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FCP X 10.3.2 and QNAP shared storage
Hi –
I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the new QNAP operating system that supports
Apple document HT207128, which discusses FCP X 10.3 shared storage.I have done tests in 3 facilities, most recently this morning with Oliver Peters at a facility in Orlando.
You DO NOT need to use NFS to connect or save a library. You can directly create and save a new FCP X Library
to the QNAP shared storage system. Oliver was able to play back four 4K streams without issue from the QNAP.While this morning’s test was done with a more expensive 16 Bay 10G QNAP, my other two tests were done on
smaller inexpensive 8 bay QNAP shared storage systems. If you don’t care about expandability, you can get a basic
8 bay QNAP for under $1000, fill it with drives, get a small 10G uplink switch, and have a shared storage environment
with more capability than you would from simply buying a normal thunderbolt 8 bay RAID array.Even a mid size QNAP that is expandable is very inexpensive (under $3000, not including drives).
What Oliver also showed me, which I found exciting was that you really no longer need to use outboard products
from AJA and Blackmagic to display a signal on an external monitor. If you have a large 4K monitor (LG, Samsung, etc.) with an HDMI port, and you get an inexpensive thunderbolt to USB hub that has HDMI output on it (CalDigit, OWC, etc.)
you can directly output a full screen HDMI UHD 4K image to a large monitor, directly from the HDMI port. This relieves the aggravation of the constant battle of FCPX/OSX versions vs. the driver versions from companies like Blackmagic and AJA (audio would come out of the mini 3.5 mm audio port on your Mac to a small mixer or powered speakers).Of course, adding a thunderbolt to 10G adaptor (Promise, Sonnet, ATTO) to your thunderbolt Mac would give you incredible speeds back to the QNAP – more than capable of doing 4K, 6K and potentially even 8K video workflow at full resolution.
Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bo******@****ud.com -
30 Replies
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Just to expand on this. I was running 4 x UHD 24p streams (basic quad split) in a UHD 24p project. The suite’s client monitor is a large 1920 x 1080 Panasonic and we were feeding the HDMI signal out via a CalDigit dock connected to a trash can Mac Pro 8-core. Video was set to full quality, so FCPX is taking care of scaling the video down to 1080 for the monitor.
I’m taking the HDMI from the CalDigit rather than the Mac, because this enables me to keep 2 UI monitors. I also have a BMD UltraStudio Express on this computer, but performance with FCPX is unacceptable. However, it works fine with Resolve and Premiere Pro. I use SDI there. Premiere can also be used with only HDMI.
If someone were to go with a similar set-up, but without an AJA or BMD i/o device, you’d still need to get clean audio out of the Mac. Something like a small Presonus box via USB would do the trick.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Sounds promising. Too bad I went the route I did, or is this just another version of 10Gige?
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: info@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.BabyBoomPictures.comFor Camera Accessories – Monitors and Batteries
website: https://www.EigRig.com -
[Warren Eig] “or is this just another version of 10Gige”
I’m not sure what the question is. At the site I’m at, we have 6 computers connected via a switch to the QNAP. The 4 edit stations are connected as 10GigE. There are two other stations connected via 1GigE. 2 of the 4 edit stations are Mac Pro towers connected using a 10GigE PCIe card. The other 2 are a 2013 Mac Pro and an iMac. These are using a Thunderbolt2-10GigE adapter.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Hi Warren –
this technology was not even a pipe dream before April 2015, and the only reason it’s working now is that
Apple released FCP X 10.3, and QNAP wrote the correct firmware to make their box work (which has only
been available for a week). So you can’t “regret” buying something several years ago – this stuff just came out.
As you well know, new stuff always comes out, and these days, it’s faster than ever.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
[Oliver Peters] “6 computers connected via a switch to the QNAP. The 4 edit stations are connected as 10GigE. “
So the Qnap connects to a switch via a single 10GigE, and the 10GigE switch has 4 Macs connecting to it over 10GigE each. Why kind of bandwidth does each Mac get off the Qnap when all 4 clients are drawing data? Like do you have numbers if all 4 were to fire up BM Speed test or Aja speed test with the Qnap as target drive.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head. Bob can address that, however, I generally don’t consider these benchmarks as real world, because there are too many variables.
We installed the system a few weeks ago. One test I performed when we first hooked it up was to set up a sequence in Premiere of 4xUHD ProResHQ 24p clips playing in a quad split. I had 3 systems looping the same sequence pulling from the same 4 source clips. Simultaneously at full res. No hiccups or dropped frames. That seemed pretty solid to me.
Most of the time, we have no more than two systems editing at any given time and hardly ever with the same source clips. But everything at native source res – no proxies. Project files and renders are on the QNAP, but Adobe cache files are local.
Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Hi Neil –
please don’t think of this as a “cheap system” that can just do 4 systems. I have clients using the Netgear
XS728T 24 port 10G switch, and they are all working off the 16 bay QNAP without issue.The bottom line answer to your question is – a 16 bay SATA array really can’t do more than 1800 MB/sec at best.
Start a couple of huge data transfers with 10G adaptors, so that each transfer is 800 MB/sec, and you are going to suck
out all the bandwidth of the system. I don’t care who makes it. But when people are just doing normal work – editing 4K, graphics, audio, renders, transcoding – having 20 people hooked up and working all at once is no issue.Of course, switch to the smaller 8 bay, and your bandwidth goes down to probably 1000 – 1100 MB/sec total bandwidth.
While these are 12G systems, I have NOT tested any of these with 12G SAS drives, or with SSD’s. When you see the QNAP Spec of 3800+ MB/sec, this is referring to SSD’s, and I can’t imagine anyone loading 16 1TB SSD’s into any system – it’s too expensive, and too small. This is also the reason why 40G Ethernet is ridiculous today. If you use Mellanox cards for 40G and a 40G switch (QNAP is 40G Mellanox compatible with the drivers already installed) – you can get
2200 MB/sec. That means that one client doing a 1TB data transfer will eat up the entire bandwidth of a 16 bay
with SATA drives. And this applies to anyones system – not just QNAP.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com -
[Bob Zelin] “please don’t think of this as a “cheap system” that can just do 4 systems.”
No I’m not thinking of cost. Cost is no object, if the speed and reliability are good. I was attracted by the 8-bay shareable over 10GigE for a more portable setup when one is offloading Alexa or Red video cards from multiple cameras using multiple workstations.
If I could connect even two MacBook Pros using 10GigE (with TBolt2-10GigE or Tbolt3-10GigE for the Touchbar MBP) to a 8-bay NAS RAIDs and get close to 250-300 MB/sec per client, I would be happy.
For 4 clients I guess I’ll need a switch unless there’s a NAS with 4 10GigE ports. But then, 4 10GigE clients on an 8-bay NAS would probably not be bale to deliver over 250-300 MB/sec per client.
My issue with the 16-bay is weight not cost. I’m guessing the 16 bay would be close to 30-40 kgs. An 8-bay is about 12-15 kgs which is manageable for one human.
The 8-bay one seems small enough to carry on set, but I got intrigued by Oliver mentioning a sub $1000 NAS unit which also does 10GigE. I could only find the QNAP TS-831X on B&H which is sub $1000 and even that has 2 SFP+ 10GigE ports.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India -
[Neil Sadwelkar] ” but I got intrigued by Oliver mentioning a sub $1000 NAS unit which also does 10GigE.”
Just to be clear, I was only talking about the 16-drive unit. I wasn’t talking about a sub $1000 unit. I think Bob mentioned that in his original post.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Hi –
the TVS-871T-16G has four 1G ports and 2 Cat 6 10GbaseT ports. The cheaper TS-831X has 2 1G ports and 2 SFP+ ports, so yes, you need the Netgear XS708T switch for this.Bob Zelin
Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com
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