Hi-Res Imagery, 3D Means Big Bucks for Rising Storage Market (Report)

Total media and entertainment storage revenue will grow from $5.6 billion in 2012 to more than $7.8 billion in 2017, according to a new report from Coughlin Associates.

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“Because of the large file sizes required for high resolution [i.e. 4K] and stereoscopic images there is increasing demand for high capacity storage devices,” according to the executive summary from Coughlin’s 2012 Digital Storage for Media and Entertainment Report. “The entire content value chain of content creation, editing, archiving, distribution as well as consumer electronics content reception devices provide an accelerating feed-forward mechanism. This drives growth in data storage for all entertainment content applications.”

The report projects that between 2012 and 2017, there could be a 5.6 times increase in the amount of digital storage used in the entertainment industry.

The greatest demand in 2012 was for digital conversion and preservation as well as archiving of new content, according to the report. It projects that the single biggest application (by storage capacity) for digital storage in the next several years—as well as one of the most challenging—is the digital conversion of film, videotape and other analog formats.

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The report also finds that storage in remote clouds is "beginning to play an important role" in collaborative production.