FCP5 Observations Pt1

[David Battistella]

Thanks for posting this. It is so nice to know that FCP is installed in the kind of environment you are talking aout and it is working so well for you guys. These kinds of large broadcast operations help all of us. We can point to the great success that Final Cut is having in set-ups such as yours which are very large scale and efficient and cost effective.

David

[Andy Mees]

Hi Joachim

Interesting post. Could you offer more details regarding your edit enviroment/workflow?

You currently have 50+ edit stations …. are they all linked by Xsan? (and isn’t that incredibly expensive just in fiber switches?!)
You’re now using FCP 5’s native IMX support (capturing via SDI thru AJAIOLD?) … i understood that Telestream was the only option currently for bringing in footage as IMX, is that part of the equation?

I’m always looking to help improve our own setup (currently 17 FCP stations, hoping to expand to 30 later in the year), at the moment we’re capturing to DVCPro50 via SDI to BlackMagic. IMX was judged to be a better codec but was as yet unsupported when we set up the system, at the moment we’re still testing FCP5 and have not yet implemented any IMX solution (hence my obvious interest!!)

Any insight and expertise you’d be willing to share would be very much appreciated.
I’d imagine it would be of general interest to everyone here, but if you prefer, you can also contact me using andymees-AT-startv.com

Cheers
Andy

[Joachim Blunck]

To answer your questions:

“You currently have 50+ edit stations …. are they all linked by Xsan?”

We have two Xsans. One with 45 clients, the other with 29. We also have two Xserves connected to each Xsan as client/AFP fileservers. So, any of the 200+ PCs and Macs connected to our public network can see the media and data on the two Xsans. Each Xsan has four qLogic 5200 switches, for a grand total of 128 fibre ports. The qLogic switches are a very good value.

“You’re now using FCP 5’s native IMX support (capturing via SDI thru AJAIOLD?) … i understood that Telestream was the only option currently for bringing in footage as IMX, is that part of the equation?”

No, Telestream’s import utility brings IMX/XDCAM files in directly via GigE. You can hook up an XDCAM player via SDI and capture using the IMX codec in FCP5 for normal capture. While it’s not truly native, the encoding is very, very good, and compatible with native files brought in via Telestream’s solution. We typically use OLRT as our offline editing codec, and now IMX as our online codec. Telestream will need to find a way to bring in the low-res proxies with proper cataloging for their import mechanism to have application for us. We’re optimistic they’ll make it work.

Our workflow basically uses the inherent strengths of the Mac OS for cataloging of all media. By keeping thing s in plain-english, our folders and filenames make it easy for editors to import what they need to their projects, and make other applications like logging, graphics, and producer review relative simple.

Feell free to call me, Andy, if you have further questions.

JB
Blue Smoke & Mirrors Ltd.
FCP Finishing
Xsan Integration
310-292-0416

[Andy Mees]

Thanks for your the extra info Joachim, its much appreciated.

Very Best Regards
Andy Mees