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Large Storage solution needed
I work at an small ad agency and we are constantly working on old projects as well as ingesting new footage from shoots and such. I do everything in-house, and deliver for broadcast, so I work in full-res prores HQ on almost everything (I work in FCP7). Because of this, I need a very large amount of storage that is always online (I need to recall footage from 3 years ago etc. frequently).
Currently I have 3 rack-mounted Drobo 800fs ‘s with I believe 16TBs each. The performance is horrible, has always been horrible, and is getting worse as they fill up (two of them are near capacity. Anyway, I may have finally convinced the powers that be to pay for a true editing storage solution, and I wanted to pick the Cow’s brain for solutions. I have been checking out the HDPro24 from CalDigit and ActiveRAIDes. Has anyone used these? Do you know of better/cheaper solutions? Any help would be great. Thank you.
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13 Replies
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Hi Matthew,
I’m sure you’ll hear from lots of folks like me, so I’ll keep my reply short!
We (SNS) specialize in large shared media storage solutions (a few TB up to PB) for companies that have multiple users editing with FCP, Avid, and such. We have customers and resellers all over the world, and we’d love to hear from you if you think our system would be a good fit for your company.
https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/evo/solutions/
Please feel free to hit us up with any questions.
Eric Newbauer
Studio Network Solutions (SNS)
https://www.studionetworksolutions.com -
[Matthew Kasey] “I need a very large amount of storage that is always online “
Shared or direct-attached?) What are the ideal capacity, performance and features you are looking for?
[Matthew Kasey] “The performance is horrible”
Drobos in general aren’t famous for their performance, but I’d love to hear exactly what was horrible – what were the pain points.
[Matthew Kasey] ” I have been checking out the HDPro24 from CalDigit and ActiveRAIDes. Has anyone used these? Do you know of better/cheaper solutions?”
I haven’t had first-hand experience with either CalDigits or ActiveRAIDs although some cows here are using them. Both HDPro24 and ActiveRAID appear to be SAN-ready systems, with over $10K for 24-48TB configurations: configuring them for shared access will add quite a few $$$ to the price tag, as well.
If you are OK with direct-attached storage, I’d look at ProAvio and CineRAID SAS expanders: a 64TB 16-bay configuration with redundant power, Areca 1882x, ATTO R680 or one of the mid-range LSI controllers – in the $9-11K range.
If you need shared storage, I’d look at NAS boxes from QNAP and Thecus – purchased through a good video integrator (not through online retailers) – as you may need help configuring and maintaining them.
HTH.
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Matthew,
I was unable to confirm if CalDigit is still selling the HDPro 24 (I an a former Director of Business Development there). The Proavio IS316JS that Alex recommended.. he also sells, see it here: https://www.proavio.com/index.php/products/post-production/is316js
Jonathan Schilling
Vertical Sales Manager
Proavio Storage by Enhance Technology Inc.
12221 Florence Ave.
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
Dir: 562-777-3498
Main: 562-777-3488 X106
Fax: 562-777-3499
Email: jon@proavio.com -
Active RAID is out of business.
You may observe on the left and right of this forum all the banner ads. There are countless wonderful large RAID arrays. I urge you to look for EXPANDABLE drive arrays when you make your purchase.
No matter what you buy, you will run out of room. Products from ProAvio are expandable, products from Cal Digit are NOT.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com -
Thanks everyone for the advice/suggestions. I now have some good places to focus my research.
To answer a few of your questions Alex:
This will be a direct attach solution. I’m here all by my lonesome 🙁
As far as Drobo performance, there are just a lot of playback problems. Dropped frames, freezing on playback. I work in advertising so I work in mostly 15, 30 and 60 seconds, and I can seldom get through a full spot without freezing or skipping. I previously has a gRAID es storage system on the exact same computer and never had problems.
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I’m in the same boat as the OP. I am the entire video department at an ad agency in Manhattan. I am also desperately in need of a large and protected (i.e. RAID) storage system for video files.
Since I am the only editor, it doesn’t need to be networked storage.
So, keep the suggestions coming. Thank you!
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since you are in Manhattan, aren’t there countless video dealers, – everyone from Tekserve to B&H Photo that sell exactly what you want ? Have you ever been to B&H Photo ? Have you ever spoken to other ad agencies to ask them what they are using ? Have you ever contacted Yates Parks in NY about doing engineering for your agency (like most of the agencies do) to advise you on what to use for storage ?
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com -
Paul,
We talked earlier today. A “larger” direct attached system is offered, other than what we discussed, starting at 16TB, see my previous post on the IS316JS in this thread. a 16TB system starts at $6450.00, which is the 16 bay 3U rackmount chassis populated with 16 – 1TB drives and an Areca 1882X card. Formatted in your RAID level of choice & burned in & tested in Mac OSX.
Jonathan Schilling
Vertical Sales Manager
Proavio Storage by Enhance Technology Inc.
12221 Florence Ave.
Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
Dir: 562-777-3498
Main: 562-777-3488 X106
Fax: 562-777-3499
Email: jon@proavio.com -
Bob,
I prefer to talk to users first, then salespeople. You might be able to figure out why if you think about it. -
[Matthew Kasey] “This will be a direct attach solution. I’m here all by my lonesome :(“
Thanks Matthew. Lonesome is awesome, at least where I stand. 🙂
Have you finalized on anything; where is your research taking you so far?
[Paul Escamilla] “I prefer to talk to users first, then salespeople. You might be able to figure out why if you think about it.”
I am a salesman, for sure; although more of an engineer – like Bob. There’s something to be said about playing with a lot of toys from various vendors for a number of years for a living. Not every user is exposed to that. So perhaps salesman’s perspective has a value, after a large grain of salt of course.
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