Chris Blair
Forum Replies Created
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Well I’d tell your bosses:
Do you want me to spend $2500 now for a backup solution that will work, is reliable, has a warranty, and will allow for us to be back up and editing in a half-day?
Or do you want me to take pieces and parts, try to make them work, spend a couple hours a week fussing with backups having to offload, archive files all the time etc. Then when the system crashes, spend 2 days finding and restoring files from a dozen drives and offloaded DVDs or portable drives?
Your backups are critical. And I’d recommend at the very least new drives. You can get 4-6 TB NAS arrays pretty cheap nowadays. I wish we’d gotten a backup drive that was Raid5 so it also had the added benefit of being able to rebuild data if one drive failed…but I was too stupid to know the difference 10-12 months ago.
I wouldn’t skimp when it comes to backup though.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
We basically bought them due to budget limits.
If I had to do it again I wouldn’t choose the LaCie’s for project storage, but they’re fine for backup.
We bought the rackmount 2TB and 4TB NAS appliances. I read good reviews of them on several IT sites, but after buying and installing, we found that we really should’ve just put our project files on a volume on the vStor. That’s what the guys at Apace recommended, but we were trying to keep project files separate from video and audio, thinking this would ensure better performance for capturing & playback.
After editing with it for 6 months, it would’ve worked fine both in terms of space and speed (we’ve tested it) just using the vStor for projects. In fact, I think you have to use the vStor for project storage with some editing systems…like Final Cut and Avid. I could be wrong on that though so I’d check.
The LaCie’s we bought are just spanned drives. They’re not configured in a raid at all. So you get NO speed bump using them. They also have very basic GigE cards, which DO NOT support jumbo frames, which can give you quite a significant bump in speed and reliability if available.
We do get about 22-25MB/sec sustained read/write, which is pretty good across even a GigE network for a product at their price point. And the 4TB works fine for backing up, which is done overnight each night using Second Copy software.
But the weak point in our system is the LaCie 2TB drive that’s used for shared project storage. It works fine, but we get occasionally pauses while trimming or cutting clips that we THINK is caused by the drive. It doesn’t ever affect timeline playback though…just some random slowdowns doing basic stuff in the timeline.
So if I had to do it again, I’d just forgo the 2TB LaCie and use the vStor for project, audio and video storage. Then just back it all up on the 4TB LaCie. Remember, the vStor is raid5, so if 1 drive fails, it will rebuild the data. So we have that as protection, as well as our nightly backup onto our 4TB LaCie.
As for the direct attached external drives, we have a bunch of them, most still attached to the systems. We don’t use them at all. We considered using them for backup, but none was big enough to back up any of the volumes we created on the vStor. We’re keeping them for now as a “just in case” something happens to the vStor. But in reality, I cannot see using them for much of anything except maybe a graphics/compositing station or something like that.
We’ll probably end up selling some of them on Ebay.
Hope that helps.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Alec,
We own an Apace vStor so I’m not sure I’m a good person to ask about the advantages of MetaLan vs. Apace.
We added a new switch when we installed the vStor so if you add the cost of the 48 port GigE managed switch ($800) plus installation and cabling by our IT company ($1500), plus new ethernet cabling ($250), the cost of the vStor was more in the $11,750 range. That doesn’t take into account the cost of 2 LaCie NAS drives we installed for project storage and backup at a cost of about $3000. There were also things like having to get a new rack to hold the vStor (it’s huge and very long) and sound dampening foam to reduce noise (it sounds like a 747), which added about $250 more. So we spent at least $15,000 on upgrading to shared storage after it was all said and done.
When we were pricing hardware to couple with MetaLan, we talked to Aberdeen Systems and Winchester Systems. Tiger Technology recommended another company, Midwest Communications or something like that. We could never get anyone from there to call us back or respond to emails.
The NAS hardware from Aberdeen and Winchester was in the $4500 range. It came with the Linux OS and 4 GigE ports. This was basically the same hardware as what Apace sells minus all the little software tweaks and utilities they provide. Had we added MetaLan software, I beleive it was going to add another $2250 for our 4 edit stations. We were also going to have to add a dedicated server at a cost of about $1000 to handle the Metadata that Tiger’s software requires to keep track of volumes, users and basically act as a traffic cop for all the data coming in and out. That all adds up to $7750…about $1500 less than the vStor. So had we gone with a DIY NAS box and MetaLan, it would’ve cost us about $13,500, because we still would’ve needed the new switch and the backup LaCie drives.
For me it wasn’t worth saving $1500 to build a DIY system. The guys at Tiger are great, but unless there was a performance advantage or a bigger cost savings, I just couldn’t justify the added time I would’ve spent installing, configuring and learning their way of doing things.
With Apace…for us at least, installation was relatively easy with help from them every step of the way. It worked exactly as advertised after installation. And in 6 months of constant use has been rock-solid so far.
Maybe as you go up in size in terms of storage there are bigger cost savings, but at the 4TB level, it just didn’t make sense to us to try to save that amount of money. Apace also guaranteed in writing that their box would work with our editing system (Leitch VelocityQ). If it didn’t, they’d take it back and refund us everything but shipping.
Hope that helps.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I actually found an explanation our attorney sent us to answer our questions about ownership of raw footage we’ve shot for clients. They excerpted it directly from U.S. copyright law, which most multimedia works fall under when dealing with intellectual property:
You should not assume that you own the copyright if you pay an independent contractor to create the work (or part of it). In fact, generally the copyright in a work is owned by the individual who creates the work, except for full-time employees working within the scope of their employment (“work for hire”) and copyrights which are assigned in writing.
The copyright law also includes another form of “work for hire,” it applies only to certain types of works which are specially commissioned works. These works include audiovisual works, which will include most multimedia projects. In order to qualify the work as a “specially commissioned” work for hire, the creator must sign a written agreement stating that it is a “work for hire” prior to commencing development of the product
Our attorneys breakdown of this was that if a client hires a production company to create a video without a contract specifying ownership of the project, or a written agreement that it’s “work for hire,” the production company legally owns the copyright to NOT ONLY the raw materials, but also the finished work!
We also own a great book on intellectual property law for multimedia and it states the EXACT same thing….word for word in it’s text. It’s called
Intellectual Property Law Primer
for Multimedia DevelopersCopyright 1994 by J. Dianne Brinson and Mark F. Radcliffe
I had forgotten our attorney’s advised us that we also owned the finished work as we were only concerned about the raw tapes.
So I’d be very interested to hear other Intellectual Property Lawyers explanation of how the reverse could be true, when it’s written in black and white in the law itself.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
David Roth Weiss You should tune in to the podcast. I think you’ll find it quite informative and perhaps you won’t be quite as certain about what you’ve written above.
I realize there are many complications that could be involved in these issues, and it’s also important to point out that attorneys that handle intellectual property cases don’t even agree on these issues.
We consulted with an attorney on the Casino issue and in our case…in the absence of an agreement or contract stating otherwise, we owned the tapes and footage, they owned what they contracted us to do, which was create television commercials and marketing videos.
Naturally, we could not use that footage for other purposes, but we also were not obligated to turn over the raw footage for them to take to other production companies to create new projects.
Here’s the analogy. A large audio sound facility mixes a complicated sound track for a corporate marketing video. It includes dialogue shot on location, voice-over, licensed music, and hundreds of sound effects provided by the sound facility. Does the client own all of that raw material? Well heck no! They own the finished, edited sound track. The sound facility owns all the raw elements that they created or provided.
When we shoot footage for a client, we don’t just set up a camera, point it and hit “record.” There’s a ton of conceptualizing, pre-production, and professional input that goes into creating those images. We also create multi-layered motion graphics for these clients. Do they own all the elements (images, project files etc.) that go into producing the final animation? I think not.
Each case can be different depending on the circumstances of how the project is structured. But the key issue here is “in the absence of an agreement that stipulates ownership of the raw footage.”
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
I’ll add that video and film footage is covered under the same intellectual property laws that cover still photographers. It doesn’t matter if you charge for the tape stock either, as I’ve read on this forum from time to time.
Photographers charge for their film or digital storage disks and the ownership of their photographs doesn’t magically accede to the client. That footage and/or the projects that result from it are the only bargaining chip most companies have when they can’t get paid for their work.
We’re going through this very thing right now with a large client. It wasn’t until we stopped all work, demanded payment, and withheld delivery of projects that we are finally getting payments from the client.
And guess what was the FIRST thing they did after paying us something. YOU GUESSED IT…they requested all their footage. Since they still haven’t paid us in full, we politely told them we couldn’t do that until all their bills are paid. In this case, if they pay everything, we’ll gladly give them the footage, even though legally we could charge them a reasonable buyout fee.
I’ve seen people on this forum say they believe clients own the footage. This just isn’t true. The client owns the usage rights to what’s shot on those tapes specifically for the project it was shot for, but in the absence of an agreement stating otherwise, the production company owns the tape stock and footage. Naturally the production company cannot use that footage for anything without consent from the client. But likewise, the client cannot demand the tapes without expecting to pay some sort of license or buyout fee for using them (and the footage on them) in new projects. This is just like a still photographer, who has the right to charge for additional usage of his photographs each and every time they’re used for a new project.
We’ve consulted with legal folks on this more than once, as this happened to us with a large Casino that was bought out a couple of years ago. The first thing the new owners had their marketing people do was call us and demand all their footage. We said “OK,” but here’s the buyout fee to get it. It was a VERY reasonable amount that pretty much just covered the cost to box and ship the stuff (probably 50 tapes) plus about $6000 extra as compensation for the footage. They were pissed, saying they owned the footage and we’d be hearing from their attorneys. Well guess what. Their attorneys never called, and we’re still doing business with the Casino because their marketing people like what we turn out and enjoy working with us, and they realized it would cost them 20 times more than $6000 to reshoot all the stuff we had.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
If you’re just looking for hardware, Aberdeen and Winchester Systems both sell excellent NAS hardware with embedded or disk based operating systems, multi-port GigE, and a huge variety of configurations.
Another site that’s a reseller of top brands is http://www.raidweb.com.
Here’s the direct link to their NAS page:
https://www.raidweb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=14&Itemid=33
If you want something that’s optimized for a business environment, Apace also sells excellent solutions…although most of their products are geared toward video and they’re more expensive than those above. We own one of their products and can say that their systems do what they say they will, and their customer service, along with their reseller IEEE.inc. is the best I’ve ever had.
I’m sure others have contacts as well.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
Rory…
No worries..I didn’t misinterpret your post, and I certainly wasn’t condemning anyone who is able to get full or partial rates for cancellations or rain dates. I was just trying to point out that often it’s market and booking dependent. If our edit suites were booked 90% of the time and cancellations and changes impacted other clients and our ability to generate revenue, I’d have no qualms with charging something for last-minute changes, cancellations and rain dates on shoots.
But since we’re only booked at about 60% capacity at most, it really doesn’t have much of an effect on revenue, and it rarely impacts other client projects.
So the point was that it depends on your bookings, your relationship with clients and the part of the country you’re working in.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
While researching systems early this year, we had several phone discussions and emails directly with Bernard at Tiger Technology and their service and response time was incredidle. In fact, Bernard called me several times during the process just to “check-in.”
We eventually chose an Apace vStor, but had we decided to build our own system, Tiger Technology was definitely the way to go. The prices we got from them were for MetaLan ($295 I think), which if I remember correctly is used for ethernet based solutions (which is what we were looking to set up), as opposed to fibre channel solutions. Their prices were way cheaper than the other software options out there and they actually make sense about how it all works when you talk to them.
Many other folks on this list have also raved about Tiger Technology’s pre and post sales service and support. On the cost, you have to remember they’re selling a highly specialized software application that has a limited number of potential buyers. They HAVE to charge a decent price for it to justify the research, development, programming….and most importanly, the support they provide.
People don’t think twice about paying $600 (per license) for Photoshop, $1500 (per license) for After Effects, and upwards of $5000 for apps like Digital Fusion, Maya etc. So when you’re looking at $295 per seat license for MetaLan, and $400 or so for MetaSAN, it’s really not that high a price considering what they do.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
We’re a medium sized production house in the midwest, and you absolutely cannot get away with charging for rain dates…or for last-minute cancellations for that matter.
It doesn’t matter how big the client is in a medium-sized city or region. If they ask for a rain date and/or book a shoot or edit, then cancel, they WILL NOT pay for that time. If you charge them, you can kiss their business goodbye forever.
Remarkably, this issue has only occurred a few times per year over our 12 years in business. Additionally, the clients almost always rebook and use the time. I can only think of one case where a client booked something, cancelled, then never came back.
We look at it from the reverse side of the coin. What if WE were the producers and we booked time at some facility at $175/hour. Then our bone-head client called with changes or delays and we had to cancel our shoot or edit because of it. I would certainly feel screwed if I had to pay for that time when it wasn’t my fault we had to cancel.
Maybe you can get away with it at a facility in a large city where you’re booked constantly. But our 3 suites are booked about 60-70% of the time. We might have 2-3 shoots per week on average. So a cancellation or rain date here and there doesn’t really affect us, other than being a bit of an aggravation.
Hope that helps.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com