TV as the commercial brand focused on delivering TVaaS solutions for operators and media.
The chosen tagline TVaaS your way enca...
25/04/2025
A Fully Managed Solution That Maximizes Revenue for North American Operators Whi...
25/04/2025
Morgan Murphy Media has issued the following obituary for its former CEO:...
25/04/2025
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has lifted its hold on grant money for some public broadcast stations to upgrade their infrastructure....
25/04/2025
Enhance Videos 80% Faster & Fix Format Issues with VideoProc - Major Update
Brie Clayton April 25, 2025
0 Comments
VideoProc Converter AI just got a m...
25/04/2025
Listen to Kim Perlak and Francisco Mela's New Album, Recorded in a Single Af...
25/04/2025
YouTube is celebrating its 20th birthday with stats showing how popular the platform has become and by announcing some new features, including the ability for u...
25/04/2025
BALTIMORE Sinclair, Inc. has announced the retirement of Dave Schwartz, its corporate senior vice president/station operations, effective June 30....
25/04/2025
The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) has released its popular CertPreview practice exams in a new, online format. SBE CertPreview allows people preparing to...
25/04/2025
ARLINGTON, Texas Two months after naming Tegna station KFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth its exclusive local broadcast partner for WNBA games, the Dallas Wings are expa...
25/04/2025
LOS ANGELES, Calif. Allen Media Group has announced that all 223 U.S. Markets covered by its Local Now FAST Channel are now available on the Vizio WatchFree+ st...
25/04/2025
Working with Shutterstock's AI Editor to Create Unique Images
Brie Clayton April 25, 2025
0 Comments
What's better than a stock image source? ...
25/04/2025
25 Apr 2025
VEON Files its 2024 Annual Report on Form 20-F Dubai, April 25, 2025: VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital operator ( VEON' or the Compa...
25/04/2025
Super Bowl Streaming Success: A Conversation with Tubi's Chief Product & Tec...
25/04/2025
Tariff Turmoil: Trump's Trade Policy Sparks Uncertainty at NAB and Increases...
25/04/2025
Friday 25 April 2025
Hot on the heels of the Irish Dancing World Championships ...
25/04/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Announces Release Date and First Look of The Thursday ...
25/04/2025
Connecting the present, building the future
FOR-A IMPULSE
HVS-Q12
FOR-A MixBoard...
25/04/2025
Following last year's successful event, we're back at the Media Production and Technology Show (MPTS) in London this year. As before, we're looking ...
25/04/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Enhancing Data Protection and Governance Service...
24/04/2025
We're huge fans of shining a spotlight on the documentaries that empower, en...
24/04/2025
Playlists have always been at the heart of the Spotify experience. Since AI Playlist in beta launched last year, Premium users have used it to create millions o...
24/04/2025
From the California desert and Chicago's Grant Park to New York City's Flushing Meadows Corona Park and beyond, music festivals this spring and summer w...
24/04/2025
The sounds of Asia are as diverse and vibrant as the continent itself. From the lively beats of Indonesian pop to the gritty rhymes of Pinoy hip-hop, the region...
24/04/2025
Highlights*
Revenue of $5.1 billion
Operating margin of 10.2%; Adjusted segment operating margin of 15.6%
Diluted EPS of $2.04; Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.4...
24/04/2025
For more than 50 years, the company's commercial approach to delivering resi...
24/04/2025
Century City, Calif. and Bilbao, Spain (July 8, 2024) - Ateliere Creative Technologies, a leading GenAI media software solutions company, and Agile Content, a l...
24/04/2025
Agile Content to Showcase Industry-Leading TV-as-a-Service Platform at IBC 2024
Bilbao, September 4th - Agile Content, a leading provider of Internet televisio...
24/04/2025
Boosting TVaaS in the German-speaking countries with expert integration and 24/7 local support
Bilbao/Wiesbaden, September 5th 2024 Agile Content and netorium...
24/04/2025
New partnership between Agile Content and GlobalDots promises to introduce automated multi-CDN solutions, optimizing content delivery and easing provider manage...
24/04/2025
Empowering operators with real-time content delivery optimization, improved video quality, and reliable end-to-end service visibility
Amsterdam, Netherlands, S...
24/04/2025
Agile Content joins forces with Convergenze to introduce a new platform in Italy, offering a wide range of premium content for all audiences.
Bilbao, September...
24/04/2025
Bilbao, October 10th 2024 - Agile Content, a global provider of PayTV end-to-end solutions, has received the Bronze EcoVadis Sustainability Rating. This ranking...
24/04/2025
Through this agreement, MASORANGE will incorporate new AGILE CONTENT technologies into its television service, enhancing customer experience with optimum servic...
24/04/2025
The company reports positive results in the third quarter, despite ending the first half of 2024 with an 8.8% decline in revenue and an 18.3% drop in EBITDA com...
24/04/2025
Agile Content joins forces with Tiscali to introduce a new platform in Italy, offering a wide range of premium content for all audiences.
Bilbao, November 26,...
24/04/2025
The company positions Agile TV as the commercial brand focused on delivering TVaaS solutions for operators and media.
The chosen tagline TVaaS your way enca...
24/04/2025
A Fully Managed Solution That Maximizes Revenue for North American Operators While Combining Traditional Cable TV and OTT Apps in one Single Interface.
Bilbao,...
24/04/2025
The Entertainment Hub is a fully integrated TV solution that represents a significant step in redefining the white-label TV business model for operators across ...