Steelbox offers new digital video distribution and storage solutions

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - InterSec 2008 (14 January 2008) – Steelbox Networks, Inc., developer of the world's fastest media appliance, today announced the immediate availability of two new products, the Steelbox 1250 video appliance and the Steelvault 5300 network attached storage array, designed to give enterprises the ability to handle large camera networks in a compact and reliable solution.

The Steelbox 1250 video appliance is a network video recorder (NVR) and distribution solution that delivers unmatched video throughput and advanced NVR features in a compact network appliance licensed for up to 250 cameras. The Steelvault 5300 storage array is a high performance video-grade network attached storage (NAS) that offers expanded video-grade performance and reliability with unmatched price-to-performance ratings.

According to research firm Frost & Sullivan, roughly one quarter of all video surveillance systems in 2006 were IP-based, with that share growing to 75 percent through 2010, and worldwide sales of IP equipment expected to grow to over $7 billion dollars.

"The IP video market's growth means an enormous amount of bandwidth demand will be placed on networks. CIO's need purpose-built solutions capable of managing and storing high volumes of video," said Brian Cohen, president and CEO of Steelbox Networks. "These two products introduce a practical mid-tier solution that handles large IP camera installations with a simple appliance solution. We are providing our customers with the vital infrastructure components on which to build and manage surveillance systems of any size, at an extremely attractive price point."

According to John Webster, Principal IT adviser for research firm Illuminata Inc., storage for video surveillance is hot.

"Performance has always been a major selling point for general-purpose storage boxes, but it comes at a commensurately higher price," said Webster. "We are now seeing more application-specific storage, including storage for video. In the market today, choices for that market segment are big, fast, and relatively expensive general-purpose storage or big, fast and cheaper storage built specifically for digital video. I think enterprises will most likely go the purpose-built route for these applications."

The Steelbox 1250 appliance enables simultaneous viewing, playback and recording of 250 high-resolution, full framerate MPEG4 or Motion JPEG video streams in a solution that is price competitive with less-capable DVRs and PC-based NVRs. Steelbox 1250 includes the Steelbox Studio video management suite for video viewing, system configuration and network monitoring. The new appliance supports a variety of camera and encoder types from market leading MJPEG4, Motion JPEG and megapixel vendors.

The Steelvault 5300 is available in 4 to 16 TB, RAID 0/5 configurations, includes hot-swappable drives, redundant power supplies, redundant fans and features hardware RAID for superior performance. Together, the Steelbox 1250 and Steelvault 5300 solution possesses load balancing, firewall and storage management capabilities not found in any other video product on the market.

The new products are ideal for organizations in retail, financial services, corporate and industrial, education, gaming, healthcare and hospitality. Steelbox 1250 is ideal for any surveillance solution that requires more than 50 cameras; the Steelvault 5300 storage array is price competitive for smaller projects yet powerful enough for the largest systems.

For more information, visit www.steelbox.com.