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Using Vegas with file server?
We’ve used Vegas for a few years now at our small tv station. Due to increasing workload though, we’re thinking about a way to streamline the workflow, but also have redundancy and backup as well for all files concerning Vegas projects (captured media, music library, pictures, veg files, etc.). Our IT specialist is highly recommending the use of a file server with at least 3TB of storage. All of our office computers could read/write to it, replacing the staff member’s “my documents” folder on his or her computer. The real trick though comes with being able to work on Vegas projects, able to work on projects from any of our four workstations, AND be confident that their materials are always being backed up.
Right now we work from the local drives on the machine. If I open a project created and saved on edit station 1 on edit station 2, I have to go through the process of replacing missing files. A couple of producers store everything they work on to a USB external drive, but this can be unreliable unless the entire USB drive is backed up periodically. A high speed file server seems like a great way to go. So far, it seems Vegas will stream video on a timeline over a network just fine. It can play back video clips from another computer (such as a server or network drive), and it can render to a computer on the network pulling the project’s media from a local or network drive. But… I’ve discovered that it can’t capture and write video data to a network drive or server without constantly dropping frames. It appears to cache incoming video then write it to a drive in chunks. I haven’t tried printing to tape a project (including captured video) opened and stored on a network drive or server.
SO the big question is… can a file server work with Vegas in every step of the editing process, including capture? In the near future, we may switch to using the new PMW-EX1 cameras soon, so that will simplify things. For now I’m open to suggestions right now. Again, we want to be able to keep it simple, open and work on projects from any edit workstation, and have a backup system in place. One suggestion was to capture video to the internal SATA drives, then move it to the server before working on it in a project. Obviously higher performance can be had if media comes from the local drives inside the computer vs a media server. Think of it like Avid Unity, only with Vegas. I need suggestions, so lemme know what you folks think. Thanks!
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6 Replies
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The short answer is “no”, but there are always modifications. There are a few things that are going to be hard to do over a network, capturing being one of them. Also, in general, I think that editing and rendering to/from a network drive may become painful, but I haven’t tried this my self.
Of course you need to back up your work regularly, and this should be done in an automated way, so having a big server to do this work is a clear advantage.
There are a number of solutions out there today that will make regular backups of your local hard drives onto the server, which can then be backed up properly. I would recommend solutions like those. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager is what we use.
My company has a ton of employees with personal laptop computers, and we all travel around all the time. Obviously having a proper backup solution is as important as it is hard. We all have IBM Tivoli Storage Manager installed, and the laptops are backed up automatically whenever we connect to the intranet. You could probably have a schedule where your desktops are backed up when not in use/late at night etc.
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[lance herring] “and it can render to a computer on the network pulling the project’s media from a local or network drive. But… I’ve discovered that it can’t capture and write video data to a network drive or server without constantly dropping frames.”
What is the speed of your network?
Are you using a switch or router?Regards, Rick.
Rick Mac
Director of Audio Production
TCT Network – Directv 377 -
Speed is mostly 100Mbit, tho there are 2 gigabit connections. all computers are on a switch, but connect to the WAN and internet via a small router.
I was always impressed by the Avid Unity systems (and honestly there’s very very little that impresses me about Avid). I figured the way Vegas effortlessly handles files, it should be no problem to work from a file server. But if it’s the expert recommendation to keep Vegas work on local machines instead of a network file server, then we’ll focus more on having a backup server that will do automated backup on all machines in the building. Of course, that still doesn’t give a solution for working on any project from any machine without having missing file issues.
The server could also be used as a common collecting point for files as well. A producer can find a picture on the internet, save it to his/her folder on the server, then access the file in Vegas on an edit station (without ever having to move the actual file to the workstation). “Common files” such as clipart, logos, and music library could all be stored on the server and accessed via the network as well. But as I said, this still doesn’t offer a solution for being able to move from one editstation to another, unless media such as captured video is kept on a USB drive. Keep the suggestions coming! Thanks folks.
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The problem is not going to be with Vegas, but with the access to your server. The capture bit in particular I would be careful about. You will of course be able to work with media on the server, but I can’t imagine it being a pleasant experience rendering from and to a network drive, even over a 1G connection. This is TCP/IP and Microsoft we are talking about.
There are alternatives that will give you much faster connections of course, but I am not sure what your budget is.
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Lance, I’m very interested in doing this as well at the community college I work for so I took the liberty of posting your question on the Sony Vegas forum.
Wow, did I get some great responses!!
In a nutshell, it can and is being done 🙂
Rather than repeat all of them here (it’d take too much space), I suggest you read them at this link.
I don’t believe you have to be registered just to be able to read the responses but, if you are, let me know and I’ll repeat them here (in one very long reply). -
Have you looked into using a SAN? Facilis makes an relatively affordable one called Terrablock. Uses 4G Fiber, so it would require at least 1 free 8x PCIe on the mobo. Very fast and supports dynamic volume control. I’m looking at it for my own use.
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