NEW YORK—TAG Video Systems has optimized the use of memory that lowers the total cost of ownership of running its software, reducing the cost per channel by up to two-thirds for compressed video workflows.

TAG has always sought to give its customers the lowest cost per channel. For compressed workflows, that has historically been achieved by pairing mid-range servers with maximum memory, a configuration TAG benchmarked and certified for optimal price performance, the company said.

The global shortage of server memory and associated rise in price led TAG's R&D team to revisit its optimization calculations and develop an alternative approach that dramatically reduces the amount of memory each server requires while preserving quality. By running a server on as few as four memory modules, rather than a fully populated configuration, TAG delivers comparable monitoring capability at a substantially lower cost per channel.

For compressed workflows, the trade is heavily in the user's favor: cost per channel falls by up to 66 percent while server capacity drops by only around 20 percent. TAG has now extended the same approach to uncompressed ST 2110 environments, where benchmarking on certified platforms is complete. The memory savings there are significant with a larger capacity trade-off of up to around 50 percent in some configurations, it said.

"Our commitment has always been to optimize our customers' investment in hardware, not just to keep pace with it," said Stas Bangiev, vice president of R&D at TAG Video Systems. "When memory prices rose across the industry, we didn't ask our customers to simply absorb the increase. We went back to the drawing board and engineered a way to deliver the same quality for dramatically less, because reducing our customers' costs is central to how we operate."

Memory usage optimization is available in the latest release of TAG's MCM software with further platform work already under way. Innovation is delivered as part of the Zero Friction subscription. Customers receive this optimization and every improvement that follows as part of their plan at no extra cost. Customers should contact their TAG representative to confirm the optimal configuration for their environment.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.