fcp studio 2 lab setup

[Zak Mussig]

Gloria,

What you’re talking about is a SAN (storage area network), and unfortunately it’s a pay to play game which isn’t suited to intensely budget-conscious organizations like schools. Depending on what format you’re working with, you may be able to work with one of the newer solutions which work over gigabit ethernet, but at 15 clients you aren’t a good candidate for the entry-level systems (which run around 10k).

There’s no really cheap, efficient, and reliable way to make files available to multiple users right now. I would suggest assigning student’s firewire drives and really drilling into them that the first thing they do at a machine is set their scratch disk. This could also help teach some real-world skills which aren’t sexy, but editors need to know such as storage space management and archiving.

Zak

[Gloria Joseph]

thanks so much for the quick response….
Yes, right now we use external mercury drives….and it IS good for them to learn this.
Because we are on the older G5 (non-intel)…there are certain workflow issues; as there are two inputs for a firewire connection, but only one bus….so, it won’t recognize two firewire inputs (camera digitizing and saving to firewire externals)….I am very edgy about having to set scratch disk when inputting, then changing after starting to cut…..Perhaps this is not an issue with the new ones…….?
What about this “FinalCut Server”?……what makes that different?….
Our District has an Airwave Digital Video Media Server for cablecasts….and we would like to share files with our district media people; 2nd year students could do jobs like digitizing and rough cuts; send the files over for finishing.
If we talk about that kind of file-sharing they may consider an entry-level set-up.
It’s 30 students overall; potentially 40 if they update lab this year.
We emphasize Post-Production; so, we like to create that workflow if possible….thanks…glora

[Zak Mussig]

Gloria,

From my experience with high schoolers (my first job out of school was teaching FCP in a high school), I’ve found that, just like any other subject, you need to focus on the fundamentals. With media that can be hard because they see something on MTV and they want to do that, but if you can’t even get the video into the computer, you’re a few steps short. All of this to say that their minds and schedules may not tolerate a complicated workflow with different steps happening in different places.

Since you have G5s rather than iMacs, you have the option to put in firewire PCI cards to add a second bus. I haven’t had any trouble capturing with a drive and camera on the same bus, but the card would give you some peace of mind.

In terms of setting scratch disks, a student would only need to set the scratch disk when they sat down at a computer… not during a session. Once it’s set, they are capturing and rendering to their drive. Teach them how to quit FCP (as opposed to closing all of the windows) and unmount their drive when they’re done. This way they take their files with them. If they later sit down at that machine, or any other, they set their scratch disk and they’re working just like before.

I’m starting to think that Final Cut Server has a misleading name… it isn’t a server for sharing media so much as it’s an application for cataloging and searching assets which are already shared over a SAN. As such, you might consider deploying it if/when you get some other kind of shared solution in place, but it won’t really help you achieve your immediate goal.

Talk to you District-level people about what storage they use. The server you described is only for playback. You could probably FTP your finished programs to it if that’s what they want you to do, but there’s no real way to use that machine to share assets with them. Depending on your district’s IT infrastructure, it may be possible for them to tap into any shared storage you set up (which could help justify the cost).

The ultimate hurdle you’re going to run into will be budgetary. The entry-level ethernet shared storage supports around 20 streams of DV/HDV. If you have 40 machines and district has 5, then you’re 25 short of everyone being able to playback at the same time. So while the entry-level system is s stretch to pay for, it won’t even do what you need.

I have a soft spot for video at the high-school level since that’s when I started and hat was my first job. Feel free to e-mail me zakmussig [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any more questions. I’ve sorta become a specialist at workflow and curriculum for high school video.

Zak

[Zak Mussig]

Gloria,

I answered your questions very thoroughly, but I must have accidentally typed a COW no-no word, so my post is being reviewed. 🙁

I just wanted to let you know you haven’t been forgotten, and hopefully the post will be posted shortly.

Zak