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Hypothetical networked media storage solution
Hi all!
I’m a real newbie at storage and networking – so apologies in advance about some of my technical language… (I’m more of an editor/after effects person). I’m helping out some friends and I’m actually a bit out of my depth! I’m hoping someone can help guide me a little…
My friend’s don’t have a large budget; I suggested Editshare Ultra to share media over two edits – but I don’t think they can afford that route. So our aim now is aim is to have two edits set up running Avid on two last generation Intel MacPros (no specs yet as this is still all hypothetical and nothing has be bought). Each edit will run Avid MXF XDCAM HD footage…this media will be kept on two raided esata attached storage – one each for the MacPros…(thinking https://www.g-technology.com/products/g-speed-q ) – in effect each one a clone of the other – the drives need to house identical media, including VO records and music imports etc… (project bins will be moved from one edit to the other) (just to note, it doesn’t necessarily matter that the projects will be local to the macs, they can pass bis via usb).
We’re also thinking a 3rd MacPro would also be connected to its own esata storage, used to bank the raw camera footage (until we can think of a solution regarding long term storage)…
So… my idea is to get these three MacPros connected via ethernet, set up some permissions and partition the edit’s raid storage as follows:
Edit 1 – MacPro no.1 with Raid local storage attached by esata.
The Raid Storage being partitioned into 3 areas – Avid Media (Read only edit 1 and 2 – how would I do this?), Render Media (Read Write) for it’s avid to write to for its VO records and music imports etc… and a drop box for still images etc.Edit 2 – MacPro no.2 with Raided local storage attached by esata.
The Raid Storage being partitioned into 3 areas – Avid Media (Read only for edit 1 and 2 – how would I do this?), Render Media (Read Write) for it’s avid to write to VO records and music imports etc… and a drop box for still images etc.MacPro no.3 with Raided local storage attached by esata – which is home to all the Raw camera footage – no permission by the edit avids ( – how would I do this?) but it has access to read/write to all the edit drives.
The MXF media (it’s being processed on the shoot) will come back and an edit assistant will move the media to each edit via external drives possibly via MacPro no.3 over the ethernet network…(is that possible?) or via USB3 directly onto Raid Storage after switching the permissions to read/write on Macpro no.1 and no.2 (and back to read again for the edit!).
Using a software programme like Chronosync, the Raid Storage for edit 1 and 2 (attached to MacPro no.1 and MacPro no.2) can sync bidirectional so they are all in order…
Does this make sense!!??!! Is there an easier cost effective way?
Thanks in advance!
Best James -
2 Replies
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While you could cook something yourself (if you are careful), I wonder if you already saw a product called Vidsharx?
This is a convenient option if you want to use your existing Mac hardware as a small Avid storage server ‘come’ edit machine.
Failing that you could run indiestor native on a linux box, but the learning curve is steeper. On the plus native is open source and probably more scalable. Also, the development team and community behind it are still active.
All considered, I think you should check out vidsharx because it seems like a good fit.
Its worth saying Small Tree kit is awesome, but something tells me if your budget won’t stretch to an EditShare Ultra or Field, then this might be out of reach too…
There were days when this sort of thing was not possible on a shoestring budget. Today its arguably a thing of the past, at least when you only need a few low bandwidth streams to a couple of editors. However, this is a double edged sword: as in you’ll be living by your own testing and backup strategy, so be very careful with your data!
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Hi Alex –
Cheers for the link to VidsharX.
I’m gonna give that a whirl, and I’ll report back!
Thanks again.
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