[Sean Murphy]

Thank you Peter – perfect.

[Sean Murphy]

Freddy I have come up against the same problem, I was wondering if you managed to find a solution?

Cheers
Sean

[Sean Murphy]

Apologies Bob I did mean grass valley (got my green tree mixed up with my grass valley for a minute) and the model in particular being ADVC 110.

I will liaise with a local specialist as you have pointed out this is not a simple set up however the main thing I have got from this is that it doesnt necessarily have to be done with fibre channel and can be done over ethernet.

Many thanks
Sean

[Sean Murphy]

Thank you for your advice Matt and Bob, I have had a few quotes from various places but everyone seems to want me to go fibre channel. From what I have read this is overkill for my task.

Your article is very helpful Bob and the small tree solution appears to be exactly what is needed. The format I plan to use is DV Pal once digitised (I may create prores versions for the client – see stage 2 below) and kept as DV Pal when editing, it will eventually be output as MPEG2 for this project.

Your wise words Bob are echo-ing in my ears and I will have support (and installation) from network specialists but I just feel that the companies supplying the kit are seeing this as a bit of a quick earner. This forum is helping greatly. I just want to educate myself a little Bob so that I know what these suppliers are providing or more importantly should be providing.

Matt, are there any advantages/disadvantages in using a Mac Pro than an Xserve? Will this one server do all I need?

To explain further-

Stage 1 of the task – to digitise all the material into DV Pal and store the files in a media management tool – probably Final Cut Server. I envisage 12 machines (in order to meet the deadline) with green valley boxes connected to them to perform this task and will probably use Mac Minis to do this. (By the way the figure of 25-50 Tb has been quoted to me by the supplier and may be a white elephant, Ive estimated the total amount of material to be approx 16 Tb.)

Stage 2 – to mirror the storage and provide the mirrored solution to the client in order to review of all the material (using Final Cut Server) and upon completion the client will provide instructions to me for editing. (This could be done using prores versions of the original file as these files are for viewing only, in order for storage costs to be kept to a minimum)

Stage 3 – With instructions in hand, using the original digitised material my team (expected to be on 3-6 i7 iMacs using Final Cut) will edit the material (there will never be two editors working on the same file) therefore creating edited versions of the files which are to be converted to mpeg2.

I hope this gives a clearer view of my task.