Digital Video - October 2007 - (Page 44)

FOUR PRINCIPLES OF STORAGE SCALABLE STORAGE One key to solving your own storage dilemmas is to properly identify your needs. Factors to consider include file sizes and types, speed needs, media cost and system expandability, among many others. While a high-end RAID may be the best solution for some, something as simple as a spare iPod may do the trick in a pinch for others. Here are a few interesting recent offerings in varying storage solutions weight classes. those MXF files as QuickTime movies upon ingest. A plug-in from www.dvfilm.com, Raylight, helps in both PC and Mac environments where the NLE does not natively read MXF files. Raylight natively uses MXFs in FCP, making for a 50 percent reduction in the amount of drive space needed. It’s then less to back up. Note that on the PC side, Raylight rewraps those MXFs as .avi files for Premiere Pro, so there is no space savings. The same principle applies for dumping the files after conversion or ingest. Sony XDCAM HD users have it as easy as tape users. All of the MXF files can continue to reside on relatively inexpensive media, ready for recapture if necessary. Once a given project is completed, far too many editors wonder just what to do with it. I am often guilty of allowing my media drives to retain the clutter of projects past. Again, I recommend simply copying completed projects to hard drives and storing them, clearly (www.miray.de). Available in levels from free to commercial “enterprise” editions, it contains a range of features from simple clone/restore to network deployment. This brings us to STORAGE PRINCIPLE NO. 3: back up early and often. As we work on projects, saving copies of project files themselves is essential. Project files, regardless of the app, contain pointers to all media and effects. Other files requiring protection are those that are difficult to recreate. Back up graphics, title files, audio beds and anything else that’s of a high priority. If you’re working from tape, the backing up of video captures is far less crucial—because in the event of media drive failure, these can always be recaptured from the data saved in the project file itself. Here again, the backup medium depends upon size and one’s own configuration. This is a point where NAS devices with redundancy can be truly useful. Copy the file to a NAS device (gigabit Ethernet is really essential for moving this amount of data) with a minimum of two drives configured in a simple RAID 1 (mirrored) scheme. Now you effectively have triple projection—your original and two backups. The complexity increases for those of us who work in tapeless environments. I shoot and edit on Panasonic P2, which means that I must transfer MXF files from my cards and my Focus Enhancements Firestore hard drive recorder. I recommend treating those MXF files as original footage—much like a tape—and thus often devote my stock of loss-leader drives just for MXF files, much as I still have boxes of original tape footage. Storage requirements increase when my NLE of choice, Final Cut Pro, needs to rewrap VIDEO READY CalDigit is now shipping the HDPro Tower from its Placentia, Calif. operations center. An 8-bay RAID 0,1,5 and 6 solution, it can attain 400MBps in RAID 5 with capacities from 2TB up to 8TB, costing less than $2 per gig (including host interface card and all the accessories). The HDPro has a PCIe direct attach as a storage interface that connects the host and RAID controller at up to 20Gbps. Prices start at $3,999 for a 2TB system, which includes a CalDigit Controller Card. The HDPro works with Mac Pro, G5, Mac OSX Server, Windows and Linux workstations, as well as other platforms. Features include an distributed parity algorithm (which accesses data and parity blocks across all the drives in the disk array) for uncompressed HD or 2K footage speed (up to 400MBps in RAID 5 and 380MBps for entire capacity without help of software striping), a direct connection to the computer’s bridge chip and memory system combined with high link speeds and up to 20Gbps bandwidth for ultra-fast data transport between the storage system and the host computer. Also, because the RAID processor is in the HDPro, the external RAID storage for your laptop is no longer limited to FireWire and USB connectivity. The CalDigit ExpressCard easily plugs your HDPro into an MacBook Pro or PC laptop and enables you to edit DVCProHD, DVCAM, HDV, uncompressed SD and up to 10-bit uncompressed HD. www.caldigit.com www.dv.com http://www.miray.de http://www.dvfilm.com http://www.caldigit.com http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - October 2007

Cover Contents Letters DV Update R&D Fest Circuit Light Brigade Follow Focus Shootout Image Conscious Instant Expert Close-Ups Eastern Europe Exploit Call of the Wild Four Principles of Storage Storage Media Production Diary

Digital Video - October 2007

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