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Final cut ethernet Server for 100 bucks. THE TUTORIAL
Hey everyone,
For people who already know this, please disregard. But for the rest of the FCP world, you don’t need to spend $20,000 on a server. Just an ethernet switcher – that’s it. I thought I would post a tutorial on how to do it.
You can’t cut using the same project, but you can use the same media and it is a great way to save a ton of money on creating a network. Since 2007, I have been using this system. I have Cut SD, HD DVCPRO HD Pro RES all over a network. I have shared 20 terabites of footage to 2,3,4 and even 5 computers all working off of the same media at once. This server solution works iwth SCSI, SATA, even firewire 800 and 400 in a pinch. I have cut 30 second spots and 2 hour documentaries all using the same system – it works flawlessly.
You can create a server for your media with nothing more than an ethernet cable and a $100 netgear gigabit ethernet switcher. (okay, the real cost is $100.00 for router, plus ethernet cable, plus storage, plus computers, plus legal fcp serial numbers, – so the cost really comes down to what you own, but the idea is cheap.)
basically – given that you aren’t using five year old computers, gigabit ethernet is fast enough to share media to several computers.
How do you do it. – in 2 Flavors
For small company that needs up to three people using media. (THE DOWN AND DIRTY WAY)
Step 1. Get a MAC PRO. This is your server/master computer.
Step 2. Plug in all your hard drives to this computer. Basically, the faster the drives, the better. FW 800 the bottom, SATA raid drives are better. We use lacie raid 5 sata drives. SCSI raid – even better. Yes, the internal drives on a mac pro raided together work great.
Step 3. Buy a gigabit switcher. Has to be gigabit ethernet. That’s the only trick. They cost a $100.00If you are nervous what computer you use, we have used everything from a macbook pro to an Imac to a macbook to a MAC PRO. The faster the better, but it has to have gigabit ethernet.
Step 4. Connect one ethernet cable from each computer to the switcher. DON’T get the idea to plug two cables from each computer into the server- doesn’t work unless you have a port aggregating switcher, which is expensive.
You are done with setup.
To connect
Step 1. Turn OFF your Airport card. (basically, this forces your mac to connect via ethernet.)
Step 2. Log into the server computer AS THE ADMINISTRATOR. Everyone logs in using the same administration password. DO NOT GET TRICKY AND GIVE EVERYONE A DIFFERENT USER FOR THE SERVER. I won’t get into why but it doesn’t come out pretty.
Step 3. Mount all the drives from the server on the desktop.
Step 4. Open up final cut.Each person will have their own final cut media. (you should all be using legal serials so everyone should be ready to open them.
Step 5. Switch your RT profile on FCP to Unlimited.
Step 6. Import the media from the drive into your projects.
Step 7 Edit away on all three machines.
Step 8 Turn back on your airport card. (now you can use your airport for web if you need to. Just make sure to turn it off before you connect your drives.)THE NOT DOWN AND DIRTY WAY
At our office, we find it works much better to have one MAC PRO as a dedicated server. We don’t use OSX server, just the regular operating system is fine. We DON’T Edit on this computer. Rather, we connect all our other computers to this computer via the router. The reason we find this is faster is that FCP takes up a lot of processing power, which slows down the network. I know this is expensive to many people, but for the small business it makes sense. We buy 1 year old MAC PRO’s for a huge discount on craigslist, but that’s another post.That’s it. WE have a bunch of protocols that help us, but hey, a guy has to have some secrets. So, for those looking to create a network, please post away.
How low budget can you get? I have even used two macbook pros and a singe ethernet cable and a FW 400 drive and had it work – that’s how low budget you can be. (Though I don’t recommend it, we had tons of crashes, but we were editing remotely in a hotel room and we had to share media.
Like I said up top, probably many of you know its, but I thought I would post this tutorial because I have received many calls from people asking how to do this. When I advise them how to do it – they then post what I said on this forum. While I am happy they are sharing the knowledge, what bugs me more is that I keep hearing from them that they get posts from people saying this can’t be done. These people are wrong. Just thought I’d set the record straight.
If you have any other tips on a shared network. Please share them here. I have been using this setup for a long time and I would like to know if anyone has a better way of doing it.
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15 Replies
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What you are describing is called shared network storage not ethernet server.
Your $100 dollar is also cost is also rather misleading as your way requires an entire computer.
Simply having a ethernet bashed network instead of wifi and a NAS (Network Accessed Storage) device would overall be more cost effective.
For example this 4 Bay NAS enclosure is only $500. Add 4 1TB hard drives to that and the cost is MUCH less then a MacPro.
**Hindsight is always 1080p**
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Actually the way you put it out the cost is the same. Either way, yours or mine, if someone wants to share media with multiple computers, they are going to have to have multiple computers.
So in your case, they are buying a drive + multiple computers, and a probably switcher (many NAS drives only have one or two ports) My way its multiple computers, drives in any configuration, and a router. So its a wash.
Also,
Have you used NAS enclosures to cut video? I have used NAS enclosures and I have never any luck. For me, they were never fast enough to cut video, plus the interface was always really wonky. However, maybe that has changed. Have you served media over a NAS Drive to several computers for editing? Curious bout that. -
Hi Dylan,
Great info.
I have to fix me something like that soon and this is a good starting point.
rafael -
[Dylan Robertson] “For people who already know this, please disregard. But for the rest of the FCP world, you don’t need to spend $20,000 on a server. Just an ethernet switcher – that’s it. I thought I would post a tutorial on how to do it.”
If you’re referring to the Final Share SAN system, you do realize that the $20,000 includes a 16TB RAID. Right?
The actual cost of setting up the Mac Pro and the Ethernet based controls is considerably lower, particularly if you already own the computer.
[Dylan Robertson] “If you are nervous what computer you use, we have used everything from a macbook pro to an Imac to a macbook to a MAC PRO. The faster the better, but it has to have gigabit ethernet.”
Almost all of the current Apple computers except the Mac Pro do not support editing over ethernet, at least not reliably. We discovered that and as I have posted in my blog Apple changed the Ethernet controller dropping Jumbo Frame support which takes away reliable HD editing capabilities. Why Apple did this is beyond me, but we had to abandon plans to install 27″ iMacs in four of our new suites because our testing on the i7 iMac was a disaster. So we purchased one of the last Core Duo machines before they phased them out, but from here forward, all of our ethernet based machines are Mac Pros.
Your method is a start, but I know from our experience for the past two years with Small Tree, Atto and Maxx Digital, they are continually tuning our system, particularly the server and RAID card to ensure the maximum speeds for all 7 of our workstations. So while it might be “simple” to connect everything, it’s not so simple to tune what’s going on inside the Mac, the RAID card, the Ethernet Host and the RAIDs themselves to get the fastest, most reliable performance from your system. In our case, this is one area where we can’t just “build it ourselves” and hope for the best. We have too many deadlines and projects to undergo something like this.
But if your workflow is not so deadline driven, your setup is certainly an option for folks to try.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
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[walter biscardi] “I know from our experience for the past two years with Small Tree, Atto and Maxx Digital, they are continually tuning our system, particularly the server and RAID card to ensure the maximum speeds for all 7 of our workstations.”
Walter,
I bought my system from Maxx but no one is tuning anything for me. What are they tuning/ doing for you? I know small tree has had a few driver updated for the gigabit ethernet card I have in my server which I have installed. Just curious what Maxx is doing for you?
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.babyboompictures.com/BabyBoomPictures/AFX.html
https://www.babyboompictures.com/BabyBoomPictures/KnitWits_Movie.html
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0251670/EDITING REEL: https://www.babyboompictures.com/BabyBoomPictures/Editing_Reel.html
TITLE DESIGN: https://www.babyboompictures.com/BabyBoomPictures/Titles_Reel.html -
That’s the thing, no issues. Rock solid.
We upgrade our ram from time to time, but I have never had any real issues. The only thing that we do is run permissions repair weekly. Also, we don’t have drop frame issues. Just had this system set up on a PBS American masters – they loved it. Set up a project for a company that works for IFC, they are really happy. This system has worked for full on professional production companies – not hobby enthusiasts.
But the genius of the system is that there are no proprietary parts. (hence I can’t sell anything.) Since Day 1, I plugged in the router and it worked. Need to expand a computer, just buy another computer and FCP and were done. Need more hard drive space, just add another drive to the computer.
However, seven computers is a lot. We haven’t pushed this system quite that hard. So I can’t vouch that this would work for you. However, if you have seven workstations I imagine you have the $100.00 to try it pretty easily. I work mainly with productions that need 2-5 edit stations. For these people, this setup is simply a game changer.
Dylan Robertson.
Plus someone asked about this vs a xSAN. We are currently running 20 terabites on the server.
server cost $3000.00 for the mac, plus 4x8tb quadra raids @ 1200 each is 4800. So its $7300 with a computer vs $16,000 is way cheaper. (And scalable!) Buy a mac pro comptuer and add 3 internal drives. Next project, get a sata card and some raid drives. you get the idea.Oh, and we can use our server to edit, compress, run photoshop, word. That’s what we love about it, we aren’t throwing thousands of dollars for a piece of hardware.
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Go for it. Good luck.
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Yes, I have heard that they new imac’s have dropped jumbo frame support, Which is LAME.
I also don’t online 8 bit or 10 bit uncompressed HD over the ethernet. Or, if you are pulling 444 uncompressed, for that I use direct connection. PRO Res 422 HQ Does work. However, our system has been very rock solid. Worked for IFC commercials and PBS specials. Both extremely deadline driven. Just posted 6 commercials.
Also, this will be less efficient than small tree. Don’t get me wrong, small tree is great. But when I started with this system three years ago, small tree wasn’t a viable option for us. (I remember looking at them and the costs several thousand dollars.) Also, you can buy this to start off, then scale into a small tree system by adding their card.
Yes, the XSAN is going to be better. If I were cutting a reality TV show, I’d get an XSAN. But I cut television and feature docs plus commercials. But, the XSAN is $20,000 ours cost $6,000.00 So this way, we can buy a MAC PRO, 20TB of hard drives – and a VW Jetta! Or, for $20,000 you could get something in the neighborhood of 106TB of storage. E
The reason I posted this is this system really just uses hardware that people have.
The people I work with, they usually have one edit station and an imac. They work on one project, but sometimes have to double up during crunch time. So they are doubling their drives. This works like a charm to get them into the sharing world.
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[Dylan Robertson] “Yes, I have heard that they new imac’s have dropped jumbo frame support, Which is LAME.
I also don’t online 8 bit or 10 bit uncompressed HD over the ethernet. Or, if you are pulling 444 uncompressed, for that I use direct connection. PRO Res 422 HQ Does work.”
ProRes and ProRes HQ does not work here with any of the newer iMacs. Drops frames every 5 to 10 seconds. Just can’t work without the Jumbo Frame support.
[Dylan Robertson] “Yes, the XSAN is going to be better. If I were cutting a reality TV show, I’d get an XSAN. But I cut television and feature docs plus commercials.”
Nah, I wouldn’t get an XSAN, I would go with a Maxx Digital EVO series array. Much cheaper and more efficient. That’s why we run them here. Apple wants WAY too much money for their stuff.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.
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I have taken a similar but slightly different approach to this since 2003. I have always had a Gigabit switch in my network so I have always done it this way. However not all my systems had a video capture card so I would digitize footage on one machine and use the other for AE and editing, rendering etc while the footage lived on the other machine throughout the project.
I added two employees and two more systems and we each would upload our own projects to our own local RAID drives. We had a RAID, separate projects drive plus the System drive in each computer. Three of the four had Kona cards.
If I needed to cut one of four spots and the footage was on one of the other computers it was never an issue with our network to edit off those drives. There are a few caveats to using this method over gigabit, but currently in our new building I have 6 Mac Pro systems on the network and we constantly share media between drives. No problems editing ProRes (we do not use HQ) and it is seamless.
I believe this way makes the network more efficient than having all the footage on an Ethernet SAN and pounding that device with every computer. Seems the system likes having the footage locally if possible, and then we can connect to that computer if we need to.
With the Blackmagic Videohub we can route from our desk and all our machines and decks live in one room…the edit rooms are as far away a 80 feet and we run long cables from the server room for monitors, keyboards and sound.
This is about as DIY as you can get and it has been rock solid since 2003.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production and Post
Owner/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com
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