[Caspian Brand]

Hi John,

Your Line Manager is partially wrong and partially right. You can have multiple IP addresses on the same computer, they just cannot be in the same Subnet.

For example, if your Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0 and your Ethernet Port 1 is set to have an IP address of say 192.168.1.101, then Ethernet Port 2 could not have it’s address be 192.168.1.102, but it could have an IP address of 192.168.2.101, as this would place it in a separate Subnet.

If you’d like to read/learn more about Subnets and masking there’s a nice Wikipedia article here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subnetwork

So, you’re best bet would be to set up the Secondary “Media Server” network on a different Subnet than your Office/Internet LAN.

Hope this helps,

-Caspian

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Hi Alex,

What type of Fibre Channel storage are your systems using at present for Direct Attached?

You can easily alter this into a simple Fibre Channel based SAN by adding a Fibre Channel switch and SAN sharing software like SANmp. 2K DPX sequences are very demanding on MetaData requests which can be crippling to systems like XSAN and other high performance NAS devices. SANmp could enable you to share access to the storage in real-time and also enable you to lock out performance to a specific array or set of disks when needed with our Write Exclusive feature.

https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/products/product_detail.php?pi=8

Additionally, if you want to, you can re-share the volumes over GbE or 10GbE if you upgrade your network with 10GbE HBAs in your computers and a 10GbE switch from someone like Force10 Networks.

Furthermore, you could add a Storage Server to the network as well, providing additional shared workspaces to handle more connection options and protocols like our EVO system, which provides Fibre Channel and Ethernet connectivity to the same LUNs, comes with a built-in Fibre Channel to iSCSI Bridge, and can also be configured with a 10GbE Interface, as well. You can read more about it here:

https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/video-san.php

Let us know if we can be of any assistance in making a decision to upgrade your network.

Best Regards,

-Caspian

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

There was a new product announced at IBC earlier this month that’s supposed to let you tap the Live View functions of the camera over HDMI to a monitor/recorder that brings in the signal as PRORES. My understanding of the record length limit of video on the DSLRs was that it is due to a File System limitation of the memory cards formatting, which cannot handle files larger than 4GB, but I could be mistaken.

https://www.atomos.com

It’s not shipping yet, but looks promising. I’ve heard on the 5D and 7D if you hit “info” three times it takes all the overlays off the Live View so a clean signal is sent out over HDMI. Not sure if similar functions are available on the T2i, but it’s worth looking into once this thing is shipping, supposedly in December.

-Caspian

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Adam, you may also want to consider our EVO storage server which can be configured with all GbE ports and requires no separate MetaData network.
We have quite a number of all Avid shops using our software and servers to handle reality television production on Mac and Windows based Avids, and DNxHD 115 falls well within the capabilities of Gigabit Ethernet.

Your SAS array is a bit more difficult to turn into a SAN with software alone, but one option is that you could continue to use it on one system as on-line finishing storage for Uncompressed material if required.

https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/video-san.php

Regards,

-Caspian

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Hi Mike,

Pro Tools doesn’t care if the RAID is iSCSI or Fibre Channel, whta Pro Tools doesn’t like is a RAID 0, Software RAID or network share. Hardware/External RAID is fine.

Personally, with any RAID 5 (audio or video) I don’t like to create RAID sets larger than 8 disks. With a RAID 10, you “could” have that created across all 16 disks, but that can make it more difficult to lock out performance to a subset of disks if desired.

There is definitely some discovery that needs to take place regarding the best balance of RAID protection and performance options for your workflow. As Bob also mentioned, there can also be an advantage to JBOD or single disks in some cases as well, even in a networked array.

-Caspian

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Hi Lance,

In cross platform file server environments where one platform is in heavier use/more demand than the other, it’s almost always best to use the native OS and/or File System for the dominant client OS. RAID hardware comments aside, in this case even for basic file server requirements you’d probably be better off using a Mac to share out your direct attached storage.

On the RAID hardware and performance side of things, using a properly tuned network and storage, you would be capable of handling XDCAM EX over GbE. XDCAM goes up to 50Mbits I believe, leaving more than enough bandwidth leftover on a 1024Mbit pipe. XDCAM will put a harder hit on your CPU and RAM compared to PRORES though, and PRORES requires a bit more bandwidth and storage space. The number of physical drives you have will also affect performance and may often yield fewer instances of video than bandwidth calculations alone would predict. As you can see there are many variables that affect the overall performance of any system.

If you’d like to look at a solution designed specifically for sharing video in media production workgroups, then check out our solutions. We have some new configurations available depending on your I/O requirements, including some unique approaches to render farms (depending on the software tools and type of media you’re trying to create). We leverage the use of Native File Systems of the Client OS for peak performance and sharing compatibility with our storage server:

https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/video-san.php

-Caspian Brand

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Josh, 4 streams of DVCPRO HD or XDCAM EX are well handled by GbE. I’ve been able to get 3 streams of PRORES HQ over a single GbE connection on a MacBook Pro, using iSCSI to an EVO.

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Hello Rodrigo,

What types of computers are these 45 systems running over GbE?
Towers, iMacs, laptops?

Are you currently running in an XSAN / StorNext environment?

We have systems which can deliver block level performance to storage over Gigabit Ethernet using iSCSI, as well as 10GbE and Fibre Channel.

Check out our EVO Storage Server, which provides both SAN and NAS functions:

https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/video-san.php

Best Regards,

Caspian Brand

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Hello Andre,

[Andre Kelman] “Will I be able to replace one of the G5s with a brand new Mac Pro with out upgrading any of the other hardware components ?”

Technically the answer is yes, while you do have old hardware it can continue to be used with newer HBAs, which have support for older Fibre speeds, in a newer computer.

Should this be the priority is another question worth considering. Old drives will only spin together for so long, and no drive manufacturer that I know of warranties their drives for longer than 5 years.

What are the immediate needs you have, which require a new computer and the latest version of Final Cut Studio, versus, having a fresh batch of hard drives which you rely on for all of your data day to day. At this point, a storage upgrade of some sort should become part of your upgrade plan as well.

Budgets and priorities being what they are, feel free to contact me directly if you’d like to discuss more details about your environment. We can provide you with an HBA / SAN software upgrade path, as well as storage solutions which are accessible over Fibre Channel or Gigabit Ethernet.

https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/products/product_detail.php?pi=13

Best Regards,

Caspian Brand
cbrand@studionetworksolutions.com

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions

[Caspian Brand]

Have you thought about trying out an iSCSI Initiator on your Mac systems?
If your Macs have two NICs, then it’s easy to maintain a separate Metadata network on one and have iSCSI running over the other.

I’m not sure what your video requirements are, but Final Cut Pro systems attached to properly configured storage over iSCSI can expect to see 2-3 streams of PRORES HQ 1080i.

Not sure what storage arrays you’re using either, but you’re welcome to try our free iSCSI initiator for the Mac, which you can download from this page:

https://www.studionetworksolutions.com/support/faq.php?pi=11&fi=51

Best Luck,

Caspian Brand

Product Specialist
Studio Network Solutions