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Uploading 20 Gb. of raw footage?
Hello:
Sorry for posting this “OMG I’m in an urgent situation please help me” question, but… I’m in an urgent situation. It turns out that we’ve been tasked with recording a series of interviews (here in Spain) and sending them to the other side of the pond for a TV special to be broadcasted on Sunday. The raw material has to be in the client’s servers by Friday morning at the latest, and we are recording in DVCPRO 50. They have asked us for the camera originals, so that the client can do the editing there. Now:
-Considering that DVCPRO 50 is 50 Mbit/sec., i.e., 21 Gb. per hour.
-That the complete interview footage will be about 1 hour (or even more).
-That the typical ADSL connection around here offers only 512 Kbps. upload speed, that is, about 50 Kb./sec.Just by doing a bit of math, you quickly reach the conclusion that this simply isn’t workable (leaving the computer uploading for the entire night would allow only 1.7 Gb.). However, I know that other people in the industry FTP files to clients, coworkers, etc., constantly, so my question is:
-Have you ever been in the need of doing something like this? I.e., not just uploading a H264 for client approval, or a Photoshop file, but 20 Gb. of raw footage.
-If so, what kind of Internet connection are you using?Basically, I want to know if what we’ve been tasked with doing is feasible at all, with the resources that we have (a regular ADSL line, no dedicated network).
Thanks.
Paulo.
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24 Replies
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There’s always FedEx…but it might be spendy…
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
In the past, I have delivered hourlong ProRes-encoded episode masters via the web, but only by relying on a combination of (a) a speedy internet connection (T3) and (b) WAN-acceleration via Signiant web client provided by the network I was delivering to. So, it is definitely possible and can be a feasible means of delivery given the technology necessary for the job, but even then, the upload took hours.
Unfortunately, in your case, I think Dave and Shane have covered the only reasonable options… Either satellite feed or some form of air-freight/courier/FedEx delivery.
Eric Peters
ProMAX Systems
eric.peters@promax.com -
[Dave LaRonde] “I’d like to know what the client was thinking in the first place. The term “magic wands” comes to mind.”
It’s more like “OMG teh Internet is awesome!!! We can communicate and send files to peoples all around the world!!1!!11!” and getting used to that mindset, without realizing that some things are still too huge to be sent online. (One of the people involved in the whole scheme is a sound engineer, and he works regularly from Spain with studios in L.A.; of course, sound files aren’t the same than what we’re trying here… 🙂 ).
I’ll ask my producers tomorrow to research both the satellite link and the Fedex options. (And just from a merely academic point of view, I’m now curious now about what the people in the film/FX industry do: all those stories about studios in London or Australia working with editors and producers in Hollywood, FTPing each other files… Of course, I guess they have dedicated networks).
Thanks for your quick replies (and I meant it: thanks *a lot*).
Paulo.
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I would use FedEx or UPS Next Day for reliability. UPS is usually cheaper. I think uploading that much data leaves too many chances for failure.
Apple Certified Master Pro FCS 2
Sony EX-3
MacBook Pro -
Carps!!.
The only problem is that they want the “original files”, if not I would convert that to an H264/HighProfile (422) and upload it. In the other side transcode it to 8b Uncompressed to be edited.
That is just one hour footage, and at some 10Mbps (great for SD) can be uploaded really fast with your home internet.
rafael -
I had a hard drive with about 200GB of P2 files sent over from Norway a few months ago. I asked them to send it the fastest way possible. They sent it using DHL’s fastest, most expensive service and it still took 3 days. It sat in U.S. customs for over 24 hours.
I am used to FedEx Priority Overnight with delivery the next day before before 10:30 AM so I was quite surprised when it took THREE DAYS from Europe!
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[Ken Jones] “I am used to FedEx Priority Overnight with delivery the next day before before 10:30 AM so I was quite surprised when it took THREE DAYS from Europe!”
With a weekend in the middle that’s 5 days.
rafael -
I’ll second Rafael’s suggestion.
I had a request from a broadcaster for a few shots to cut into some promo material ASAP. As a test, I transcoded some HD ProRes footage to h.264 (using the default h.264 setting in compressor) and then back to ProRes. Apart from a small gamma shift, you had to look very hard to see any artifacts int eh second generation ProRes file. The broadcaster on the other side of the country was happy to get h.264 files that day rather than waiting for Fedex.
Cheers
John C
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If you have a nearby Post Production facility they should have a DigiDelivery service (or something similar).
Give them a hard-drive and they should deal with the rest (at a cost).
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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London -
Yeah, I deal with digital delivery, and we typically upload between 2GB and 13GB. 13GB takes us a good 14 hours. But the speed is dependent on your internet conection. ISDN will be tons faster than cable or DSL. and there are degrees of service.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
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