DAM software recommendations?

Hi Everyone. I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for Digital Asset Management software. This is for essentially a boutique outfit.

We currently use about 10 TB of online fiber connected SAN storage and have 2 edit bays. We are archiving projects to SATA drives which will be cased and stored in our library. I want the software to primarily track the assets in both those environments so when I get the inevitable email, "Do you remember when we did...", I can track down the project, re-ingest the footage and re-edit.

I'm looking into Final Cut Server which will certainly do what I want (and a lot more), but was wondering if there are recommendations of other products?

One more thing. I'm not just archiving video/audio files, but also FCP, Motion and DVDSP Projects, images, keynote files, etc.

Thanks,
Andy

Andy,

I've used CatDV which seems pretty good [www.squarebox.co.uk]
Does proxies etc but not too sure about removable drives

I think PostMap might do what you want too [www.studionetworksolutions.com]

As for Final Cut Server, you need to have a genius and quite a bit of time to set the thing up

Hope that helps

Peter

I don't have a good suggestion for you ? our asset management system is entirely home-grown, with all the pros and cons that implies ? but I will say this: do not use shelved hard drives as a long-term archive.

The conventional wisdom is that a hard drive with data on it has a shelf life of about three years. That's generous, in my experience. I've seen firewires that have been shelved for only a few months completely fail to function.

Our permanent archive is a set of RAID 6 arrays totaling about 75 TB. The drives are kept spinning constantly, and each array is protected against the failure of up to two drives at once. Storage costs have plummeted in recent years, to the point where it's possible to buy large-scale storage at costs well under fifty cents a gigabyte.

If that kind of capital investment isn't for you, I know a lot of people who swear by LTO-3 and LTO-4.

There is something called PILOTWARE that a lot of reality show houses use. It is built using the FileMaker pro application by a guy named, of all things, Pilot. I haven't used it personally, but I know many many places that do. And I myself use Filemaker Pro...well, used to...to track all of my assets. I designed many tape libraries (including for America's FUnniest Home Videos) using this software.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

There is a Great program called Disk Tracker you have the disk mounted tell to Disk Tracker to catalog it you can add notes to where it is etc... and more

------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

Thanks for the recommendations guys. I'll look into these.

Andy

> I know a lot of people who swear by LTO-3 and LTO-4.

I do recommend these, as aside from the initial cost of the deck, the tapes are around the same cost as hard drives (or slightly cheaper), and they have extremely long shelf life and reliability. However, you have to catalog them properly or it'll take some time to find your data (it's really just a data storage, not exactly random access).

Quantum also has mxf-aware LTO-3 drives which you could look into, especially if you're working with lots of mxfs.



www.strypesinpost.com

You might want to take a look at Frameline 47 ... I've not used it myself so its not a personal recommendation, but it certainly looks like it could be a suitable solution for your setup
[www.frameline.tv]

Cheers
Andy

Thanks Andy. Actually, that's what prompted this thread. I tried Frameline (they have a 14 day demo), but they only track video/audio elements which is insufficient for my needs. I actually kind of hope they go with FC Server as I've wanted a chance to work with it. A post supervisor friend of mine who comes from an Avid background has been recently picking my brain about how she can have the same kind of integrated workflow that an Avid/Unity system has, but using Final Cut.

Andy

I've got a testbed server set up to try Final Cut Server for my small department. We already own a license, but because we're a bunch of disorganized idiots, I've had to order a replacement installation disc from Apple. I'll report back on how it goes.

I also just got out of a meeting with a consulting firm to talk about putting in an Xsan for us. I really like the idea, but it looks like the absolute minimum initial investment is going to top $50,000, which is a lot to spend for two full-time edit suites. The incremental cost is tiny ? $500 or so for the Fibre Channel card and $1000 for the Xsan license ? but the up-front is significant.

Then again, I can't imagine putting in a Unity system is small change, either.

Yeah, I doubt Avid comes in any cheaper. I'm really curious to see how your test goes with FC Server, though I have the feeling that my boss is going to want to pull the trigger on something sooner rather than later. Certainly before production ramps up this year.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the up front costs that bring the XSan up over $50,000? The amount of storage?

Andy

Well, we only had back-of-the-envelope calculations for cost, but it broke down like this:

Two Xserves with fibre channel cards and Xsan licenses, roughly $12,000.

A Promise 16 TB RAID plus a 16 TB expansion unit, roughly $27,000.

FC cards and Xsan licenses for two edit suites, roughly $3,200.

If we want to add another Xserve to run the copy of Final Cut Server we already own, that's another $6,000, approximately. Add in installation, support, the cost of pulling fibre optics to our suites and all the sundries and you're over $50,000 easy.

The only place we can economize is by putting in less storage, which we can probably get away with if we don't use Final Cut Server. That'd take us from 32 TB total down to 16, and cut $12,000 out of the up-front cost. But since we're planning on adding as many as five more edit systems to the SAN before the end of the year, we'd really only be pushing that additional purchase off to the summer or so.

The fact that Xsan is only qualified on Promise gear means the cost of setting one up pretty much is what it is.