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Final Cut Network for Students
First off, I apologize if this should have been in the Final Cut Server forum, but this is a fairly loaded question.
I am the administer for four FCP edit stations at Jacksonville State University. I am looking at the potential of networking the systems together. Low cost is a priority. I have read Walt Biscardi’s article “Shared Media Storage without breaking the bank.” Something like that is doable for my situation.
The students work in DV and DVCAM workflow. They will not need a lot of storage space because of the workflow and small classes. The most needed benefit is the ability to start a project on one workstation and finish it on another. This is vital since it is a “ganglab” scenario.
We have students with greatly varying experience. Some of them have already been editing for a couple years; others have never worked with a Mac much less an NLE.
I am looking for opinions of people in this industry. Should I even attempt this? Does anyone have experience with a FCP network setup for student use? Any feedback is welcome and very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Bobby Mikel
Television Services
Production Assistant
Jacksonville State University -
4 Replies
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This is actually a perfect scenario for a gigabit ethernet network. We have experience setting up these shared networks for many educational environments. Let us know if you would like help in getting this scenario set up for you.
Thanks,
Rob Brambila
Director of Technology
ProMAX Systems
949-861-2700
rob.brambila@promax.com
http://www.promax.com -
It doesn’t sound like you have a need for Final Cut Server. FCS is an Asset Management application which it’s main strength is that it allows media to be viewed from different locations. It also has powerful transcoding options which can be helpful if you are converting large amounts of video or creating proxy media for viewing offsite.
It sounds that all you need is a SAN – a centralised RAID which your 4 workstations have access to.
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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London -
Do I need a SAN with a server or can I set up the workstations to just capture to their local disks? If I can go with local storage, would it be possible to just buy a gigabit switch to make the stations talk to one another?
Storage space isn’t a priority the main thing I need is access to projects from any of the workstations.
Thanks in advance,
Bobby Mikel
Television Services
Production Assistant
Jacksonville State University -
Bobby,
You should talk to Charles Aldridge at Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas. He has upwards of 10 Macs of various flavors networked together on a ethernet SAN as outlined by Bob Zelin and Walter Biscardi. (Bob Zelin consulted on the implementation) Charles should be able to give you some feedback. The schools # is:903 792 2879John 3:16
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