Mark Raudonis
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[David Jahns] “a guy that has a 4 seat XSAN said he does about 10-15 hours of XSAN”
What? You’re kidding, right? That is just insane! We’ve been operating for three years and I swear in all that time I’ve NEVER spent that amount of time per week on admin issues. Yes, we have had periods of upgrades, moving equipment and things like that, but day to day, I would be surprised if we spend more than an hour a week! Really! This is for a 50 terrabyte system with almost a hundred users. Mixed resolutions, PC/ mac environment, broadcast deadlines every week.
It sounds like your “friend” has nothing better to do or is trying to justify his job. I’ve got plenty of other responsibilities at the company and if I had to spend that kind of time, I just wouldn’t get anything else done.
This is why I feel compelled to comment about X-SAN. There’s a ton of misinformation or NO information about how it really works. Yes, it requires alot of arcane “networking” info to set it up, but once you’ve done the install properly, it’s very stable.
As for who’s our reseller/engineer? We did it ourselves. From the very begining (beta version) we recognized that X-SAN hit the sweet spot for what we needed. At the time there were no resellers so we just dug in and figured it out. Apple helped us a bit in the very begining, but that was because there wasn’t even a manual printed yet.
My advice for anyone considering X-SAN today is to find a good reseller and contract them for the installation plus a “hand holding” period immediately after. That way, you can be assured it’s going to work and they can help you design your workflow and media management. In my experience, the hardware either works or it doesn’t. That can be handled immediately. Developing a good workflow that takes advantage of X-SAN’s strengths (Distributed rendering for compressor!) is going to take some expert assistance.
Good luck.
Mark
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[David Jahns] “So far, my impression of XSAN is that it’s horribly complicated and fragile – we do not have a dedicated IT person, but I think we would need one if we got an XSAN.”
David,
This isn’t necessarily true. We’re operating a fairly large x-SAN (100 seats) and we do NOT have a dedicated IT person managing this. Sure we have an IT guy for all of our email, word and PC’s, but he doesn’t touch the X-SAN. Our assistant editor teams manage it.
I certainly can understand why a reseller would characterize X-SAN as such (they want to sell you something else) but I’m here to tell you it ain’t true. All of the solutions discussed above will work, but you have to ask how well do they scale up? You’re gonna hit a wall both in storage and number a systems on one of these “SAN in a can” solutions way before X-SAN. I’m not saying that X-SAN is the right solution for you, but I can’t let a statement like you made above go unchallenged. We’ve been operating X-SAN for over three years now in an extremely demanding environment with results quite comparable to Avid’s Unity. In fact, for almost a year we had Unity and X-SAN operating side by side. Based on that experience I can confidently say that X-SAN will offer you the most comparable networked workflow features.
Mark
PS. I’m not a reseller, I’m an end user.
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Steve,
We’ve got a mix of Intel’s, G5’s, imacs and even PC’s all running off of our X-SAN. We’re just starting to roll out “2” and so far, no problems. Make sure that your OS is up to date on all boxes (both servers and clients).
Don’t fear this upgrade… it’s worth it.
As for your vendor, I’d suggest finding someone who really wants your business.
mark
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Rafael,
Your English is quite good! I can understand you perfectly well…. and I agree with you.
For anyone wondering about FCS 2, let me say it another way: You’d be an fool NOT to do this upgrade. There’s just too many major improvements in this release to even think about not doing it.
mark
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Color is positioned as a PROFESSIONAL tool. As such, it makes some basic assumptions about the type of peripheral equipment present in a professional color grading suite.
I’m sorry to say the monitoring through firewire as you’ve described is NOT the typical signal flow path in most high end suites.
There’s no substitute for being an informed consumer. The release notes were posted on Apple’s site well before the software hit the stores.
Mark
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Blase,
How about giving them the “gift” of a “REAL WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHER”? For a couple of grand you can endear your friends to you forever and not have to worry about any those pesky details. In my book, it’s money well spent.
Event videographers practice a specific skill and get good at it. I have much respect and admiration for someone who chooses to make their living at it. You have to figure if they can live off of their work, they’ve got to be good at creating happy customers.
Good luck.
Mark
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Avid is making noise about making their Unity system “workable” with FCP. I would say that this is a question for the fine folks @ AVID.
mark
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[Sean ONeil] “I think this feature is great. Sometimes you want to change the name of something after you capture it. This feature eliminates one of the steps to doing that.
“Sean,
In a networked environment, you must take into consideration OTHER people. Your renaming of a clip may totally flummox another editor’s efforts to find that clip. That’s why we do NOT use names like “WS PAN LEFT TIM LEAVES ROOM”, and instead use “727A03-1”. If you want to rename something, do it in comments. Our team counts on a logical, organized naming scheme that everyone must follow. While the ability to rename is helpful on an individual basis, it can create total chaos in a workgroup environment.
Mark
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Editguy,
You need to sit down with someone on an FCP system (who knows what they’re doing) and have them demonstrate the differences in workflow. Quick answer: You’re going to need to understand the differences in media management and Project vs bin assignments before you can even think about workflow.
Everything you’re asking can be done… but it’s done differently with FCP. Don’t think you can just “do it like Avid”. That would be a huge mistake. If you’re thinking of switching, do your homework and understand the differances between the two systems.
Mark
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chris,
Depending on your workflow, yes, a reconform can be out of sync. That’s why we plan on the time to confirm EVERY SINGLE SHOT. When we up rez, we digitize with one second handles giving us room to move around a shot if necessary.
There is a tremendous difference in accuracy between firewire controlled devices, DV decks, IMX decks, Digibeta decks etc. In general, the more expensive the deck, the better the accuracy. Also, in our case, we usually are digitizing from a “work copy” rather than the original tape. That can introduce a margin of error.
Bottom line, plan on the time to check everything. Analyse your workflow and test it enough to know what’s causing the problem. You won’t find a quick fix on this forum. By the way, speed ramps and still frames are even more problematic.
Mark