-
shared media – external drives recommendation
We are dealing with hundreds of hours of footage… Plus many gigs of stills and other media.
Two mac towers:
1)memory 8 gig, 10.7.3 OS X
2)memory 12 gig, 10.7.2 OS Xboth with FCP 7.0.3
we also have a few macbookpros floating around from time to time as FCP stations for basic playback and occasional logging…
We currently have a mish-mosh combo of external drives and RAID 4 (its my first time working with one of these…)
We’re hoping to simplify and streamline our setup for shared access to all the media…
Any recommendations on where to start looking. Apologies ahead of time for any necessary info I may have left out. And thanks!!!!
-
4 Replies
-
For two computers it’s easier. Get a Raid 5 tower, from Caldigit or MaxxDigital, connect it to one computer and then connect the two computers together via Ethernet and Share the drive from the machine it is connected to. You are basically making that machine a “server.”
Now…MORE than one computer then you need not only one of the towers to be a server, but then you need other additional hardware like Ethernet switches and whatnot…and it gets more complex. Small Tree Communications has great options. And these would allow all the machines to connect via Ethernet.
This isn’t inexpensive. Well, that’s relative. It is inexpensive compared to the other options, for sure. But isn’t as inexpensive as two computers sharing one RAID.
And no, you can’t connect multiple machines to one hard drive without a server. Sure, there are NAS options out there that allow for data transfer for multiple machines. Those aren’t built for video. Video has very demanding needs, and if you have 3-5 machines all playing video from one RAID…that’s at least 3 -5 streams of simultaneous video…more if you layer or multicam. You need FAST drives and a very fast hub for throughput.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Melissa,
If you want this to actually work, it’s not something you want to try to rig yourself. Shared storage is not an easy proposition, and even trained IT professionals have a difficult time with it, as the needs for video require sustained throughput to each “client” sharing the video assets.
This is the primary business of the company I work for, ProMAX Systems, and I’ll be happy to advise you. Feel free to contact me anytime – my driect line is (949) 861-2709, or drop me an email with your number and I’l call you.
All the best,
DavidDavid Roth Weiss
ProMax Systems
Burbank
DRW@ProMax.comSales | Integration | Support
David is a Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Apple Final Cut Pro forum.
-
I will say that David isn’t lying…isn’t trying to trick you into calling him and the company he works for. Networked shared storage is a very tricky proposition, and people have careers building and maintaining them.
He isn’t phishing…
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Thanks everyone. I’m going to discuss with the producer and decide what to do next. Super appreciate the input!
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up