Shared Storage Newb – Help with Final Cut options

[Matt Geier]

Hi Kevin,

What you want to do can be done with an OSX Environment with the use of some Small Tree equipment.

You may want to check out the Small Tree forum or give them a call and discuss available options and pricing for your situation.

https://forums.creativecow.net/smalltree

Matt G

[John West]

Kevin,

You may want to check out our Final Share system. You can have as many as ten client working on the Final Share System at one time. This is an affordable shared storage solution through Ethernet.

If you would like I would be happy to send you a power point presentation about Final Share feel free to contact me at johnwest@maxxdigital.com or my number is 714-374-4944.

Cheers,

John West

[Kevin Dooley]

John and Matt –

I’ve been looking at both of your products, and it does seem like they would handle our current workflow. The thing I’m not wrapping my mind around is how does something like Final Cut Server tie in with a system like this? Is it installed on the same server? Is it run on a separate “server” and just tied into the switch? Do I think interface with the storage only through FCS – or do I mount the storage like a drive and have access to it that way as well? Sorry if this seems painfully obvious to most, but I haven’t worked in with a system like this before and am having some trouble visualizing it.

Kevin Dooley
Video Director
Lake Pointe Church

[John West]

Kevin,

The server would need to be a Mac pro. You can use a quad core with 8 gigs of ram up to 7 clients and if you go 8-10 clients you would need a an eight Core Mac pro with 16 gigs of ram as the server. You would not be able to edit on the server computer it would just need to sit there and do its job.

John

[Kevin Dooley]

Oh no – I wouldn’t think of trying to edit on it, I’m just wondering how Final Cut Server fits into this whole thing…

Kevin Dooley
Video Director
Lake Pointe Church

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Kevin,
I write this to you, while sitting at Disney Broadcast Operations, who uses both Maxx Digital Final Share, and Apple XSAN with two Active Storage arrays. Kevin, 100 TB is more than a major company uses. Do you know how much this costs ? If you have the money, then go for it – get your XSAN system with ACTIVE storage, not Promise VTrak (a big mistake), but you are missing one thing – the TRAINED IT ADMINISTRATOR to run this. Just because you may have the money, does not mean that it’s easy to use, or easy to adminstrate with all of these users (both MAC Pros and Laptops, with LOTS of different users). Your description is as complex as a mid size TV station with lots of editors and producers that work on this gear. If you don’t have the staff to handle this (and the budget to pay them), then this will all blow up in your face.

Systems like Final Share, Granite Stor, Apace, and other simple systems are not complex, and are much easier to use, but will not give you the flexibility that you may want. With that flexibilty comes complexity in the system – once you start talking about Final Cut Server, archive solutions (like an LTO4A), and all the other stuff that you want, you have one complex system. I hope you are prepared for this – this is NOT for a “newb” as you describe yourself.

Bob Zelin

[Kevin Dooley]

Bob,

Thanks for the warnings – though I believe you are mixing part of what I was asking about and part of what I was saying I saw recently. The 100Tb system was at a facility I recently toured and included several (I believe around 10) edit stations. This is way more than we need (and indeed the cost is way more than we could afford).

I am looking for something much smaller (though maybe not simpler). We do have a dedicated IT staff at our facility to help us administer it, but we definitely will be paying someone to engineer whatever system we end up going with.

Again, I was trying to lay out what I believe our needs are and was hoping to get some knowledge and contacts to move towards an implemented solution. I appreciate the warnings, but would more appreciate solutions. The contacts with Small Tree and Maxx Digital are helping me explore options – what are options you feel I should look at?

Kevin Dooley
Video Director
Lake Pointe Church

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Kevin –
as you point out, critical for you is Final Cut Server. I am not an expert in this application, and my clients that use it, use it as a stand alone application on a seperate computer, to examine the media on their drive arrays, and create proxy files. This can also be done with CAT-DV, but the bottom line is that I am not qualified to give you the specific answer you need (exactly how will I use Final Cut Server with my shared enviornment).

Today it is very easy to sell you a single 16 bay drive chassis with 2 terabyte drives, giving you 32 terabytes, and it is very easy to expand beyond this with simple daisy chaining of the drive chassis. But it all comes back to your most important question – how will this implement with Final Cut Server – I can only give you broad answers, that will not answer specific questions that you need answered.

Now, there IS a Final Cut Server (and CAT DV) forum on Creative Cow, that may help you address these questions – certainly better than I can.

Bob Zelin

[Jordan Woods]

With any basic edit station build out, all you need to tell an integrator is the following information:

-Number of edit bays working at the same time
-Take that number and multiply it by 3 for number of streams of
video at any given time by one edit bay.
-Maximum compression and frame size you expect to work with on each edit bay.
-Total space needed on the Volume at max work time.
-Approximate value you hope to spend to accomplish this task.

If you have this solidified you will nail your solution on the first call to an integrator.

-Jordan

Senior Systems Engineer
Active Storage
Los Angeles, CA

[Kevin Dooley]

Jordan,

Excellent information – that definitely helps me talk intelligently to vendors/integrators. Thanks!

Kevin Dooley
Video Director
Lake Pointe Church