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.

For broadcasters and telecoms, our SX.MUX™ combines real-time video streaming and store-and-forward file transfer with rate shaping and flow control — bringing a new level of performance, efficiency and control to video backhaul networks.

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 and the SX.MUX.

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.

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

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.

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

SX.Streamer Price Performance

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.

The SX.Streamer is the first and only video streaming system that flexibly transmits the full range of video formats and bitrates — Mobile Video, High Definition, Digital Cinema, and everything in between — on-demand to thousands of wired and wireless users. This flexibility means that the SX.Streamer can simultaneously support the full scope of streaming markets and customers, all requiring a specific video format or bitrate.

A single SX.2422 Streamer™ can simultaneously transmit any of the following:

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

SX.Streamer Hardware Features

The SX.Streamer is powered by two high-performance multi-core 64-bit CPUs. Our top-of-the-line SX.2422™ is equipped with dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports giving more than 16 Gbps of dedicated streaming bandwidth, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports for command & control communications.

Available with up to 128 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 20 Gbps 4X 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 video users.

A cluster of SX.2422's provides 2.56 Terabytes of RAM — and over 320 Gigabits/second of streaming performance — in a single rack.

Live Streaming

The SX.Streamer not only streams video files — it also streams the live feeds from an array of video encoders, multiplying and transmitting those feeds in real-time to 1000s of decoders over a Unicast IP network. The decoders are easily designated using the SX.Commander.

Up to 32 H.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 encoders can be connected to the SX.Streamer (via an Asynchronous Serial Interface (ASI) or Ethernet link). The SX.Streamer receives the incoming video feed from each encoder and transmits the feed to any and all designated decoders — from one to thousands of decoders per feed.

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 encoder's video feed to multiple decoders. The output of a single encoder can be transmitted to a single decoder, or to thousands

The SX.Streamer supports all bitrates — from 100 Kbps mobile video streams to 20 Mbps High Definition streams and beyond.

This diagram illustrates the Live Streaming capability of the SX.Streamer.

Key features of the SX.Streamer

Further Information

Please contact us for a detailed Product Brief.

SX.MUX Video Backhaul System

Streamonix has developed the SX.MUX™ to meet the long-distance compressed video backhaul needs of video broadcasters and producers.

The SX.MUX is a unique product that combines realtime transmission of MPEG-2 Transport Streams with traffic shaping, rate control and store-and-forward file transfer.

With up to dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and 8 ASI ports, the SX.MUX also provides Digital Turn-Around capability. An MPEG-2 Transport Stream arriving on any ASI or Ethernet port can be routed to any other ASI or Ethernet port — in real-time with extremely low latency.

The SX.MUX encapsulates MPEG-2 Transport Streams in IP packets (UDP or RTP/UDP), with full support for standard and jumbo packet sizes — and full support for IPv4 and IPv6.

By precisely timing the transmission of each and every IP packet, the SX.MUX allows linear real-time channels to be streamed over backhaul networks alongside of non-realtime store-and-forward file transfers — significantly increasing the throughput of backhaul networks while guaranteeing the on-time delivery of linear channels to satellite up-link and other MPEG-2 Transport Stream-based broadcast systems.

Built on the robust and scalable SX.Streamer™ platform, the SX.MUX provides the following capabilities for High Definition and Standard Definition Unicast compressed video-over-IP transport:

Please contact us for further details.

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 and the SX.MUX. — an engine that fills and refreshes the RAM-based caches in those two systems.

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, the SX.MUX and other systems.

Streamonix 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 caches in the SX.Streamer and the SX.MUX.

The SX.NAS is available in two versions: the single chassis SX.NAS 24i and the multi-chassis SX.NAS 24x. 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 24i

The SX.NAS 24i 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 24x

The SX.NAS 24x 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 24x's NAS Head is a high performance, diskless computing system — based on the robust SX.Streamer platform — that runs OpenSolaris and Streamonix 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

Control of the SX.Streamer and the SX.MUX is provided over an IP network via the Java-based 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.