Multi System Setup Question

[Michael Phillips]

You might want to look into something like this:
https://www.vidsharx.com/

for a two seat low cost scenario. I have not used it myself, but have heard from a few folks it worked well in their two system configuration.

Michael

[Shane Ross]

Absolutely. If you use an ISIS or Facilis Terrablock. The Media Composer does the managing of the projects, but Avid only supports a few shared storage solutions.

Shane
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[Shane Ross]

Wow…I’m going to have to check them out…

Shane
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Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Warren Eig]

Shane,

Let us know if you investigate further.

Warren

Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905

email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.com

REEL: https://www.babyboompictures.com/BabyBoomPictures/Reels.html

[Glenn Sakatch]

We have tried this in the past with our Fibre Jet System. If you don’t have a proper Avid sharing program or system, the problem is that the database is alway rebuilding on you.

As your top post says, one system is editing on a project, and the other system is only ingesting material. Unfortunately the system doing the editing gets a database rebuild everytime a new clip is added. We tried having two different projects as well, one for editing, one for ingesting, but you end up with the same problem. The software Michael is pointing to looks very interesting. In our experience, you definately need some other piece of the puzzle to run interference on the database rebuilding. Perhaps that is what this new software is doing.

Glenn

[Andrew Rice]

Thanks all for the input. I didn’t think of the Db rebuild issue, but of course it makes sense. We are thinking of running SSD’s which would make that rebuild faster…but there is still the re-build to deal with.

Taking a quick look at VidSharx i found this:
“Share your Avid media (MXF) without conflicting databases, corrupted media files or constant scanning of media drives”

and this:
“You could have your assistant editor import media at the same time as you continue to edit. For tight deadlines, you could share the work between three, four, or any number of editors.”

Looks pretty sweet!

Andrew Rice
Kenai Productions
http://www.kenaiproductions.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi –
just remember, that with VidSharx, you still need a dedicated Server (like a Mac Pro), a fast RAID array for your central storage, and a fast ethernet network setup to support multiple people to access this. VidSharx is software that will run on your Mac Pro server (you don’t need server software from Apple to run this).

VidSharx is the easiest to use of these type of AVID sharing programs. There is also Strawberry from Germany, but this runs on top of an existing SAN management software, like Command Soft Fibre Jet.

If you want to spend zero money, and don’t want the AVID to rescan the database all the time, simply go into the Media Creation tool, and tell it to save the project and render data to your local drive. Or setup a shared single drive, partitioned in 2, to save your render and project data in there. With Command Soft Fibre Jet (or SANmp), you can simply create virtual volumes and only one editor gets write access to this volume. You can keep all your media on a common drive in any of these configurations, and everyone can READ the media – it’s just when you decide to write, do you get into the database scanning. That is what VidSharx addresses. OF course, you can also buy an AVID ISIS, EditShare or Facilis, and not worry about any of this !

Bob Zelin

[Job Ter burg]

Bob, VidSharX themslves suggest ypu don’t even need a server. Your main editing system could function as the host.

[Michael Phillips]

The configuration I saw it working in was a two-system, with one of the systems acting as the server. I suspect there is a tipping point with number of users when a dedicated server system becomes necessary.

Michael

[David Nordén]

You are all right 🙂 VidSharX can run on, say a MacBook Pro, wich is also running Media Composer. That MacBook can then connect with ethernet to another Mac (MacBook or other) wich is also running Media Composer. BUT, you will need, as Bob points out, a fast drive for the media and projects.

My test setup for the smallest, most portable configuration is (was, since I poured a Caffe Latte into one of them…) two MacBook Airs with no external drive, just using a separate partition on the internal SSD drive on the MacBook that acted as a server. Then, a thunderbolt to ethernet adaptor in each of the Macbooks and a short ethernet cable (no switch!)

That would handle DV25 media without problem, and also DNXHD36. Obviously, very limited in space, but for a short, fast project, it would suffice.

But, again, these are the limiting factors in any system, in order of how I have experienced it.

Number one: Drives! Ethernet is fine for many resolutions, and you will never get much over 60 MB/s over ethernet and samba (1Gigabit, not 10Gbit). But as you connect more clients (editors) the speed on the drives drops quite fast. So my rule of thumb, used to be – one drive for each client. So in a raid configuration, 5 drives in RAID5 would support 5 editors. This is very unscientific, but worked quite well for us.. But we work mostly in low resolutions, IMX50 or DNXHD36.

The bottomline is, you will probably sooner run out of speed on the raid than on the network…

2. Bandwidth FROM the server TO the switch. The clients are usually fine with 1Gbit from the switch, but you want to link aggregate (AKA trunk or bond) the ports from the server, or run 10Gbit to the switch. This means combining the ports on the MacPro to get 2Gbit or installing a separate ethernet port interface card from for example Small Tree, to get 4 or 6 ports in a bond to the switch, for 4GBit or 6Gbit to the switch.

Then of course a lot of things have effect, using CAT6 instead of CAT5 cables, the RAM on the server, processor speed etc.

VidSharX is for you if you have a bit of knowledge about these things and some time to set it up. If you do, you can save some money. If you have a lot of money, as usual, go shopping!

all the best

David