The focus of this year's National Association of Broadcasters Convention was one RAID drive with 12 disk capacity presented by Seagate's subsidiary company, LaCie. These business-class 12big Thunderbolt 3 drives feature a RAID 5/6 controller capable of serving up to 96 terabytes of data at speeds of up to 2.600 Megabytes per second. All this power is compressed into a tower configuration very much in the style of the creations of this company, which claims that it takes up less space than a typical (at least basic) laptop.
Anyway to give you an idea at the software level, this LaCie 12big can store 100 hours of 4K ProRes 444 XQ footage in a RAID 5 configuration. And thanks to the unmatched bandwidth offered by Thunderbolt 3, users can edit multiple streams of ProRes 422 (HQ), ProRes 444 XQ and 10-bit and 12-bit uncompressed video.
It also has two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a USB 3.1 port with support for daisy chain multiple 4K displays in addition to being able to provide power to external hardware. In the words of Tim Bucher, Vice President of Seagate and Lacie:
LaCie is committed to helping video professionals in an ever-growing demand for data, ensuring their irreplaceable data is secure, as well as ensuring speed and reliability when the demand requires it […] Our goal at the LaCie 12big is to provide the user speed, capacity and reliability to efficiently download your content and be able to edit it, even in the face of our most demanding clients, who can concentrate on making their creative vision a reality.
In terms of software, LaCie includes its redesigned RAID Manager to help users configure disks, manage RAID configuration and control any aspect of the unit. The application includes configuration wizards for creating and managing custom volumes, while manual controls allow users to customize CPU settings, auto-rebuild options, and diagnostic tools.
The LaCie 12big Thunderbolt 3 is expected to be ready for its summer debut with 48 TB, 72 TB, and 96 TB configurations although the price has not yet been revealed.