Does Adobe Premiere Support a Shared Storage Environment?

[Shane Ross]

I would think that as long as the storage shows up on the computer, Adobe could use it. What it can’t do is have shared projects. Working with FCP in a shared media/shared project workflow was tricky because the media management in FCP is weak. Note…Premiere’s media management is far weaker.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Morten]

But neither FCPX or FCP7 offer shared projects as well, as far as I’m informed?

– No Parking Production –

2 x Finalcut Studio3, 2 x Prod. bundle CS6, 2 x MacPro, 2 x ioHD, Ethernet File Server w. X-Raid…. and FCPX on trial

[Petros Kolyvas]

We have three edit stations all working off the same SAS-based storage array all running CS6. No problems whatsoever and it’s not even XSAN, it’s running over GbE.

Currently all project data is on the shared storage and each station keeps it’s own Preview Files and Media Cache to keep things speedy. We have no problem passing projects around this way.

Perhaps of interest to you: one of the caveats we’ve discovered is that if Edit Station 1 is working in Premiere with assets that are dynamically linked (like an AE comp) which is being actively worked on on Edit Station 1, the station 1 editor has to close a project to see new comps (but existing, already-imported comps do get updated).

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Alex Udell]

Hi….

I’ve setup and used PPro in shared environments just fine.

What others have said above is fine.

The workflows I have used were primarily:

shared “asset library style” where a lot of different editors made use of commonly shared assets.

and

“Serial Passing workflows” where and editor/producer might do the first cut, then the finisher/craft/online editor picks up the same project and completes it.

Both of these work fine.

Where there has been a lot discussion is around multi editor collaboration projects….where people divide a project into different sub projects and work on them and then merge those projects together.

When Projects are merged in PPro, PPro will link to imported assets separately for each instance imported into a PPro project. This if 2 editors used asset “A” in projects separately, then later, the projects are merged in a master project, the master will have 2 imported instances of asset “A”. So project files can get a bulky.

Hope that gives you some insight….as to the current state of affairs…

You should also be aware that Adobe just made big waves with a foward looking collaborative solution called “Anywhere” at IBC. Won’t be released until next year, but it’s a game changer.

See these links:

https://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-anywhere/introducing-adobe-anywhere-for-video/

https://www.fxguide.com/featured/new-tech-adobe-anywhere/

Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX

[Michael Hendrix]

We are thinking about the switch as well. I have been the only one to test, but it works well with Omneon/Harmonic, 36TB shared storage.

[Mike Zimbard]

Thanks all for your input – excellent information!!

[Erik Lindahl]

Adobe Anywhere feels like a different ball-game than a few, local, editors sharing media no? It’s cool, possibly a game-changer in some areas but seems like compete overkill (and possible a worse solution) if you have X editors in a room you want to work with the same media.

Hopefully the Anywhere share-abilites are also transported into a non-anywhere setup.

[Alex Udell]

I’m not sure. I think of it more as a tech burden shift.

With a properly equipped server, it would mean that clients (attached editors) could be much more inexpensive…even in the same LAN….
the external WAN capabilities is a huge bonus…

it’s still a little early to tell…

and really there’s nothing stopping you from working the traditional way as PPro is built on “Path to file” topology.

Also of interest is that more Asset mgmt systems are jumping on board. If some of that got more “small group” as opposed to “enterprise”..that may well be interesting.

my opinion anyway…

Alex

[Erik Lindahl]

If they get it right it could be some interesting technology for sure. But, as we work we have 2 offline / online suites working with editing, grading and after effects comp work. I could imagine there are hundreds of shops like ours and I don’t really see how “Anywhere” fits in. If anything I see potentially more issues as I presume one is working on streamed media i.e. you add even another layer of latency out to your video-monitor.

I guess I’m just used to new things being an issue rather than “just working”. Last time I checked Premier for example isn’t even color managed which with the above makes me iffy to the concept of “streamed editing” where it’s not really required (i.e. off-site, low bandwidth situations).

That said, “Anywhere” would possibly open up the option of a shop like ours working over the internal gigabith network at say ProRes quality where the original files on the server are full 4:4:4 uncompressed DPX-files or similar. I.e. it could, potentially, but a great tech for a shop like ours also.

[Alex Udell]

Erik…

great talk. You do raise some good issues.

But in my mind there is nothing that would prohibit “Anywhere” being the mechanism to generate the cut, but then using

XML methods and a traditional Fibre SAN local topology to relink to proper raw files for conform and grade in whatever software or pipeline you choose.

the bonus is really that if your star editor/director and producer were “Anywhere” else or at least they could be at least to produce the cut.

It’s exciting times that will solve problems and introduce questions we’ve not yet pondered.

Alex