[Eric Hansen]

interesting, thanks Bob. looks like i’ll have an extra port for those Euphonix controllers after all.

so this is just on the Nehalems? the older Mac Pros and G5s we’re going to add will be fine?

thanks as always and Merry Christmas!

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

yes Bob, they are Nehalems.

thanks

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

hey jeff

you say: “The key for us is how this all works with final cut server. FCSvr tracks all of our footage, manages the check out check in and everything.

I think how this would work best is our xserve with final cut server, currently fibre attached to our xraid (8TB), then have that gig-e attached to a macpro which is direct attached to the new high speed array. Our active footage, stuff we use a lot, would be on the new array, and we’d keep the xraid as a near-line or as FCSvr calls it, an archive device.

Basically FCSvr is our browser for all of our footage. If we need to access footage or upload it, we go through FCSvr.

I think with that setup it would be fine. As long as volume mounts on the desktop of FCSvr it can be used”

FCSvr will definitely work in an arrangement like that. but your limitation may be that single GigE line. I have a client with Final Cut server and some Xserve RAIDs that they want to make into a stock footage archive, while using new SAS storage as the main editing storage along with a new Mac Pro. so for that i suggested taking the 2 ethernet ports on the Xserve (direct attached to Xserve RAIDs) and aggregating them to the Small Tree switch. this is the same way the new server would attach, but with the main server you would want to aggregate over more ethernet lines so you can support multiple concurrent editors. with 2 ethernet lines, you shouldn’t have any problem accessing the Xserve RAID volumes from the editing computers assuming it would only be accessed occasionally. that’s the case with my client, but you might want to add a multi-port ethernet card to your Xserve. note that the Xserve does not attach to the Mac Pro server. everything runs through the ethernet switch with link aggregation. you would just have 2 servers with shared storage instead of the usual 1.

Bob makes a great point about IT guys. in my experience its the IT guys with years of experience that have the hardest time wrapping their heads around the “video editing over ethernet” concept. no IT person believes that ethernet’s fast enough and dismisses it.

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

hey krysttian

as Matt eluded to in his post, these products are more expensive than what you may be used to because they are very specialized and they have thousands of hours of testing and real customer service behind them. i buy from Small Tree because they know the equipment they sell inside and out, and in many cases they have custom firmware installed. i also know i can get Matt or Chris on the phone RIGHT AWAY to troubleshoot a problem. good luck doing that with Netgear.

it sounds like you’re a super small operation, which makes this seem even more expensive. to be honest, the system i would recommend to you would be roughly the same price as a system for 4 or 5 concurrent editors. the SAN system in the article you read definitely has a minimum price you have to overcome. but the cool thing is that it scales extremely well and is inexpensive compared to other SAN options out there. to double your storage or double your connections only costs a fraction of the initial install. this point is most appealing to my clients.

you should consider how much storage you really need. in the facilities i work with, its all about getting the footage on the system as fast as possible, then getting it off the system as fast as possible after the edit is over. you don’t want to keep media and projects stacking up on these RAIDs. that’s expensive. so consider your archive strategy too. don’t just keep media sitting on random external drives with no plan.

you may be getting answers here in this forum that you didnt expect. but the truth is that we have all been there with cheap equipment and NO customer service and we’re all over it. we work in professional environments and require professional tools backed by real professional tech support. we all have recognized that true value is not the lowest number on the product’s receipt.

one last thing. get on the phone with someone like Matt. he can answer a lot of your questions quickly. i look back at how much research i’ve done over the years and it can be daunting. i couldn’t imagine starting from scratch again. if you value your time, you WILL save money going with a more “expensive” turnkey system like the GraniteStor.

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

hah

I think “don’t use Seagate drives” has now replaced “have you tried restarting it?” as troubleshooting step 1 here in the SAN forum.

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

Bob said: “NO ONE has a HD-SDI router that can pass an analog video signal. So that’s the end of that story.”

i didn’t know that the tri-level sync put out an analog signal. i guess that shows how much i know about sync. this facility didnt even own one and were a bit surprised when i said they needed one. yes the SRW5500 is for broadcast delivery. its also to playback SR tapes that are shot on their Sony 1500 (i’m not sure of the exact model, but it’s a derivative of the F23) that’s housed in a Cineflex mount. so yes, some heavy iron around here. but these guys are fairly new to broadcast delivery. they have previously only made movies for independent release, or done contract shoots, working out of the owners house. a very small operation. this is a brand new post facility with a staff that’s relatively new to broadcast post. Blackmagic’s scope would be a great addition. right now we have the 24″ FSI monitor. do you know if Blackmagic added error logging to their Ultrascope yet?

“the picture is still unstable” – sorry for the lack of description. sometimes its hard to put visuals into words. the best i can describe it is what an image would look like if there was no reference for the deck or for the Kona. the lower half of the image will go from image to green and back to image. the whole image tears. it looks like its skipping frames. this is all in Final Cut and not at the deck. the deck’s built-in monitor is clean and the deck is locked to sync. i’m not at the facility now, otherwise i would capture a short clip and post a link. along with this, the SDI input on the AJA ControlPanel goes from blue to red to blue, even if the Ref In is locked to the Gen10. this only happens when the video is running through the VIdeoHub. i thought there might be an issue with the installed cables. so i pulled the SDI cables for the SRW and the Edit system and connected them with a coupler, and the Kona/FCP was able to lock onto the signal.

is there a way to tell that the VideoHub is getting a signal through its Ref In? it looks like there’s a light behind the BNC, but it doesn’t change as i attach the sync. i think it might just be the power light shining through the gap in the housing around the BNC. the manual says it can handle SD or HD sync from either a blackburst or a tri-level sync. so i’ve tried 29.97 SD, 29.97 HD and 23.98 HD. the footage here is primarily 23.98psf. i also tried to reflash the firmware on the VideoHub.

i know how you feel Bob. when the AE called me describing the problem i told him it was impossible. but when i drove over there, sure enough. the Hub is still new. this is the first time they have attempted captures though it. up until now, all captures were to a direct attached system to the SRW. i’m thinking if its not user error, then it’s possible its a bad unit.

i will post a video clip on Monday

btw, for reference distribution, are you talking about something like this?: https://www.comprehensiveinc.com/distribution-amplifiers/7707-comprehensive-1×5-composite-video-dabnc.html

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

thanks Maurice

that’s too bad that the VideoHub can’t route Sync signals. i read Bob suggesting that in another post, but the post must be old and no longer relevant.

either way, i still can’t get stable video out of the VideoHub. as i stated in number 2, Final Cut cannot lock onto the incoming HD-SDI feed from the VideoHub when trying to capture footage from our SRW5500. i’ve tried this on 2 different edit systems. the 5500 gets its sync directly from the Gen10, and i ran another cable from the Gen10 to the edit system. whether i give the edit system reference or not, it cannot lock onto the video signal coming from the VideoHub. in the AJA ControlPanel it goes between blue and red constantly and the image in the log and capture window flickers. if i pull the SDI cables out of the router and connect them together with a coupler (5500 going directly to edit system over the house HD-SDI cabling), the video is fine. that’s why i think theres an issue with the router.

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

thanks bob

they are actually MC Controls, but i could see adding an MC Color down the road.

its kinda funny that we ran 6 Cat 6 lines to each edit suite and we’re already running out of ports – 2 for the edit system, one for RS422, now one for the Euphonix, one for the editor’s laptop, one for Plasma TV because they have ethernet ports and of course they have to be plugged in too to watch YouTube, one was supposed to be for the phone system, wait, now the client in the back of the suite wants to hook up his laptop so he can watch footage too, etc

might have to go the switch route. $30 switch per suite is better than a $99 ethernet card.

thanks again for the info

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

it’s great for speed, but thats about it. i only use it when i need something compressed yesterday, quality be damned. but if i have time i use Compressor to get a higher quality encode.

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com

[Eric Hansen]

there’s a few things i’m confused about in your post.

1. you have a MacBook Pro. do you have a capture system for it such as the Matrox MXO2 or AJA IoHD?
2. you want to capture Quicktimes and save to DVD. do you mean a DVD video, or data on a DVD-R?

i would suggest using a quality capture system like the MXO2 to a codec like ProRes HQ SD. don’t put the video on DVD or anything like that. save it as a ProRes file.

if the footage has degraded, i suggest a plug-in like Neat Video DeNoise. i’ve used it quite a bit for old SD and film footage.

e

Eric Hansen – The Audio Visual Plumber – http://www.avplumber.com