• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  FCP storage and using Sata SAN

  Posted by David Groves on May 23, 2008 at 9:29 am

  Can any one give me a second opinion on this.

  I am building three FCP edit suites. The macs are running on 2.8ghz quad core intel xeon. My i/o board is an AJA Kona LHe. storage is going to be on a Sata SAN, using AoE protocols. Apparenly this can transfer data at 10 gigabits a sec.

  Using this type of storage would it be possible to run 6 streams of uncompressed HD, or would I need to use ProRes422 to compress all my video. I am going to be using different format i.e., digibeta, DVcam, XDCam and uncompressed HD.

  I would like to know your Thoughts.
  Thanks
  David.

  David Groves
  Alpha International

  Michael Bloodgood replied 17 years, 11 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Walter Biscardi

  May 23, 2008 at 11:35 am

  [David Groves] “Using this type of storage would it be possible to run 6 streams of uncompressed HD”

  That would require approx. 250MB/s x 6. I don’t know of any array currently that can put out that kind of bandwidth.

  Remember, the bandwidth on any array is fixed. When you divide that bandwidth between edit stations, the bandwidth is also divided. So if your array is 500MB/s like our EVO HD’s, that’s the maximum data throughput we can get, each workstation will tap in to that 500MB/s.

  So if I have three workstations and one is running Uncompressed HD, the other two workstations now have 250MB/s of bandwidth left to use.

  Walter Biscardi, Jr.
  Biscardi Creative Media
  HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

  STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
  Read my Blog!
  
• 

  Michael Bloodgood

  May 23, 2008 at 10:27 pm

  You can only get 10 gigabit with 10 gigabit Ethernet HBAs which would be far more expensive than an entire Fibre SAN for 25 users. As for six streams of uncompressed HD, Walter is right in that there is no one array capable to deliver the 1500 MB/s. You could build a SAN using XSAN or RUSH’s SAN development (I can’t remember its name) using dual 4 gig Fibre to all hosts and about three to four arrays (example: the array by Promise). If you were to build it yourself, the cost of components would be about 45 grand.

  Or you could get an EVO HD for each station which would deliver six streams of Prores for a grand total of 15 grand but you would lose the shared storage capability.

  Michael Bloodgood
  Senior Editor
  Horizon Entertainment Group

  Ah yes, the laser fields

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up