Streamonix Product Overview

Our flagship SX.Streamer™ product line features next-generation, purpose-built RAM-based systems that pack a data centre's worth of video streaming performance into a single rack-mounted appliance — at the lowest price-per-stream in the industry.

The Streamonix SX.NAS™ networked video storage system integrates terabytes of high-performance RAID storage with a full-featured video database — providing a scalable, high-performance video storage and management back-end to the SX.Streamer.

For Digital Signage and Video Display customers, we developed the SX.SVR™ Streaming Video Receiver, a High Definition video decoder that provides low-latency hands-free decoding for SX.Streamer-powered video networks.

SX.Streamer Video Streaming System

The Streamonix SX.Streamer™ is a next-generation, purpose-built RAM-based video streaming system. Combining our advanced StreamonixOS™ 64-bit real-time Operating System with multi-CPU hardware and 16 Gbps of streaming bandwidth, the SX.Streamer delivers a data centre's worth of video streaming performance from a single 2U rack-mounted system.

In addition to streaming video files, the SX.Streamer also transmits Live/Real-time feeds from video encoders and satellite receivers over Unicast IP networks.

SX.Streamer's Industry-Leading Flexibility

The SX.Streamer is the first and only video streaming system that flexibly transmits on-demand the full range of video formats (including H.264, MPEG-2, AVS and Motion JPEG 2000) in all major media containers (Flash, 3GP & MPEG-2 Transport Streams) at all bitrates — from Mobile Video, to High Definition, to Digital Cinema, and everything in between.

This flexibility means that the SX.Streamer can simultaneously support the full scope of streaming markets and customers, all requiring a specific video format, media container or bitrate.

A single SX.Streamer™ can simultaneously transmit any of the following to thousands of wired and wireless users:

... or any combination of the above up to 16 Gbps in total.

SX.Streamer Scalability

Multiple SX.Streamers can be integrated into an SX.Streamer Cluster™ to give terabits of streaming performance — meeting the requirements of even the largest video streaming customer.

SX.Streamer Price Performance

The SX.Streamer's breakthrough performance is achieved at remarkably low cost — resulting in the lowest price-per-stream in the industry.

The SX.Streamer delivers an unprecedented reduction in power, space and air-conditioning costs, and an equally unprecedented savings in overall cost-of-ownership. These financial benefits scale up linearly with an SX.Streamer Cluster.

SX.Streamer Hardware Features

The SX.Streamer is powered by two high-performance multi-core 64-bit CPUs. Our top-of-the-line SX.2842™ is equipped with dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports giving more than 16 Gbps of dedicated streaming bandwidth, and quad Gigabit Ethernet ports for command & control communications.

Available with up to 144 Gigabytes of RAM, the SX.Streamer can hold entire video libraries in its cache memory.

The SX.Streamer is housed in a robust, rack-mountable, 2U chassis. Redundant telco-grade power supplies and high-throughput front-to-rear cooling ensure non-stop reliability.

Terabits of Streaming Performance, Terabytes of RAM

The SX.Streamer is equipped with an integrated 40 Gbps InfiniBand controller — enabling multiple SX.Streamers to be seamlessly clustered across an InfiniBand network.

This InfiniBand hardware — combined with StreamonixOS's distributed, real-time architecture — converts racks full of SX.Streamers into a single, massive streaming machine.

An SX.Streamer Cluster can scale up to terabit bitrates to meet the streaming demands of tens of thousands of High Definition users — or millions of Mobile 3G & LTE video users.

A single rack of SX.Streamers provides 2.88 Terabytes of RAM — and over 320 Gigabits/second of streaming performance — in a single rack.

Key features of the SX.Streamer

Further Information

Please contact us for a detailed Product Brief.

Live Streaming

The SX.Streamer not only streams video files — it also streams live feeds from an array of video encoders and real-time feeds from satellite receivers, multiplying and transmitting those feeds with extremely low latency to 1000s of decoders over a Unicast IP network.

The diagram below illustrates the live High Definition streaming capabilities of the SX.Streamer (click for PDF version):

Up to 32 H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 encoders, HDV cameras or satellite receivers can be connected to the SX.Streamer via Ethernet. The SX.Streamer receives the incoming video feed from each device and transmits it to any and all designated decoders — from one to thousands of decoders per feed. The decoders are easily designated using the SX.Commander.

If there is only one designated decoder for the feed, the SX.Streamer acts as a Video-over-IP Switch, mapping the incoming feed to that decoder's IP address and port.

But if that incoming feed has more than one designated decoder, the SX.Streamer goes far beyond a Video-over-IP Switch — becoming a Stream Multiplier that connects a single video feed to multiple decoders. The output of a single encoder, HDV camera or satellite receiver can be transmitted to thousands of decoders.

The SX.Streamer's Live/Real-time streaming capability supports all bitrates — from 100 Kbps mobile video streams to 20 Mbps High Definition streams and beyond.

SX.NAS Networked Attached Storage

The Streamonix SX.NAS™ is a Networked Attached Storage system with terabytes of RAID video storage and an integrated video database. The system provides a scalable, high-performance video storage, search and management engine to the SX.Streamer — an engine that fills and refreshes the SX.Streamer's RAM-based cache.

The SX.NAS is powered by dual multi-core 64-bit CPUs running Sun's OpenSolaris Operating System. File management is handled by ZFS, Sun's next generation 128-bit file system featuring end-to-end data integrity and nearly unlimited scalability. Dual Gigabit Ethernet controllers, and optional 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Infiniband interfaces, provide multiple high speed connections to the SX.Streamer.

Streamonix SX.MediaDB™ — a high performance database engine — stores and manages a rich set of meta data for all video and audio files stored on the SX.NAS. This database system, combined with the advanced capabilities of ZFS, provides a very fast and powerful extension to the RAM-based cache in the SX.Streamer.

The SX.NAS is available in two versions: the single chassis SX.NAS-i24 and the multi-chassis SX.NAS-x. Both versions use hot-swappable 2.5-inch drives that offer maximum performance while consuming minimum electricity — generating much less heat compared to older generation 3.5-inch drives.

SX.NAS-i24

The SX.NAS-i24 is designed for customers with fixed storage needs up to 7.2 terabytes. The system combines a dual CPU motherboard and 24 300GB 2.5-inch SATA drives in a rack-mountable 2U chassis, with redundant, hot-swappable power supplies.

SX.NAS-x

The SX.NAS-x is a multi-chassis solution — NAS Head and external RAID systems — that scales up to meet even the largest and most demanding video storage requirements.

The SX.NAS-x's NAS Head is a high performance, diskless computing system — based on the robust SX.Streamer platform — that runs OpenSolaris and Streamonix SX.MediaDB, and communicates with one or more external RAID systems via multiple SAS links.

For external RAID systems, we use the state-of-the-art SP1224s from our storage partner, Xyratex. The SP1224s is equipped with 24 300GB 2.5-inch SAS drives and features advanced storage management technologies. Multiple SP1224s systems can be added, providing scalability beyond 100 terabytes.

Please contact us for further details.

SX.SVR Streaming Video Receiver

The Streamonix SX.SVR™ Streaming Video Receiver decodes High Definition MPEG-2 and H.264 video streams transmitted over an IP network by the SX.Streamer (optional VC-1 support).

The SX.SVR is designed for Digital Signage and Broadcast markets and operates in a completely "hands free" mode with very low latency. It can be centrally managed over an IP network, allowing a single operator to control and manage large numbers of networked SX.SVRs.

SX.SVR Features

SX.Commander Control & Management Application

Command and control of the SX.Streamer and the SX.NAS is provided over an IP network via the highly portable Streamonix SX.Commander™ management application that runs on any Java-enabled computer.

The SX.Commander provides a very user-friendly point-and-click system console for controlling all aspects of a Streamonix streaming system.