[Neil Sadwelkar]

A word on the tape size and capacity.

If you’re using Bru-PE (and this probably applies to other software too), don’t budget for a capacity of 2.5 TB per LTO-6 tape. Depending on the kind of media you’re backing up, you’ll get approximately 2.2 TB of hard disk capacity per tape with Bru-PE.

This, coupled with the fact that you may not be able to split some folders or files, (so some tapes may need to be closed at 2 TB or less), budget for 2 TB per tape to allow for this ‘wastage’.

Certain type of files means if you are backing up a large number of files (like .ari files from an Alexa ArriRaw Shoot) or DPX files from a DI backup, there will be more ‘wastage’ compared to a small number of large files like for a Red R3D shoot or Sony F65 Raw shoot.

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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

If budget permits, then of course a TBolt RAID plus LTO backup is preferable. If you had to choose between the two, I’d say go for the LTO backup.

What kind of drives are these? Do you need to connect all 85 TB worth of drives simultaneously?

If they are all USB3 drives, you could connect many simultaneously.
USB3 hubs allow connecting 7-10 drives at a time. I’ve used two 7-port hubs and connected up to 14 drives simultaneously. If your Mac has 4 USB3 ports then with 4 hubs you can have 28 drives at the same time.

Alternately, for eSATA drives, using one or more a dual port SAS cards and SAS-eSATA cables its possible to connect 8 eSATA drives to one SAS card. You can put two of these into a TBolt-PCIe box and hook up 16 drives simultaneously.

Then the LTO backup protects you against any drive failure.

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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I have a MacBook Pro 15 (late 2014 model) running OS X 10.10.3 (currently) and have Adobe CC with PPro, FCP 7, FCP X, and Avid MC ver 8.3 and DaVinci Resolve Lit 11.3 all installed.
All run fine. Occasionally each have issues, but none that could be attributed to the presence of each other.

The order of install was like this…

MBP delivered with MacOSX 10.9.x
Installed Final Cut Studio. Edited a project.
Installed DaVinci Resolve Lite (was ver 10 at that time I think)
Weeks later, Installed FCP X, Compressor X and Motion X (before this install, I moved FCS into another folder and did what’s specified at Apple’s support page for FCP 7 and X on same system)
Some months later, Installed Avid MC v 8

Over the next few months upgraded FCP X and Avid as updates became available. Same for Resolve Lite

A few weeks ago I installed OS X 10.10 as an upgrade not fresh install

Upgraded Resolve, FCP X, and Avid MC as updates became available.

System still works fine for all these software.

My use is,
Resolve mostly, and for transcoding and dailies grading
FCP X for quick edits
Avid MC for troubleshooting others’ Avid edits, syncing audio, and making AAFs
Premiere Pro rarely. I installed it just because its there in CC.
I use Media Encoder, Encore, Muse in that order.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I just did a test.

On a MacPro cylinder OSX 10.9.5 with Resolve 11.2
Arri Alexa ProRes4444 clips three of them
Cut them into a rough edit in FCP 7
Exported a XML and a ref mov

Opened a new project in Resolve. Set conform options to
Assist using reel names from the: Embedded in source clip file.
Imported original clips in Resolve 11.2 and conformed to the XML. Checked against offline.
Imported clips show Reel name correctly in Media Pool.

Then I consolidated this sequence with the settings…
Deselect ‘Use source clip full extents’
Deselect ‘Consolidate multi-edit extents’
Add: 12 frame handles
Preserve: 4 levels after head

Consolidated clips.

Then I made a new Resolve project
Same conform options
Imported consolidated clips
Consolidated clips have accurate metadata including Reel names

Imported original FCP XML
Consolidated clips conform correctly, checked against ref edit too.

And, my edit has one reverse shot, two repeated shots, and one shot at 1000%.
All conform fine.

Original shots – 28.39 GB – 09:47 min
Consolidated shots – 2.21 GB – 26 sec
(w 12 fr handles)

I’m using Resolve 11.2. So, unless this is broken in Resolve 11.3, or unless this doesn’t work without handles, I can’t say why yours isn’t working.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I don’t know about the Shot and Scene metadata as we don’t have that in our originals.

But timecode in and out, file name, and reel name definitely pass through from ProRes4444 to the DNxHD files. In general, these three parameters are all that’s needed for a post conform workflow.

Haven’t come across this issue in Resolve versions 9 through 11.2 on a Mac.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

We do this all the time. Two things we do differently.

Settings
Assist using reel names from the – embedded in the source files
Deliver
Make unique file names – deselect.

We also provide the XML from the VFS to the edit house. This carries all the additional metadata.
I think VFS can output ALE as well this too might have metadata that Avid can import.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Haven’t tried this with the latest 11.3 version, but in previous versions it worked flawlessly. I’ve consolidated ArriRaw .ari file sequences with handles as well as R3D with handles. The multi-edit thing I haven’t tried as it didn’t make sense to my workflow.

I haven’t tried with Arri Amira ProRes files yet. But Sony F65 .mxf did work on the one occasion I tried a while ago.

And yes, after consolidating I did a ‘confidence check’ conform in a new project.
Conformed consolidated files to the original XML.

Maybe its broken with 11.3? Will try to find time (and examples) and try with ProRes files.

One more thing. In a timeline of ArriRaw and Sony F65 mixed, I had to move the F65 files to another layer and then do consolidate on ArriRaw and F65 in separate passes, else it doesn’t work for the F65 – get full clips.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Working with 4k 10 bit DPX is not something that’s common. Many cameras shoot 4k, but they all shoot compressed. The largest file-size is created by the Sony F65 whose 4k .mxf files are about 17 GB/min or about 300 MB/sec.

So if you’re grading Sony F65, your drive needs to be able to output at least 300 MB/sec to get stable 24fps playback. Of course, the actual playback speed while grading will depend on the grade applied and the GPU’s ability to process that.

Alexa, Red Epic are all below the Sony’s data rate, at about 170 MB/sec for ArriRaw and nearly that much for the Red Epic at its highest setting.

Your 8-bay will be fast enough for most current cameras.

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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

On Tuesday evening as we left the show, there was a dust storm with high winds. Over the next day or two the temperatures plummeted. This variation in temperature coupled with a large number of people in one hall exchanging the air they breathed, led to an epidemic.

I managed to come out unscathed, in part because I come from a crowded country and out here its very common at pilgrimages at large temples for outbreaks of various small and major communicable diseases to occur.

So we are used to the standard precautions of avoiding body contact (shaking hands counts too), and avoiding getting one’s hands anywhere near one’s nose or eyes, using generous amounts of hand sanitiser and carrying a sanitised kerchief to wipe one’s eye’s or nose.

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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

G-tech drives have proved to be the more reliable among drives I’ve used so far.
For backup of camera data, the 3-2-1 rule works best.
3 copies, 2 different mediums, 1 copy offsite

Meaning copy camera files to two drives at shoot site. Then backup to LTO off site but as soon as possible, and place one drive and LTO away from the second drive.

For cloning camera originals ShotPut Pro works well. For cloning entire drives, Super-Duper or Carmon Copy Cloner works too. Even DaVinci Resolve, if that’s in your workflow, has a clone tool to clone drives with verification.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India