Edit Systems

[Adam Taylor]

i’m sure many others will leap in to this thread…and i’m not going to answer your questions regarding monitors, macs etc, its too large a minefield. I know works for me, but it may not for others.

What i will say is if you want a professional edit suite, then don’t forget the other essentials – the ones often overlooked because they are not as sexy as the big bits of kit…..Waveform Monitor/Vectorscope, Audio Meters, decent quality Loudspeakers (studio monitors NOT hi-fi), and two of the most important things – a good chair (I swear by HermanMillers Mirra – cheaper than the Aeron, and twice as comfy) and a decent user interface (I hate using Mice – get a Wacom Intuos3 graphics tablet). Your health can easily suffer when sitting for countless hours staring motionless at a screen…trust me – i have the physio appointment cards to prove it!

Picture monitoring is a difficult one at present – with the death of CRT monitors and the relentless rise of LCD screens, you will probably end up with LCD. I cannot recommend any as i use a cathode ray tube. I trust the picture i get from my tube, and have yet to be overly impressed by any LCD for moving video.

Video Input – you will need a video card to capture and play out material – AJA Kona and Blackmagic seem to be the two main choices (i use AJA)

If your are going to be finishing in the suite, then what are your output format requirements? Consider getting a hardware Legaliser that can cope with those formats. (I use an Eyeheight model between output and digibeta record deck and have never had a tape rejected by a broadcaster.

A raid is pretty much a necessity, especially if you are going to be doing uncompressed or HD work. Again, many choices – Apple Xserve, Ciprico, and many others.

You sound like you are in a fortunate position – you have the ability to build a suite from scratch. I had the same situation a year ago – a clean slate with no previous kit or ingrained working practices to integrate with…just an empty room and an open minded boss!

Take the time to research not only kit, but the possible requirements of your end client (whether it be broadcast, dvds, industrial or whatever – they all have specific needs).

Buy the kit that will do the work with the least amount of hassle. And buy wisely…saving a few bucks by comparing lowest prices might seem a good idea in the immediate future, but you really need reliability, ease of use and service support.

Good luck, and happy buying!

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

[Derek Natzke]

Thank you Adam. I just want to get the best system!

Derek L. Natzke
Producer, Life Studios
http://www.lifeteen.com
602.840.1900

[Walter Biscardi]

Get the fastest Mac you can afford with at least 4GB RAM.

Upgrade to the ATI 1900 graphics card.

AJA Kona 3 for all everything in / out. If you need analog connectivity you can look at the AJA IoLA as an add-on to the K3.

For storage there’s a lot of options out there. We just tested the new Sonnett Fusion D800 8bay SATA array and it’s outstanding. RAID 5 and plenty of horsepower for uncompressed HD. We also tested the Maxx Digital 8bay SATA array as well. RAID 5 and even more horsepower (almost 500MB/s) for multistream uncompressed HD. We’re about to test a Dulce 8bay system and I’ve heard from some folks that it’s a bit slower than the others, but faster in the RAID 5 build / re-build so that’s a good thing.

Other than those, you can certainly look at Fibre Channel solutions like the ProMax FibreMax solution, Ciprico and Facilis.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Adam Taylor]

[TheDuke2007] “I just want to get the best system!”
hence my answer – the “best” is relative to what you actual want to achieve.

adam

Editor/Mixer
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK