Sound & Cost Affective Shared Media Management

Hey guys.

Sorry to post so such a broad topic. Here's my current situation.... After six years of grinding it out solo and via sub-contractors only, I'm excited to be able to add a part-timer to our staff as an asst./additional editor.

My issue is this; I'd estimate that 75 percent of our workload comes from a 12 month client (hey, no business advice-I know that's less than ideal! :-), an action sports company for whom we film many events throughout the year, and release many pieces of content, including an hour long online documentary series.

Only about 25 percent of our jobs are "one-and-done."

So now adding a second editor and second edit bay naturally creates its own technical hurdles. Ideally, I'd still like all of the our capture scratch/source video to remain in one place, say Media Bank 1. I'd like the ability to say "Ok, I'm going to work on project A, you work on project B," and not have to worry about about "oh, wait a minute-which edit bay are those files tied to?"

For now, I'm really trying to manage this on the cheap, maybe $500-$750 solution. I looked into Final Cut Server, but really it isn't a server/storage solution, is it?

Drobe has some options, but I have heard mixed reviews, and I wonder about the playback speed of pulling footage from this "network"

As it sits right now, I think I'M leaning toward the following idea, though it's a little redundant and not very elegant...

buying two of the lower-end drobes, and just having them connected directly to the edit bays, and having redundancy in the footage on the harddrives inserted. Basically a drobe unit for each edit bay with the say "master" media footage.

Any thoughts/ suggestions? My current professional colleague network is filled with video guys without much IT/networking knowledge, and IT/networking guys without much video experience.

So I figured LAFCPUG is a good place to bounce some ideas.

Thanks!

Dan

What computers are you working on? MacPros? And what resolution? At one of my workplaces they just have bare drives with projects on that can be slipped into any of the computers (or attached via the 'toaster' style externals)

At home I have bare drives for most of my big clients, and a couple that contain more of the 'one-and-done' style clients all together.

I manage them all with DiskLibrary, which indexes your drives and gives you a searchable database of all your materials.

I'd say this is one of the most cost effective methods, since the 1TB drives are around $70 each these days, and can sit on the shelf waiting for updates when not needed.

Do you use a high speed redundant storage array for editing at the moment? What kind of formats are you working with and how many seats? What kind of machines are you running?



www.strypesinpost.com

Thanks guys. We have a Mac G5 tower, and a new
MacBook pro.

I might not be explaining myself and my needs the best.

It's not "safety" storage issues...I need a solution where multiple
Editors can access the same single bank of footage, from two different
Computers, using two different copies of FCP, via two different projects simultaneously.

We are working in Pro Res, 720p.

Thanks!!!!

Dan

Sharing is not an issue, although your budget seems really small if you do not already have a fast storage to run a centralized server. I'd say go for GigE based solution if you can. That would be cheaper. Walter Biscardi had a couple of articles on that (how to build a SAN without breaking the bank), and I am working on similar system for a multicam show in a collaborative environment.

And yes, you need to get rid of the ancient ship anchor... I mean your 9 year old G5 (9 years makes it fossilized fuel in computing age). Also, the new MacBook Pros will probably not work efficiently with Ethernet solutions as Apple has retardedly used the Broadcom chipset, which does not support jumbo frames. Get an iMac, or a Mac Pro.



www.strypesinpost.com

Let me address your points directly:

>I looked into Final Cut Server

You don't want to look there. Firstly, it's dead. Some guys use CatDV, which reputedly works just as well if not better. Secondly, FCServer is a media asset management utility. Which is great for keeping track of your media assets. And from your description, you seem to want shared editing storage. You would be looking at a SAN (storage area network) for your purpose.

>buying two of the lower-end drobes

If you're talking about the Drobo, that's too slow for sharing, last I heard.



www.strypesinpost.com

Yep! You are right on all accounts! :-) Drobos, but sharing
Was my concern.

Yeah, FCP server is totally mislabeled. I snagged a copy used for like
$70 just to see if it would be helpful in sorting.

For the near future, we refuse to go to FCP X, so we'd get
A little mileage from it.

I am DEF looking for the most economical SAN solution.

Thanks!

Dan

Dan, here is a post of mine from a while back. it references a very simple solution (from Bob Zelin) for ONLY TWO COMPUTERS:

zero-cost san for 2 systems

i'm not sure it'll meet al your needs, but it's worth a look.


cheers,
nick

I'm not sure if Ethernet will work for him if he is using a current gen MBP. This generation uses Broadcom chips that do not support jumbo frames, so you can't specify MTU frame size. The MacPros and the iMac (current gen) does, however



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