[Bob Zelin]

Hi Marco –
the TS-1685 is a brand new unit. As you browse the web, you will see that you cannot even find a price for this system (it starts at just under $3000 – no drives of course). All the QNAP products are amazing – even the cheap ones.
‘Plug that 10G port into a Netgear 10G switch, and you will have an amazing system.
As for backing it up – first, (this is not backup) – make sure to create a RAID 6, so you can have 2 drives fail. But the bottom line answer here, is that if you have 12 xxx size drives (lets say 12 6TB drives) – then your “backup system also must have 12 6 TB drives. I must tell you, that to purchase two of these units not an expensive investment.
The SAS expander for the TS-1685 (which requires the optional 12G SAS card, that you must install yourself) is the
QNAP REXP-1000 Pro, which is $1200 empty. now, this is only 10 drives, not 12 drives, so it’s too small. You could certainly buy the much cheaper TS-1635 (12 bay) as the backup chassis, but you are still buying another 12 drives, which is the bulk of the expense.

You can use a generic program like Carbon Copy Cloner or Chronosync to do the backups, or you can use the built in QSync or RTRR to clone and sync the two QNAP RAID chassis.

If you need help, let me know. I do this every day now.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

shane writes –
Oh, and if you plan on having multiple editors on this, you’ll need storage that allows for project sharing…AVID ISIS, Nexis, Facillis Terrablock.

reply –
Hi Shane !
I have been contracted to build a budget shared storage system for this project. I will not be using AVID ISIS, Nexis, or
Facilis Terrablock. I will be using a small QNAP NAS box with 10G connection from the QNAP to the switch, and
all client computers will be running AVID Media Composer with Indiestor Mimiq, which fools the QNAP (or any shared storage) to think that it is hooked up to an AVID ISIS. There will be 6 Media Composer stations, all on Mac Pro towers (pre 2013).

I have already done this successfully for Cannonball Productions in Los Angeles, and it works great. The days of being reliant on expensive shared storage systems are over.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi –
the TVS-871T-16G has four 1G ports and 2 Cat 6 10GbaseT ports. The cheaper TS-831X has 2 1G ports and 2 SFP+ ports, so yes, you need the Netgear XS708T switch for this.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Neil –
please don’t think of this as a “cheap system” that can just do 4 systems. I have clients using the Netgear
XS728T 24 port 10G switch, and they are all working off the 16 bay QNAP without issue.

The bottom line answer to your question is – a 16 bay SATA array really can’t do more than 1800 MB/sec at best.
Start a couple of huge data transfers with 10G adaptors, so that each transfer is 800 MB/sec, and you are going to suck
out all the bandwidth of the system. I don’t care who makes it. But when people are just doing normal work – editing 4K, graphics, audio, renders, transcoding – having 20 people hooked up and working all at once is no issue.

Of course, switch to the smaller 8 bay, and your bandwidth goes down to probably 1000 – 1100 MB/sec total bandwidth.

While these are 12G systems, I have NOT tested any of these with 12G SAS drives, or with SSD’s. When you see the QNAP Spec of 3800+ MB/sec, this is referring to SSD’s, and I can’t imagine anyone loading 16 1TB SSD’s into any system – it’s too expensive, and too small. This is also the reason why 40G Ethernet is ridiculous today. If you use Mellanox cards for 40G and a 40G switch (QNAP is 40G Mellanox compatible with the drivers already installed) – you can get
2200 MB/sec. That means that one client doing a 1TB data transfer will eat up the entire bandwidth of a 16 bay
with SATA drives. And this applies to anyones system – not just QNAP.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Warren –
this technology was not even a pipe dream before April 2015, and the only reason it’s working now is that
Apple released FCP X 10.3, and QNAP wrote the correct firmware to make their box work (which has only
been available for a week). So you can’t “regret” buying something several years ago – this stuff just came out.
As you well know, new stuff always comes out, and these days, it’s faster than ever.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Mark –
how dare you ask a question like that !

step 1 – rent and watch Bowfinger tonight.

step 2 – find your local community college, and offer EVERY STUDENT a position on your new cooking show.
Of course, you will never pay them, and they will work for free.

step 3 – find out from the film or communications professors if they teach editing there, and find out if any of the students know how to do multiclip – and HIRE the kids that can cut a multicam show.

step 4 – you didn’t even say if you have equipment – NO PROBLEM – just hire the kids that already OWN equipment –
after all, this is their big break –

step 5 – since you have no budget, make the kids PAY YOU for the opportunity of learning how to work in professional television. Even if it’s a small amount, it will pay for the fast food lunch or bagels in the morning that you will feed them.

step 6 – hire a hot actress to be your star ? HOW you ask ? Put an ad on Craigslist – “model wanted, no nudity required”.

SEE – look how I saved your production.

Now, since I have been so nice to you, let me ask you a question. I recently bought a new toilet at Home Depot – it was on sale, but I have no idea of how to install it in my bathroom. Any suggestions ?

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

a more positive light ?
This is my opinion. NO ONE wants StorNext, no one wants XSAN. Today, there are countless wonderful choices, from numerous manufacturers that make shared storage systems. ALL of them (except StorNext which is still being sold and promoted by Quantum and Nexsan) are inexpensive, easy to use, and do not require a top level IT administrator to get them to work. I don’t care if it’s hi end from AVID Nexis, Facilis, EditShare, Studio Network solutions, Small Tree, all the way down to QNAP and Synology – they all work, they are all inexpensive, they are all easy to use. A StorNext based system is COMPLICATED. This is the reason why that even though “XSAN is free”, no one wants to use it. Every other solution is more friendly.

Promise on the other hand has made very nice, EASY TO USE products, everything from the Promise R8 series (now with Thunderbolt 3 offerings) to the extremely popular SanLink2 thunderbolt to 10G boxes. 1) Inexpensive, 2) Easy to Use.
This is the polar opposite of any StorNext based system.

Simply went the way of Active Storage (same management team) – bye bye.
Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Tim writes –
World class headline news, direct to you, no waiting in line at NAB.

REPLY – yea, I notice that. I can’t believe I am saying this, as I am going to NAB this year in 2017, but I am starting to question the need for NAB. Apple is not there. I understand RED will not have a booth on the floor. Neither will Small Tree, ProMax, Symply. LumaForge is not there. Synology is not there. Netgear is not there. In addition to the recent Blackmagic press releases, on Resolve, Mini Ursa, ATEM TV Studio, Web Presenter, and mini Recorder – will there be another 30 new products ?
Do I need to go to see HDR monitors ? Do I need to go, to fight the crowd in the insane Adobe booth ?

bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Bill –
let me ask you a simple question –
in the past Apple worked hard to make sure that all the “other manufacturers” (you know, AVID, Adobe, AJA, Blackmagic, Matrox, etc.) all worked wonderfully with Apple products, and in fact they did – which is how they created this legacy of “Apple only”.

SO – since FCP-X works so wonderfully, and people like you now think that AVID, Adobe, Blackmagic Davinici Resolve, Autodesk, AJA, Blackmagic, Maxon Cinema 4D, Nvidia, etc. are all kind of unimportant in the “big picture” of the FCP-X world –
do you think that it is IMPORTANT that Apple recognizes third party manufacturers, and helps support OTHER companies besides Apple ProApps, to allow OTHER companies to run on Apple Hardware – or is your opinion, is this UNIMPORTANT, as “who needs any of this other stuff – Apple does everything” –

So all I need from you is “yes, it’s important that Apple lets other companies get their stuff to work at optimum performance” or “no, Apple does everything, so why bother with these other companies” –

yes, or no ?

bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Bob Zelin]

Hi –
while this does not address Ned’s situation (and congrads on getting out of this biz finally) – I just observed two friends of my who are with a NYSE traded company (so it’s a big company) – they are the head of the video department, and the head graphics guy (for a company that relies on graphics to make their living) and they both just got fired. I don’t care what the excuse is – I know the reason – they make too much money, no matter how good they are, or how much experience that they have, or no matter how long they were with the company.

When I would bitch about how cheap equipment was getting, and everyone would get into this, and the rates would collapse, many geniuses would say that “it’s all about your creative ability, not what equipment that you own”. Well, that is total B.S. Companies care about ONE thing “how much does this cost, and how can I get this done cheaper”. And if you use a top camera, and are a top DP (and apply that to any other side of our industry – editor, graphics, audio, etc.) – it does not make any difference if you are great and own the best gear. It’s “how much are you going to bill me, and can I get the same job done with some young kids, with their dirt cheap equipment”. And if the answer is “well, kind of” – then YOU are fired, and the young guys, who charge half your rate (or less) get the opportunity.

Because I wanted to be a musician, and I see what it’s really like to be a musician (as far as supporting yourself) professionally, I see that this is what both the audio and video industry are turning into (the “professional” video industry, not the professional AV Presentation market, which is doing better than ever). But if you are “creative” – you participate in creating content (translation – your job is kind of fun) – then you are doomed. But the guy that plays back your video on an 8K Christie projector, with a massive sound reinforcement system – he will make more (with no creativity) then you will, who created the media. Gee – just like the music business.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com