Shared Storage Solution That Works Well With Premiere & FCP both

[Alex Udell]

Hi..

check Facilis Terrablock and Syncblock

Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX

[Nick Ryan]

I’m adding it to the list. Thanks!

So far I’ve come up with:
Final Share (which looks like it may be tailored to Macs only)
SNS Evo
Promax Platform Studio (which looks like the bandwidth might be too limited for our situation – although I like the LTO build-in)
and now Facilis

Greatly appreciate it! Any other thoughts?

Nick

[Alex Udell]

Hi…

I know Walter Biscardi likes the Small Tree Communications stuff…

might be worth some research….I don’t have any direct hands on with them

also look at Flavoursys

….might be of interest to you as well in a mixed environment…

Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX

[Walter Biscardi]

[Nick Ryan] “Our wishlist:
ethernet connectivity
expandability of RAID without having to re-strip and lose current data
integration with LTO archival is a plus”

Look at the Small Tree solutions. They completely rock at what you’re trying to do. We have 6 primary workstations and about 15 other computers all tied together to a almost 100TB Small Tree SAN. (well a NAS really).

Been running Small Tree hardware over 6 years now I believe. Go to the Biscardi Creative Blog and search Ethernet and / or Small Tree as I’ve written multiple articles about them.

https://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/

If you have any questions beyond what’s on the site, feel free to contact me directly or just call the guys at Small Tree. Very knowledgeable folks.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

Foul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People.

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Tweets by walterbiscardi

[Don Hertz]

Nick,

I’ll second the recommendation to check out Smalltree. We haven’t implemented a solution yet – but I was incredibly impressed with the performance and price from Smalltree’s solutions at NAB. Also check out Axle Video (https://www.axlevideo.com). They have a media management solution that works with it that is very affordable and looks really easy to use. It works with a variety of LTO solutions for archiving too. You can even dial in from the road using an iPad and review the footage on your NAS. Again, not using it yet myself, but I sat through at least a dozen shared storage demos at NAB and the Smalltree / Axle combination is definitely worth a look.

Sincerely,

Don Hertz

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Nick –
you have posted on the Facilis forum. To get further information on assorted competing products, you are best suited to post on the SAN Networks forum (and now the NAS forum as well).

With that said –
Facilis makes a great product. To directly answer your question from your first post, the Facilis
will work with your 2 Adobe CS6 workstations editing HD material, as well as your 2 older Mac workstations editing SD material. Facilis offers Ethernet connectivity, and expandability of RAID, as well as integration with LTO archival.

and with that said – every other product mentioned in this thread will also work perfectly for you.
Alex Udell mentions Facilis Terrablock, which is their shared storage system. Syncblock is their archive solution.

Nick then mentions Final Share which is my solution. It is now a full 10Gig ethernet solution that is backwards compatible to 1GbE legacy systems, and yes it works with Windows 7 PC’s (because Thursby DAVE makes any MAC look like an .smb server to a Windows PC).

Nick mentions Studio Network Solutions EVO, which is another wonderful solution that is based on a Linux chassis, and using the very stable SANmp software on the client computers. This works with all of your requirements (Adobe CSS, HD and SD footage), and is available with 1GbE, 10GbE and Fibre channel interfaces.

Nick comments that the ProMax Platform Studio looks like the bandwidth might be too limited for our situation. This is not true. I don’t know how you determined this. ProMax’s entry level product comes with a 4 port 1GbE card, but they absolutely offer 10GbE and Fibre channel interfaces as well, and can do the same bandwidth that everyone else can do. Speed is not their issue. The Platform offers an integrated single drive LTO, but you can duplicate this with any system, by simply buying an ATTO host adaptor card, and an HP Ultrium drive array, and running Tolis Group BRU software on your MAC. This can be done on any of these systems. Everyone mentioned here works with ATTO, so there is no issue in making this happen on anyones system.

Alex then mentions Small Tree (so does Walter Biscardi), and of course Small Tree makes great gear that works with 1GbE and 10GbE, and yes, they offer the same LTO tape backup integration that everyone else can provide for you. They work perfectly with Adobe CS6 and everything else.

Alex mentions Flavoursys, but Flavoursys is not a shared storage system, or an LTO archive solution. It is software that is used to emulate AVID project file sharing. If you were using AVID Media Composer, Flavoursys Strawberry or Mint would be of interest to you, if you had one of these systems, it would give you an alternative to AVID ISIS, but you are not using AVID, so Flavoursys would do nothing for you.
For the record, Facilis Terrablock and EditShare also offer AVID project file sharing without any additional software like Flavoursys.

Don Hertz mentions Axle Video, which is neither a shared storage system or an LTO archive system.
Axle is a wonderful, inexpensive asset management software (like CatDV) that allows you to organize the media (assets) on your shared storage volume, and do simple client approval. Axle does not require individual client licenses on each workstation, so you can run the standard $1295 5 user system on your server, or dedicated Mac Mini, and everyone on your network can share the assets that have been logged in Axle software. I LOVE Axle Video asset management software. It integrates with every single system that had been mentioned in this thread.

SO NICK, it’s time to pick up the phone, and call all the companies on this list. Start asking questions.
You may have concerns about speed, about expandability, about interface with Window’s PC’s, and certainly about cost (how much all of this stuff costs). The only way you are going to find out is by making some phone calls.

I can only leave you with 2 pieces of advice at this point.
1) every system mentioned here is terrific. 100% of them will do the exact job that you want.
2) if some knucklehead tells you that you can accomplish what you want with a $1200 Drobo NAS box, just remember that they are idiots, and you should forget their advice.

Good luck –
Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
maxavid@cfl.rr.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Bob Zelin] ” It is software that is used to emulate AVID project file sharing”

Mint works with Adobe projects too. They were showing that at NAB in the Small Tree Booth in April.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

Foul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People.

Blog Twitter Facebook

[Nick Ryan]

Thanks all! Some great advice and clarification. I feel like I went from 0 to 60 in my research. Like Bob says, now it’s phone time…

Nick