Can I play two channels from one computer equipped with 2 DVS cards?
Answer
Not yet, at this stage one channel = one machine. That’s how it is at the moment. If one machine fails, then the backup channel on the 2nd machine takes over.
Cinegy constantly increases the functionality of what each playout channel can do – logo insertion, Windows Media Streaming, Compliance Recording, MPEG2 TS streaming, real-time rendering of Cinegy NLE sequences with effects, and soon also title and presentation layer functions as well as mixed aspect ratio and resolution playout and simulcast.
This means the performance requirements we have per channel are constantly growing which makes it difficult or risky for one machine to handle multiple playout channels. With the cost for the type of machine required for SD playout now being around Euro 1000 for a tower case based model or between Euro 1500-2000 for a 1RU 19” rack-mountable model plus the appropriate SDI card (DVS Euro 2500, BMD Euro 300), the costs per channel even when using a separate machine per channel does not increase compared to using a bigger server which is strong enough to run 2-3 channels at the same time.
The benefits of using individual machines are as follows: only one playout channel can ever fail, individual costs of hardware will be lower, higher performance per machine, therefore more features/functions per playout channel.
As the performance per processor grows and we soon will also have 8-core processors or inexpensive multi-processor quad-core systems, we will also be able to then put 2x or more channels into one playout box. As the cost for a multi-channel SDI card is usually higher than for a single channel SDI card, there may be no or little financial benefits though.
