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MC 5 and XSAN 2 – will they blend?
With the news of Final Cut Server’s end of life, I am considering the alternatives. My first fall-back always seems to be Avid, even with it’s somewhat steep learning curve. However, we are heavily invested in the Apple Enterprise infrastructure. I’d rather that didn’t go to waste during what could be a lengthy transition from one tool to another.
I know there have been many problems in the past with MC playing nice with XSAN. However, I also know Avid has made great strides to gain more compatibility. Anyone seen successful installs of MC working well with XSAN? Or if not working well, even at all?
We have 60TB of Promise RAIDs and two Xserve MDCs along with 12 XSAN seats. All in all, it represents a couple hundred thou of hardware, training, configuration and support. Must we start from scratch on project sharing? Or can we buy some time by using what we have until we make the full switch to Unity?
At this point, I’m only exploring feasibility. But this is the direction I’ve begun to seriously consider. Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
HandyGeek
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10 Replies
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And to clarify – yes, I’m considering not only a change of editing tool, but also the sharing, versioning and MAM functions that Final Cut Server was beginning to provide.
HandyGeek
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no jeff, you can’t use XSAN and AVID. You can only use AVID ISIS, Facilis Terrablock,
and EditShare. All the other SANs won’t work with AVID Media Composer. A lot of
people are considering Adobe Premier very strongly now.Bob Zelin
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We ran some test using MC 5 with a rorke san (as overflow, when our Unity is too full)
can share projects/media, but were able to connect, digitize, and cut using it. Only worked with a mac based MC, couldn’t pull it off with a PC based MC.
don’t know if that helps you any.
I say download the MC trial and try it out.Scott Cumbo
Editor
Broadway Video, NYC -
Thanks, Bob. Premiere is on my short list for sure. OTOH, the brass might appreciate the simplicity Avid offers and opt to oust the lot. I’ll give them the options and they’ll decide. Avid = starting from scratch, Premiere = leveraging sunk costs.
HandyGeek
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That’s a thought too. Funny thing is that our first SAN install was ImageSAN. Back then, they were the only game in town for file-level locking. But it was crap and I’m not sure I’d go back. 😉
HandyGeek
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I think Fibrejet will also work with Media Composer. I haven’t tested it with Avid yet, we’re a FCP shop, but I think I will try it soon due to FCPX.
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Any change today? Any way to get MC6 working with Xsan 2.3?
ian -
Create a disc image. Put it on the San. Mount the image. Use the disk image as avid drive.
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Smartest thing I have heard. Just genius actually. The only issue is how does the media get shared? If one disk image is used per media compost station we might as well be back to square one. No?
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I didn’t say it would work well.
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