nNovia Introduces DV-aware FireWire hub


Reprinted from a nNovia press release:

nNovia Inc., the innovative Silicon Valley OEM manufacturer of professional Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and other complimentary DV products, announced today that it is shipping SmartHub, the first “switchable” IEEE-1394 6-port hub designed with the intelligence required to manage interconnected 1394 devices.

SmartHub provides more than simple connectivity. Standard 1394 hubs in the market today must be power-cycled every time a device is added or removed to “re-address” the devices on the network. SmartHub manages and preserves the addresses and resources required by connected devices in the same way a router performs that function in a traditional local area network (LAN). Each device connected to SmartHub can be switched in or out of the network at any time, allowing a variety of configurations to be implemented and used without having to “reboot” the network. It can even be utilized in 6-port DV/DA applications. SmartHub’s intelligence and flexibility is especially helpful when trying to isolate problematic or conflicting 1394 devices from the rest of a 1394 network.

Sean Klein, owner of Neemann Media, has found this capability very useful in his business. “We do DVD authoring, and we always end up needing to connect more than one FireWire device,” said Klein. “Before we started using SmartHub, every time we switched devices the network would crash. With SmartHub, we can switch things in and out and it doesn’t crash our computers.”

SmartHub supports both asynchronous and isochronous data and is compatible with all digital video formats. It is also fully compliant with the IEEE-1394 command protocol and its Isochronous Resource Management (IRM) and Cycle Master Designation (CMD) subset utilities. IRM and CMD help organize and monitor IEEE-1394 networks, but they can only operate with devices that are fully IEEE-1394 compliant. “IEEE-1394 networks are often difficult to configure and maintain due to the wide variety of devices that have been created over the past few years,” explained Robert Caldeira, President of nNovia. “Many of these devices are not 100% compliant with today’s protocol and create conflicts when connected to 1394 networks. SmartHub was designed to allow these devices to be switched in and out of 1394 networks as needed.”

SmartHub is priced at $399 and is available for immediate delivery.

Sales for nNovia products are handled by DVideosystems and a worldwide team of dealers and distributors. For product and sales information please contact DVideosystems at 1-201-343-3600 or visit www.nNovia.com.

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