Meet the new kid on the block: the Hive media server, a lighter, greener, more flexible, and affordable media control system from the UK, now distributed in the US by Show Sage, and making its US debut at LDI 2024. In addition to a presence on the show floor, there is also hands-on Hive training in the LDInstitute on Friday, December 6, taught by Nigel Sadler, Hive sales director. Live Design chats with Sadler about the launch of Hive in the US market.
Register for the Hive training at LDI at www.ldishow.com and use promo code INST50 for a 50% discount.
Live Design: What can you tell me about Hive and its success to date in Europe or the UK?
Nigel Sadler: Hive set out to disrupt the media server industry by taking tips and techniques that you find in nature and creating a simple but powerful scalable media delivery system at a fraction of the cost of other media servers. By keeping only the essential features, and making a modular scalable system we can save costs in so many areas, and as a result since our launch of the Beeblade and Beebox systems, we have been able to show that big powerful expensive boxes are not the future of media server technology.
Our award-winning products keep everyone happy from the people with the purse strings to the technicians and designers, everyone gets what they want, and this can be seen in some of the worlds most advanced and technically demanding installations that have been done with Hive products.
LD: How is it "like" or different from other media servers?
NS: ‘The days of heavy metal are over!’ The Hive ecosystem of products ushers in a new era of AV system design. The hive product range allows the user to place the media server either next to or even inside their display hardware, this removes the requirement for racks of power hungry computers and kilometres of signal distribution, saving time, money and space whilst improving on reliability by removing many potential points of failure from the signal path, it is literally a ‘no brainer.’
Traditional media servers use bulky, expensive, power hungry computers to process and deliver video for led screens and projectors. With our approach the media player uses intel's SDM standard which provides a slot inside the display hardware for our tiny linux based media engines to be inserted into. You can still drive projects with any number of led screens or projectors, because the Beeblades synchronise to each other seamlessly using our revolutionary sub frame accurate HDMI Sync tool - Beesync, to create one huge canvas with almost no limit on size. For projects that prefer a traditional AV Control room approach our SDM media engines can also be inserted into rack mounted chassis. Our beeHive enclosure can house up to x16 4K60 media engines in a 5RU chassis.
LD: Greener? More affordable? How so?
NS: The Beeblade has a maximum power capacity of 60 watts, however when tested under load the average system only uses around 36 watts of power. This can be up to 20 times less than using traditional larger media servers. In addition to this, when the Beeblade is used inside the display device, you also save on power usage by not needing to power video distribution systems or power air conditioning units to cool a server room.
Because of the tiny size of the Beeblade (20cm x 13cm x 3cm) there is a huge reduction in the wastage normally associated with the recycling of larger media server computers.
The Beeblade uses its host (display or projector) as its casing, and as a result uses a fraction of the metals and plastics normally associated with a media server. The enclosures are made entirely of aluminium which is fully recyclable. The Beeblade uses the power supply of it’s host when it is operating so this reduces the amount of components and plastic needed for manufacture.
LD: Can you list some projects Hive has been involved in?
NS:
LD: What should attendees expect from the class at LDI - key takeaways?
NS: The course will give attendees the chance to create media playback systems of any size using smaller building blocks that can be combined to make larger systems. They will get hands on experience using the different built in programming techniques, and use the internal mapping tools to be able to drive projectors, LED walls on traditional displays. Users will be able to program shows synchronized to time code, and try their hand at automated camera based projector alignment.