Release Date: 10/07/2005

SNS Now Shipping Highly Anticipated globalSAN X-4 for Pro Tools® Users

New York, New York—October 7, 2005—Studio Network Solutions (SNS), located at booth 563, unveiled at AES its newest product in the globalSAN™ family, the X-4. Among the new and updated storage offerings from SNS, the X-4 is a compact yet complete Storage Area Network (SAN) created for multi-room audio studios worldwide that rely on Digidesign’s award-winning Pro Tools® DAW.

“We’ve built the X-4 to be within reach of every multi-room audio studio. Price, performance, capacity – all factors were taken into consideration to make this the best choice for Pro Tools® facilities,” stated Gary Holladay, president of SNS.

The X-4 is offered as a complete package that includes 1.6 Terabytes of SATA storage in a 1U enclosure. It contains a single RAID controller and two client licenses of SAN software. One of the most noteworthy aspects of the SAN is the price. While the X-4 is unique in many ways, at $6,999 MSRP it offers the lowest point of entry for a complete, multi-user, multi-platform shared SAN.

“Our objective is to enhance the Pro Tools experience,” continues Holladay. With that goal in mind, emphasis has been placed on simple administration and ease of use. Audio engineers can connect directly to the X-4 over Gigabit Ethernet and share RAID-protected storage just as easily as they would with a more expensive Fibre Channel SAN.

The X-4 is designed around the concept of being “stackable.” For example, a small studio may only need one X-4 unit. But as that studio continues to grow, additional X-4 units can easily be added to increase capacity, performance and users.

As with all models in the globalSAN family, the product is based on the iSCSI protocol, which maximizes the performance of Gigabit Ethernet. The X-4 offers more bandwidth and far greater distance capabilities – up to 90 meters – than USB or FireWire. All globalSAN systems provide the ability to create a high-performance SAN using Ethernet components. Using iSCSI as the SAN protocol eliminates the need to purchase expensive components found in a traditional Fibre Channel SAN.

About Studio Network Solutions
Studio Network Solutions is a storage technology company specializing in hardware and software solutions for the Media/Entertainment industries. SNS is a premier provider of storage area networking products and technologies for real-world media production. For more information, visit www.studionetworksolutions.com.

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