-
Upgrading my suite/network for FCP
Hi, guys!
So I’ve followed pretty much most of the Cow’s advice, and have seen my one-man FCP edit suite (i.e. an iMac and one LaCie FireWire drive) grow into three editors, terabyte upon terabyte of data and a bug hassle sharing/collaborating on projects. I need your help!
At the moment, each Mac has its own FCP copy running locally. We all work off USB drives, editing Sony EX3-shot XDCAM-converted Quicktimes and ProRessed Canon 5d footage. We have a master USB drive and a backup USB drive, and I end up copying files from one to the other manually. It’s stupid, and I know it’s just a matter of time before I lose some vital data through not backing it up properly. And of course two editors can’t collaborate on the same project at the same time, or even share the same hard disk.
So. I need to take the suite to the next level. But my budget is minimal. Citizens of the Cow: what do you advise?
-
3 Replies
-
[Simon Mercer] “We all work off USB drives”
Stay the %$#@ away from USB drives. Get a RAID 5 to protect your data. Even if your budget is minimal, don’t purchase from a retail store. Look at OWC for options.
Caldigit, G-Tech, etc. are manufacture of drives you should be looking at.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Ditto. good fast RAID drives are so cheap compared to losing a whole job. All the computers should be networked as well so editors can if necessary, copy files over ethernet. If you want to step up to the next level of shared network server, then that will take some money and technical expertise.
Unless you have editors trying to work with the same media all the time, then transferring the odd file via the ethernet may be all you need, but each edit station should have as a minimum a RAID 5 FW800 (preferably esata). With USb you are right on the edge of drives not supporting the media you are using.
I have a few NAS units that I use for backup of critical media and project files. These NAS units are also RAID5.
-
If you feel like you’re on the cusp and will need to move up to shared storage in the next year or so, I’d also be looking into sharing a fibre array with something like SAN MP:
https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/products/product_detail.php?pi=8
JM
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up