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FAQs
Q: Can we see a demonstration?
Of course, we love to have people visit. We have a demonstration room set up for different applications such as digital cable, and hospitality pay movies (video on demand). Simply call to make an appointment. Frequently, we also exhibit in the trade shows or have our servers exhibited in our partners' booths. Please check our web site for upcoming tradeshows .
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Q: Can we talk to other nSTREAMS customers ?
A : Yes, customer references are available upon request.
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Q: How are nSTREAMS' media solutions different from the competitors'?
A: We differentiate our solutions through technology and value to our customers. We have patented technologies that guarantee high performance, high scalability and extreme reliability. A common misconception is that media servers are all the same in today?s market. Media servers are not all created equal.
- The media servers of our competitors often will play but not last; and in other cases, some have performance problems due to their architectural limitations. For instance, a customer once told us that the media servers from our competitors have all failed in one way or another within a week's time. These include servers from the famous two and three letter companies. Whereas our servers started easily and had been running continuously for months without problems.
- Our high scalability means we can configure a system to fit any customer's requirements without having to force them into a rigid product. All in all, nSTREAMS offers the best value for the money in digital media servers.
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Q: How do you achieve low cost in your digital media servers ?
A: Our digital media servers are based on standard PC architecture. Through our manufacturing relationships with SYNNEX and MiTAC, we can obtain high quality components easily and we don't have the inventory issues our competitors must face. The cost of PC components is much lower than proprietary hardware components because of their large production volume. This savings is reflected in our pricing. Generally speaking, we are 20% to 25% lower in price compared to digital media servers with the same features and performance offered by our competitors.
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Q: Can't I simply buy components to build my own media server?
A :There is a lot more involved in building multi-channel high-throughput digital media servers than simply buying PC components and putting them together. Yes, you can buy components to build your own media servers. In fact, there are several PC integration companies who claim that they make digital media servers. The problem is that without solid integrated hardware and software technologies, customers end up with an unreliable server with limited performance. nSTREAMS has developed its media server product line to optimize performance in digital streaming applications while maintaining maximum reliability.
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Q: Do you sacrifice performance to achieve "Low Cost "?
A: Even though we are able to sell our servers at a lower price than other manufacturers, performance is still maintained. By utilizing a patented distributed computing architecture, our servers can achieve much better performance than most PC based digital media servers. The bandwidth that our server achieves can easily compete with any other server in the marketplace.
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Q: How do you achieve high reliability in your digital media servers?
A : Our digital media systems have been running continuously beginning in March of 1997 in hotels throughout the world. Our customers have been quite pleased with the reliability and functionality of our solutions.
- First of all, we use only high quality components in our digital media servers. By designing our digital media servers based on PC architecture, we have a very large selection of components from different vendors. We only select industry-proven components from the best companies. By not ?re-inventing the wheel,? we concentrate our effort on designing the most critical components to meet performance, reliability and functionality requirements.
- Secondly, our multi-threaded software performs crosschecks to make sure the software runs smoothly. The software also continuously monitors all the hardware components to make sure that no one component fails unexpectedly.
- Thirdly, we use our own patented RAID-X technology. This is a software RAID technology that provides fault tolerant redundancy in the disk array. Our hard drives boast an average time between failures exceeding 1 million hours. That translates into over 100 years of reliable running. In the rare event that a hard drive fails, the RAID-X technology ensures that there is no degradation of performance in the number of video streams and/or the number of on-line videos. With RAID-X technology, we separate ourselves above the competition. By eliminating a hardware based RAID controller, often a central point of failure, we gain even more reliability than a traditional RAID system.
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Q: What is your service and support policy?
A: For our OEM customers, we have a one-year parts replacement warranty. For our individual customers, we have a one-year parts and labor warranty. We provide free technical support for the first three months after product is shipped. Additional service and support contracts can be purchased separately.
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Q: How do I use the nSTREAMS digital media server for my hotel pay movie application?
A: Please print this document nSTREAMS Application Note Series #1 System Description for Hotel Video on Demand (VOD) Or Near Video on Demand (NVOD) Using movieSTREAMS Digital Media Server.
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Q: How do I use the nSTREAMS digital media server for my digital cable/satellite NVOD application?
A: Please print this document nSTREAMS Application Note Series #2 System Description for Digital Video Broadcast, Near Video on Demand (NVOD) Or Scheduled Program Playback Using dvbSTREAMS Digital Media Server.
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Q: How do I use nSTREAMS digital media server for my cable NVOD application?
A: Please print this document nSTREAMS Application Note Series #3 System Description for Cable/Broadcast Near Video on Demand (NVOD) Or Scheduled Program Playback Using movieSTREAMS Digital Media Server.
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Q: How do I use nSTREAMS digital media server for my local ad insertion application?
A: Please print this document nSTREAMS Application Note Series #4 System Description for Cable/Broadcast Local Ad/Spot Insertion Using adSTREAMS Digital Media Server.
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Q: How do I use nSTREAMS digital media server for my educational application?
A: Please print this document nSTREAMS Application Note Series #5 System Description for Education, Distance Learning & Interactive Training Using eduSTREAMS? Digital Media Server.
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Information given here are subject to change without notice. Please check back for new information. If you have more questions, please contact us by email sales@nstreams.com or by telephone at +86-21-6213-9806(China), +886-2-8751-0108(Taiwan) or +1-408-734-8889(U.S.). We appreciate your interest and look forward to providing you with excellent service . |
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