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Premiere server workflow for multiple editors
Hello,
I have some questions to find the best media workflow for an edit facility of about 15-20 editors working with premiere CC 2015.
Most of our footage is from C300 mkii. 1920×1080 12bit 4444. The footage is transcoded to Prores 422 and lives on a Promax server, which is shared between roughly 15 computers via ethernet. When we finish a project, the MXF files and Prores files are all backed up to backup drives. We are mostly working with iMacs with 32gb of ram.
To me transcoding seems like an inefficient workflow and a waste of server/backup space given Premiere’s ability to edit the MXF files natively. The problem is, when we try to edit with the MXF files, once the project gets too big, premiere runs very poorly. So questions:
1: Should we be able to edit the MXF files over a server and not have the system get bogged down? If so, what are we doing wrong? Is there a better server to use? Are our computers too slow?
2: Should we be using external hard drives as our media drives and only using the server as a retainer for the footage?
3: how do your edit facilities manage media?
Thank you!
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1 Reply
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Why are you asking here instead of calling Promax Support? I can assure you, few here are capable of answering questions related to Promax Platform and/or about installations with 15-20 editors.
That being said, playback of ProRes 4444 media by that many editors in a shared storage environment is virtually impossible due to bandwidth limitations – the Platform can be configured to throttle the necessary bandwidth to one or two workstations editing or onlining ProRes 4444, but not to all 15 or 20. You’ll need to have direct attached storage connected to all workstations if many of your editors are working with 4444 media. And the same is true of FCPX by the way.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist & Workflow Consultant
David Weiss Productions
Los AngelesDavid is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
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