Convergent Design unveils Gemini 4:4:4,

The first Affordable Uncompressed Recorder

Newsletter editor Amber Cowles, interviews Mike Schell, President of Convergent Design, about the new Gemini 4:4:4 full uncompressed recorder (extract).

Speaking of media, why the switch from Compact Flash to SSD?

Compact Flash is a great choice for most compressed recorders, but it simply lacks the required performance for uncompressed video.  Compact Flash tops out at about 90 Mbytes/sec, while uncompressed video ranges from 100 to over 300 Mbytes/sec; so clearly, it’s impossible to record uncompressed video onto a single CF card.  Additionally, CF card capacity maxes out at 128GB, while SSDs are now available up to 512GB.

Built on cutting-edge 25nm technology, Gemini SSDs provide read/write speeds of 415/260 (Mbytes/sec) respectively.  For most video formats, a single SSD has a sufficient bandwidth; however, 1080p50/60 formats generate over 300 Mbytes/sec, requiring us to strip the data across both drives.  We do, however, combine the data into a single file during the offload of the SSDs to your MAC/PC.

High-Speed SSD media is currently available in the following sizes and storage capacities:

256GB SSD → 32 minutes @ 1080p24 4:2:2, 10-bit

512GB SSD → 64 minutes @ 1080p24 4:2:2, 10-bit

Using 512GB SSDs and spanning across the two drives, you’ll get a generous 128 minutes of uncompressed 1080p24 record time on Gemini (without swapping drives).

OK, but everyone knows that uncompressed recorders are big, heavy, power-hungry, and expensive. What makes Gemini so different?

Gemini follows the highly-successful design philosophy of nanoFlash to make the smallest, lightest-weight, lowest-power recorder that current technology will allow.  So instead of building a PC-based recorder, which consumes 60 to 75 watts of power, we designed full-custom hardware drawing 8 to 15 Watts.  Rather than designing proprietary Flash mags, we utilized SSD drives, dramatically reducing both the media and transfer-station cost.  (Editor’s note: The Gemini recorder package includes a 6Gbps SSD transfer station).