read this great article by Walter Biscardi !

[Chris Blair]

Great article. I especially like the pic of the “machine” room. We still have our computers in each of our 3 edit suites, but at least we’ve gotten the drive array, switch etc. out and into it’s own room.

I love seeing case studies that prove you can do all this with existing GigE infrastructure, readily available hardware and software, and a little bit (ok, a LOT) of knowledge and ingenuity.

There’s so much misinformation out there when it comes to this stuff, especially as it pertains to video editing, it’s invaluable to read about “real-world” installations that don’t cost $100,000 that just plain WORK.

Before we invested in our setup (Apace vStor with a total cost around $15,000), we were getting quotes in the $50-100,000 range from turn-key providers like Ciprico, Harris (Nexio SAN), and a few others. You see what’s happened to Ciprico (bankruptcy), and the only people buying Harris’ solutions are big broadcasters and TV station groups.

Great article and great job on Bob and Walter’s part.

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com

[Bob Zelin]

Thanks Chris.
It’s exciting to see manufacturers like Apace, Maxx Digital, Maximum Throughput, Tiger Technology, and Editshare to continue to promote inexpensive ethernet solutions for shared storage.

There is a fantasy that “real pros” only use fibre channel. This is the same stupidity that “real pros” only use AVID’s – just like real pros only used linear on line when AVID was considered junk.

There is such crap out there – there always has been.

Just remember – “real pros” shoot with 35mm film cameras, and the RED, and all this HD stuff – that’s just for wedding photographers.

I will see those boys on the unemployment line in a few years.

Bob Zelin

[Holly Middleton]

I was a little late in getting to this article – but was intrigued since I need to increase storage capacity on my current FCP system and will be adding a second edit suite to share that storage in the near future. Could you give more details about your system?