By Kire Terzievski, RMIT Test Labs
June 18th, 2002.
JVC jukebox - Stack 'em up
While single discs can store up to 9GB of data today, and conceivably much more in the future, if you're generating hundreds of megabytes of data every day, even this is not enough. There are a wide range of recordable jukeboxes available, which can store hundreds of recordable or rewritable discs, and can load these discs into a drive on demand. Jukeboxes are available from vendors such as JVC, MDI, NSM, Pioneer, Plasmon, and Rorke Data. We had a look at a JVC jukebox.
The MC-8100U is a digital storage system from JVC Professional. It was designed to be flexible and an end to end solution for cataloguing, storage and retrieval. The MC-8100U is suitable for archiving anything from text-based documents to high-resolution images and digital audio and video files.
One of the key uses for this technology is the cataloguing, storage and retrieval of real-time video. Some other common applications for the MC-8100U include the need for document imaging. For a fast way to store massive amounts of electronic invoices, bills, and receipts the 8100U would be perfect. This device would also be useful in the medical industry where there is a high demand for the storage of image data such as CTS and MRI. The MC-8100U features industry standard removable media and you have the choice of any combination of drives including DVD-RAM, DVD-R, CD-RW, and CD-ROM. The MC-8100U can fit up to four drives while the 8200U and the 8600U can hold up to six drives. The MC-8100U can house 100 discs, which means it can store up to 940GB of data on double-sided DVD-RAM media. The 8200U can store 1.88TB and the 8600U a whopping 5.64TB of data.
All the 8000 series jukeboxes use a high-speed disc changer and flip mechanism. The flip mechanism comes in handy if you're using double sided media. You can also buy an optional disc printer. The printer is fully automated which means it will print labels in full colour directly onto the discs after recording.
We had a technician come out from Data Storage Solutions to install the MC-8100U. We needed a SCSI-2 card in our test-bed to connect the test-bed to the jukebox. The technician also installed the OTG software Archive Xtender. Archive Xtender is an impressive piece of software that presents the data on all media as a single drive letter. It gives you a virtual view of archived data, transparent to applications, operating systems and users, regardless of their physical location.
We had a play around with the software and it didn't take too long for us to create a virtual file system and start copying data across to the jukebox. We didn't load the MC-8100U with 100 discs but only five DVD-RAM discs so we could at least see it working. The system we received was also only fitted with a single DVD-RAM drive.
The RRP is $16038 inc GST with a single DVD-RAM drive, which includes media, software, and installation. 9.4Gb DVD-RAM media cost $1499 per spool of 50. Software ranges from $5000 to $35,000 depending on your requirement. Standard warranty on the hardware is 1-year parts and labour. Telephone support is available from the system integrators that install the equipment. For additional cover clients are able to choose from extended warranty and on-site warranty packages. Clients have a choice of: next business day, four-hour response, and 24 x 7 x 365 cover. The various forms of service cover are available in all major CBD locations in Australia and New Zealand. Leasing options are also provided by several of JVC's system integrators.
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