QNAP Demos high-end Video Production Equipment at Computex 2023

[TheLostSwede]

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.



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[Chaitanya]

So looking at specs of that NAS, it will be power hungry and its more of a portable computer/DAS than NAS.

 

[TheLostSwede]

So looking at specs of that NAS, it will be power hungry and its more of a portable computer/DAS than NAS.

Indeed, not it's a unique product in the market and a slower CPU might end up being a bottleneck.

 

[fibre]

What is "Cloud Locator" LED for?

 

[TheLostSwede]

What is "Cloud Locator" LED for?

No idea. Keep in mind that these are pre production samples, so there might be some features that don't make into the final products.

 

[Chrispy_]

I'd like to see QNAP push their 2.5Gb switches further. They were some of the first consumer 2.5Gb models on the market, and affordable - but not without issues. We're not going to get wider adoption of 2.5Gb unless more companies push out affordable switches, and 10GBase-T is a long way off being affordable.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I'd like to see QNAP push their 2.5Gb switches further. They were some of the first consumer 2.5Gb models on the market, and affordable - but not without issues. We're not going to get wider adoption of 2.5Gb unless more companies push out affordable switches, and 10GBase-T is a long way off being affordable.

There are new models coming, but they didn't want to talk about it yet. Can't remember if you saw my post about the MaxLinear post I put on Monday, as they're expecting to bring down the cost significantly. Apparently Realtek is working on a similar product, althogh I realised I forgot to talk to their switch guys at the show, as both times I've gone to their booth/suite, it's been too crowded to really get to that part of the booth/suite. I'm going to try and swing by tomorrow.
Also, 5 Gbps might be the new 2.5 Gbps, assuming you read my Realtek 5 Gbps Ethernet post.

 

[Chrispy_]

Also, 5 Gbps might be the new 2.5 Gbps, assuming you read my Realtek 5 Gbps Ethernet post.

Yes, but I'll believe it when it see it on shelves. I've heard very similar stories over the last half decade and yet here we are still waiting for either 2.5Gb or 5Gb to go mainstream. There are plenty of 2.5Gb NICs out in the wild now but precious few switches to plug them into, and so many home routers (even high end ones) only come with a single 2.5Gb port, which means that you're effectively limited to 1Gb connections to any other devices. Even Wi-Fi 6 in isolation, proximity, and direct line of sight rarely breaches 1Gbit/s

 

[TheLostSwede]

Yes, but I'll believe it when it see it on shelves. I've heard very similar stories over the last half decade and yet here we are still waiting for either 2.5Gb or 5Gb to go mainstream. There are plenty of 2.5Gb NICs out in the wild now but precious few switches to plug them into, and so many home routers (even high end ones) only come with a single 2.5Gb port, which means that you're effectively limited to 1Gb connections to any other devices. Even Wi-Fi 6 in isolation, proximity, and direct line of sight rarely breaches 1Gbit/s

There were motherboards announced at the show with the new chip, but obvioulsy a NIC doesn't make the infrastructure.
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.

Amazon.com : 2.5 Gbps switch

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.

 

[Chrispy_]

There were motherboards announced at the show with the new chip, but obvioulsy a NIC doesn't make the infrastructure.
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.

Amazon.com : 2.5 Gbps switch

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.

I'm waiting for it to be the default for wired ethernet. Within 5 years of years of gigabit network arriving on the scene, it was already affordable enough that every SoC to include an ethernet controller was gigabit, and switches/routers/consumer kit you'd connect via ethernet were mostly gigabit outside of very cheap entry-level parts.

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.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I'm waiting for it to be the default for wired ethernet. Within 5 years of years of gigabit network arriving on the scene, it was already affordable enough that every SoC to include an ethernet controller was gigabit, and switches/routers/consumer kit you'd connect via ethernet were mostly gigabit outside of very cheap entry-level parts.

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.

Sure, but remember what a gigantic leap it was compared to 100 Mbps? Then everyone kept talking about how 10 Gbps was going to come down in cost, but it just never happened, so now we have 2.5 and 5 Gbps instead, largely due to both standards being able to work just fine over Cat 5e, wheras 10 Gbps ideally needs Cat 6A, at least on longer runs. I guess Cat 6 and Cat 5e pricing isn't that different these days though.

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.

 

[Chrispy_]

Oh for sure it's all going consumer WiFi, but at the same time I can't be the only person who's a little frustrated about how long it's taking multi-gig to come down in price.

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.

 

[RegaeRevaeb]

What is "Cloud Locator" LED for?

Sssssshh. It's for the company's entry into the advanced meteorology market. Look for the QNAP doppler radar kit in Q1 2024.