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Whats the best server solution for Adobe Premiere Pro?
We are considering Adobe Premiere Pro in a collaborative editing project. What is the best server solution for Adobe? We will need about 8 editing units and will be working in XDCAM 1080i50. We are also considering to buy or lease an ISIS 5000 so that we can run Avid MC later on if needed on another project, but this server is quite expensive, so a more affordable solution would be good.
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12 Replies
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This is kind of a wide open question…
Adobe on it’s own currently has no built in collaborative feature set.
No specific collaborative functions. Adobe did show some future Tech called “Anywhere” at IBC 2012. Its worth looking at just so you see where Adobe may be going, but it’s nothing you can implement today. so……Adobe’s tools are based on “Path to File” technology.
If the file can be found at the specified path, then it can be used.So…
The simplest implementation is simply to buy a NAS or SAN with enough spindle power behind it, a level of redundancy you are comfortable with and based on a connection topology that can deliver the number of streams your editors are requesting at high work volume + some overhead.I have used this type of collaboration in Library style collaboration.
Common Assets are shared in common assets folders on the NAS
Project specific assets are stored in Project specific assets on the NAS.Editor can work on Projects from any machine and Projects can be passed serially from one machine to another.
An important key about this is how your filesystem identifies the “path to file.” If you’re on the PC side and your common assets are on volume Z: (as understood by your PC), then you need to make sure that the common assets are seen as volume Z: on all the machines.
If you are using a UNC convention like \Common Assets, this can help to alleviate these types of issues.
Another Key aspect of making this work, is FILE ORGANIZATION. It’s really important to have a defined workflow for where files live and procedures for how editors are to create projects and access media. It can get out of control, and that can make relinking projects when you move from machine to machine tedious to say the least. People should be able to identify by folder structure and naming convention where to place/find things on the storage. Make it as logical to your content as you can.
NOW…that being said, there are some MAM’s (media asset mgrs) that are compatible with PPro. These types of tools sit on top of the OS and basically control workflow for asset check in, placing assets in appropriate places on the SAN. It also allows tagging and searching to find material based on metadata quickly. And editors should utilize the MAM interface and not the OS to find and access files. CatDV is one that comes to mind and they have a forum here on the COW.
Another IMPORTANT thing to consider about workflow procedure with Premiere in its current implementation is that segmenting projects across editors and then merging those editing projects into a master for finishing can cause project bloat. Where, when projects are merged, if multiple editors used the same asset, it will be merged into the project multiple times. So projects built this way can get bulky quickly, particularly if there’s a lot of back and forth with the editors and revisions. It’s not a deal breaker, but it is something you should be aware of.
Some turn key SANs are claiming collaborative workflows within Premiere Pro Projects. Facilis and Editshare are two that come to mind. While I have used Facilis, it was prior to this implementation, so I can’t speak to the functionality. I’ve never used editshare at all.
So….that’s about what I can add to this….I hope its helpful.
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX -
[Alex Udell] “The simplest implementation is simply to buy a NAS or SAN with enough spindle power behind it, a level of redundancy you are comfortable with and based on a connection topology that can deliver the number of streams your editors are requesting at high work volume + some overhead.”
That qualifies as an article or a blog post – great response, Alex!
Seriously, lots of people are asking for collaborative editing and MAM in CS, and this post looks like a definitive guide. On top of it, it’s short and sweet, and offers specific recommendations.
(I looked and looked, and found nothing I could add… grrrrr… :))
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
Alex…
I do tend to be a little verbose…
🙂 But thanks for the kind words.
I like empowering people to work together, so this is always kind of interesting to me.
We take collaborative work groups together for common these days. I can remember when we were all islands….
Have you ever looked at MXFServer? this is kind of intersting…
Also I’d like to try Poolit as well….
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX -
PoolIt is pretty cool – I’ve seen that kind of seamless virtualization from high-end NAS vendors like EqualLogic (now Dell) for $40K+, and this is free? Nice.
I’ve looked at MXFServer on behalf of a client who needed MAM, shared storage and “client access and review”, i.e. letting a non-editor access a media library through an interface simpler than Pr. Bridge doesn’t quite work that way and is not very video-frindly. MXFServer appears to do some of that, but was outside client’s budget.
Adobe Anywhere, as you mentioned, seems to be heading in the right direction, and possibly, will have MAM features in the future – and who knows? – maybe a lightweight client software? Maybe (gasp?) a browser interface? After all, the remote client for Anywhere only needs one codec, and probably needs less than 50% of Pr code base.
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We run the shared storage solution from Small Tree Communications. look at their Titanium series. Cat5 sharing between workstations that’s much more affordable than just about anything else out there. We run a 48TB solution between 6 primary edit workstations, plus 8 other machines that access / work with the footage like the Resolve and ProTools rigs. All our edit suites have iMacs for the Producers too so they can access the footage. Been running their solution over 5 years now editing ProRes / DNxHD and many other flavors of HD all day long.
Titanium solutions are the computer / switch / RAID all in one box.
https://www.small-tree.com/GraniteSTOR_Shared_Storage_s/94.htm
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
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Nice Walter!
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX -
Hello Øystein,
Alex has some very good suggestions. If you’re interested in talking more about Facilis storage solutions, please email sales@facilis.com or call 978-562-7022 at your convenience.Facilis offers some nice collaborative features for Adobe Premiere Pro. The TerraBlock software comes with a Project Manager utility which gives you the ability to manage who has access to project files and also prevents overwriting each other. It is not native to the application like we have with Avid Bin and Project sharing but many have found it quite useful. In addition the collaborative aspects of Terrablock, you’ll also find it is an easy to use, high performance, reliable, turn-key system at an affordable price.
Thanks,
Shane Rodbourn
Facilis -
You can also look at CatDV, as a MAM solution for Premiere Pro CS6, where CatDV ver. 10 has an excellent integration with Premiere Pro: You can send selected mediafiles in CatDV directly to Premiere Pro, as You in Premiere Pro Bin window can “look” directly in to CatDV catalog (if You are using the Workgroup version).
Another possibily with Metadata benefits is Strawberry from Flavoursys, that gives an excellent combined workflow between Adobe Premiere, Apple FinalCut and Avid MC.
Per Ottesen
Stjernholm & Co -
Alex
have you updated this post for 2014 ?!!??
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I’m currently working in a medium sized commercial post-house (10-12 iMacs and MacPros using mostly Premiere, After Effects, and Maya). We often work with 4K or even 6K footage using Facilis Terrablock as our SAN server and I would advice AGAINST using Facilis with high res footage. I would greatly appreciate advice and reviews on other SAN systems to work with that can handle high res footage well on multiple machines.
We have two Facilis chassis in our server room housing a total of about 54TB. These feed out from a 10Gb ethernet card into about 8 computers, as well as another slower 1Gb LAN connection to a few other computers used mostly as a render farm. We do not have fibre connection, but have been told we should still be able to work with 6K footage with high speed ethernet and decently juiced up iMacs/MacPros. Some stations also output a monitor signal using AJA T-Tap and ioXT box to client monitor.
We have had A LOT of issues using Facilis for the last two years. When problems arise with speed of performance or drives going down, their support has often been tough to get a hold of, they don’t call back even when issues are super time sensitive, they won’t explain other solutions or share known issues, and they’re extremely expensive to receive support from ($6,000 for one year of support). It’s been frustrating to be a customer and we’re hoping to find a better SAN set up.
Some issues we’ve had with them are:
1. Video freezing and lagging when editing in premiere, especially when going to monitor out with ProRes4444 footage. This has been a huge reoccurring issue that won’t go away.
2. In the past, drives would randomly unmount.
3. Creating new files and renaming files would take a minute or two to show up from one computer to the next.
4. Sometimes, I cannot export directly to Facilis partition from Premiere and must export to my desktop first.
5. Replacing a drive costs $400, and 6 of them have gone under in the last two years.
6. Every so often, files can’t be read directly off the Facilis that use native Mac programs (like Preview, Acrobat, Quicktime, Text Edit), so we have to copy them locally to open or open with a different program.We’ve gone through so much troubleshooting and upgrades with them and other networking professionals to make sure our wiring and systems are set up correctly, but we still keep having performance issues with Facilis.
The only other SAN solution I’ve worked with is SANmp/Evo which had plenty of issues of it’s own. Anyone have good experience and recommendations of what system we should try next for 4-6k commercial graphics and editing?
Maria W
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