Edit Share?

[Chris Blair]

I believe their systems are LAN based and not true SAN’s. Which isn’t a bad thing by the way. We considered their systems recently but eventually chose the Apace vStor instead.

We couldn’t get EditShare to return emails or phone calls. It would take them a week to call us back after repeated inquiries…and it always sounded like the guy calling us back was a freelance or independent sales guy. He was never in the office, could never answer my technical questions and couldn’t tell me if the system would work with our edit systems (VelocityQ).

Apace guaranteed their system would work and if it didn’t they put in writing that we could return it for a full refund.
EditShare never would give me a written quote. The guy just kept giving me verbal “ballpark” amounts. Apace’s dealer (IEEE, inc.) would get me written quotes within minutes of me requesting it….then follow up to see if I had questions or needed other quotes with different configurations.

EditShare wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me how many streams of video I could expect to get, instead saying it depended on this and that etc. etc. Apace guaranteed me 8-10 streams of real-time SD video with the system we were looking at….and it delivers.

There were a host of other reasons we chose vStor and you can read them here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/197/855153

Editshare has a great looking website and a lot of “hype” but I was unimpressed by the folks I talked to.

You should definitely explore them as they have a legion of happy users, but I’d give vStor a look too. Don’t let their less than flashy website fool you. They KNOW their stuff and have great pre-sales service.

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
401 E. Indiana
Evansville, IN 47711
http://www.videomi.com

[Sam Spencer]

I saw this post earlier this summer and meant to respond, but have been slammed with work since then…

My experience with EditShare has been nothing but amazing. A friend recommended EditShare to me early this year, so I visited their booth at NAB. I was blown away by the people I met, the technology they’re developing and have developed and by the very cool tools and software to manage the storage, users, media spaces, etc.

I’ve used everything from Avid’s Unity to simple dumb storage devices and I’ve got to say, EditShare has them all beat. I think that media workgroups need intelligent tools to manage shared storage, without this it can be chaotic. I’m amazed by the project sharing for both Avid and Final Cut Pro and by the new products like EditShare’s Flow & ARK and their X-Stream super fast storage coming out sometime. And when getting hands on demos of all of this at their booth, I was thrilled to see how EASY it all is to use, manage and maintain. They don’t deal complicate things like other vendors, that’s very cool.

I spoke with EditShare after NAB, they were always available, called and emailed me back immediately and a couple of the guys offered to setup a call with the owner of EditShare, Andy. After discussing my needs and pricing, they made sure I understood how many streams the custom system they quoted would provide me. They called and emailed back to check on me, asking if I had any more questions, needed alternative quotes, offered an online web-ex meeting and demo and told me they would connect me with a local reseller when I am ready to purchase. That’s great service BEFORE the sale and an indication of their care and commitment to their customers and quality.

I’ve got Final Cut Pro & Avid systems, graphics, 3D and other tools and I know they all can seamlessly connect to EditShare, MAC or PC with zero hassles. That’s cool! I’ve closely checked out other vendors who offer “similar” products and have tried to copy EditShare’s technology, but they don’t come close! I’ve called these guys, gotten stories and lies told to me, or haven’t even been able to reach them most of the time, by email or phone. With EditShare, I got one of their team members every time, and got my questions answered right away. Especially the guys at Terrorblock, I was not impressed by either their product or their responsiveness. (I’m sure they are good guys, but I didn’t care for what I found there and I think it is an inferior product in many ways) Don’t even get me going on Apple’s xsan or Final Cut Server, there are a 1000 hidden costs and I have many friends who have had horrible times even getting it to work during installation.

EditShare is a rock solid, fast and intelligent product and can fit into any facility, from small to very large post and broadcasters.

Sam Spencer
Owner / Senior Editor
Post House Productions Inc.

[Chris Blair]

Sam,

Good to hear you had a better experience. I did point out in my post that:

people should definitely explore them as they have a legion of happy users

I’m curious what your budget was? Ours was 20k and under. Maybe they didn’t feel like we were worth spending time on with that kind of budget. I know we occasionally get calls from potential clients who just don’t have enough budget for the projects they want to pursue and we steer them to colleagues that might be able to do their project within their budgets.

But I know there have been some other people who’ve had similar experiences with EditShare. Perhaps they monitor these forums and have made improvements.

Another stumbling block in our dealings with them were that we primarily use VelocityQ editing systems, and they had no clients using their products with Velocity, VelocityQ or VelocityHD. I even suggested Boston area facilities that used Velocity as an option to test one of their systems, but they just weren’t interested.

Glad to hear it’s working in your setup though. I know they have a lot of Avid and Final Cut users that swear by them.

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com