Thursday, June 1st 2023
QNAP Demos high-end Video Production Equipment at Computex 2023
Somewhat unexpectedly, QNAP has entered the high-end video production market with a couple of products that the company was demoing at Computex. First up is the TBS-574TX, which is a high-end, yet compact NAS with 10 Gbps Ethernet and Thunderbolt 4 support. However, what makes this device so unique, is that it features five hot-swappable E1.S drives, which means that video production companies can easily swap between different projects which can be put in cold storage when not worked on. The TBS-574TX is based around a 12th gen, 12 core Intel Core i5 CPU, although QNAP didn't specify the exact model, but it's likely to be a mobile part with native Thunderbolt 4 support. The CPU is paired with 16 GB of RAM, which should make this a fairly snappy NAS overall. QNAP will also offer E1.S to M.2 adapters, but the company is still working on how to implement these with a suitable cooling solution.
For companies that need something faster than 10 Gbps or even 25 Gbps networking to shuffle files around, QNAP also demoed the QSW-M7308R-4X—a model name that just rolls off your tongue—which features no less than four 100 Gbps ports and eight 25 Gbps ports. The key selling point of this fibre based switch is that it doesn't require any user configuration before it can be deployed in a network, even though it can be managed when needed. It also features quieter cooling fans than your average enterprise switch, plus it comes in a much more compact half width 1U form factor. QNAP will also launch the QSW-M3216R-8S8T later this year, which will be an updated version of its current 10 Gbps managed switches, but with around a US$100 lower price tag.
For companies that need something faster than 10 Gbps or even 25 Gbps networking to shuffle files around, QNAP also demoed the QSW-M7308R-4X—a model name that just rolls off your tongue—which features no less than four 100 Gbps ports and eight 25 Gbps ports. The key selling point of this fibre based switch is that it doesn't require any user configuration before it can be deployed in a network, even though it can be managed when needed. It also features quieter cooling fans than your average enterprise switch, plus it comes in a much more compact half width 1U form factor. QNAP will also launch the QSW-M3216R-8S8T later this year, which will be an updated version of its current 10 Gbps managed switches, but with around a US$100 lower price tag.
12 Comments on QNAP Demos high-end Video Production Equipment at Computex 2023
Also, 5 Gbps might be the new 2.5 Gbps, assuming you read my Realtek 5 Gbps Ethernet post.
What are you waiting with when it comes to 2.5 Gbps? Most motherboards/devices has at least one, if not two ports now and there are plenty of swiches for ~$90-150.
There are even a bunch of off brand stuff from xina on Amazon.
www.amazon.com/s?k=2.5+Gbps+switch&crid=1AGIBYHJF0GTU&sprefix=2.5+gbps+switc%2Caps%2C353&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
The routers will come with WiFi 7 by the looks of, as even the cheap Realtek router SoCs will support 2.5 Gbps. The single port is just dumb.
Here we are, a full ten years after 2.5Gb ethernet arrived on the scene as a "low cost solution for mainstream multi-gig networking" and most routers still lack the bare minimum of two 2.5Gb ports. Gigabit switches are still the most common by two or three entire orders of magnitude, and 2.5Gbe adoption isn't picking up speed, despite everyday consumers dealing with 4K video from their cheap phones, games on NAS or shared storage being 100GB+ each, and your typical device having flash storage that absolutely puts the network interface as the bottleneck in almost all data transfer circumstances.
Even with the cheap no-name switches, we're looking at $20 per port, when you can pick up an 8-port gigabit switch for $12 from the same brand from the same store. Getting 2.5Gb or 5Gb ports into consumer routers and storage is vital, because your average person doesn't buy a dedicated switch, they have a single box at home which is their modem, router, wifi AP, and ethernet switch all-in-one. That is what needs multi-gig ethernet ports.
I'm not sure 2.5 Gbps was low cost to start with, outside of the cabling, but it was apparently easier to manufacture and now a few years later, Realtek is the only company that apparently has figured out how to make an affordable 5 Gbps solution, as Marvell is still anything but cheap, nor power efficient and they had to buy a competitor to get the tech.
How do you know 2.5 Gbps isn't being adopted? All the copanies I've talked to about it at the show are seeing growing demand. If you're talking in the consumer space, look at what people use these days, phones and tablets, it's all WiFi, even modern laptops are all WiFi, so it's not strange that we're getting routers with faster and faster WiFi, as they can use the high numbers to trick consumers that don't understand how WiFi works to buy a $1,000 router for their phones and tablets. 4K video doesn't really need 2.5 Gbps, as the stuff most consumer interacts with is higly compressed and as long as we get more efficient encoding, the video files keep getting smaller.
We're a dying a breed in many ways that still use wired networking at home, as most consumers bought into the cloud and don't even know what a NAS is, even less what Ethernet is. I would say that 2.5 and 5 Gbps is more about businesses upgrading rather than consumers. I'll take my cousin as an example, he's using a decade old router or possibly even longer, it did admittedly get its last update only two years ago, but since it works, despite him having to jam a tootpick into it to hold the power button in, since it was great when he got it and it's still great (according to him) and he doesn't want to spend over a $100 on a new router. Yet he has all four Ethernet ports wired up to his consoles, a he's a console gamer and care about those being wired to the internet... He has no idea there are faster types of Ethernet and he apparently doesn't care about getting hacked (his words)... So yeah, we're in the 0.1% of consumers that care about these things.
Wait for the next gen 2.5 Gbps switches next year, they should move closer in pricing to Gigabit switches, due to the manufacturers going from a two chip to a single chip solution. 5 Gbps switches will most likely end up 30-40% higher in price than current 2.5 Gbps switches, but that's just a guess.
Even at the business end, I've held off doing a company-wide edge upgrade to 5Gb because of cost - electing instead to go with piecemeal upgrade of selected clients patched into selected switches.