The Tolis Group (http://www.tolisgroup.com) has announced the availability of LTO-5 LTFS volume support in BRU Producer's Edition at the 2011 NAB Show. BRU Producer's Edition version 2.3.0 provides native LTFS (Linear Tape Filesystem Support) for Mac OS X users.

LTFS allows the use of LTO-5 media as if it were a disk volume and provides a self-documenting format that is compatible with other platforms supporting the LTFS standard, says Bob Christ, Tolis Group executive vice president.

While LTFS provides an easy-to-access mechanism for writing and reading data on LTO-5 volumes, once a volume is un-mounted for storage, the system has no knowledge of the contents of the offline tape. BRU Producer's Edition extends the usefulness of LTFS by providing the support needed to properly parse and search LTFS volumes, even if the media is currently offline or even offsite by maintaining local catalogs of known LTFS volumes, says Christ.

LTFS makes tape more accessible and provides users with the ability to utilize standard file operations on LTO-5 tape media for accessing, managing and sharing files with an interface that behaves similar to a hard disk, he adds. Additionally, LTFS provides the ability to share data across platforms, similar to a Firewire or USB drive or USB flash drive. All that is required is that you load an LTFS formatted tape into the compatible drive, mount it on the system, and the volume is seen by the system as a disk volume.

BRU PE 2.3.0 is a free upgrade for all existing BRU PE users. For new users the cost is US$499; a demo is available for download.