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09/08/2003 - Orange, CA

Professional Products, Inc. Relies on CaenAV Storage for Mission Critical Digital Asset Management Systems

Professional Products Inc., a high-end video systems integrator in the greater Washington DC-metro area knew that they needed to partner with a reliable, storage manufacturer as they began aggressively selling digital video acquisition and distribution systems. Jim Hatcher, Professional Products, Inc. Director of Technology knew exactly who to contact for reliable, cost-effective storage solutions.

“Reliability, throughput, price and support makes CaenAV storage a good fit,” said Hatcher. “Our customers are running mission critical digital video acquisition and distribution systems. These customers included broadcasters, government agencies and universities. CaenAV provides storage platforms that can handle the multi-channel and mission critical demands of our customers. There is no room for storage failure in this type of an environment. We need a storage solution that can be seamlessly installed and be counted on not to have to be babysat on a daily or even weekly basis. CaenAV provided us with that solution.”

CaenAV is a subsidiary of Caen Engineering, a 27 year-old storage company that has made their name in the government, IT and Telecommunications industries. CaenAV’s primary focus is on the high-end digital video and audio markets. For the military, Caen actually designed storage solutions that far exceeded industry specifications and standards for reliability and durability ensuring that regardless of where a storage solution was installed it would not fail. This engineering work up front has now filtered down into all Caen-manufactured storage solutions including those manufactured by CaenAV. CaenAV storage solutions are designed to consistently perform well above commonly held industry specifications. The CaenAV product line features a number of high-end storage solutions including 2 GB fibre channel, ultra SCSI and IDE RAID solutions.

Professional Products, Inc. felt that CaenAV’s Raptor 8 HD would provide them with the storage that they demanded at an affordable price in sites such as George Washington University and at Washington’s WJLA and News Channel 8. Both sites are capturing, indexing and streaming multi-channel video to the desktop. In the case of GW University’s Clinical Skills Center, 26 live video feeds are simultaneously being encoded, indexed and stored on 2 CaenAV disk arrays. Students and teachers have instant access to captured video at the desktop. At WJLA, low-resolution copies of video clips used in daily news broadcasts are stored on CaenAV disk arrays. These clips are simultaneously available on the desktop enabling a number of potential candidate clips to be viewed instantly and providing an easy interface for selecting the most appropriate clip for any given newscast.

Because of this need for constant disk access and instant availability a reliable storage solution was absolutely necessary. Ed Bacorn, a CaenAV sales representative, tells why CaenAV was the right choice. “In a newsroom setting so many things are happening so fast, split decisions are made every second, storage is the last thing that producers want to be concerned about. They need to know with a certainty that their video content will be there for them when they need it. That’s the beauty of the CaenAV solution. Our storage solutions have been manufactured from the ground up to have no single point of failure. From the RAID controller to the redundant power supplies CaenAV storage solutions are designed for the demand of the 24 by 7 broadcast facility.”

More information about CaenAV and Professional Products, Inc. can be found by visiting their web sites at www.caenav.com and www.professionalproducts.com respectively.

About CaenAV

CaenAV is a subsidiary of Caen Engineering, Inc., a globally recognized leader of RAID and general-purpose storage. Caen Engineering, Inc., with corporate headquarters in Orange, CA, has successfully marketed and sold high-end storage solutions into the government, military and IT markets for 27 years. CaenAV provides storage solutions for the digital audio, video, and animation markets.

About Professional Products, Inc.

Professional Products, Inc. is a national broadcast video and professional visual presentation systems supplier. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Professional Products Inc. is the one of nation’s premier systems integrator and design/build firms providing video audio sales, installation and service to leading corporations, sports venues, broadcasters, and government for over 37 years.