Digital Video - October 2008 - (Page 8)

IN REVIEW SONNET TECHNOLOGIES R800 RAID Soundbooth CS4 has evolved from a two-track to multi-track audio tool. Adobe does not view Soundbooth as a DAW competitor. It offers Audition (only sold individually) for those customers. Instead, Soundbooth CS4 is designed as a “helper” application to be used with Premiere Pro by video editors or Flash Professional by Web developers. Soundbooth is designed as a less complex, task-based application for audio recording, editing, clean-up, mixing and music production. Although you can drill down into the effect filters and make custom adjustments, Soundbooth groups its processes by tasks with default presets. There are a decent set of tools for two-track audio production, similar to what you might find in BIAS Peak Pro or Sony Sound Forge. These are augmented with music composition tools using Adobe’s royalty-free scores. You can purchase new scores from Adobe’s Resource Central Web site, as well as download a wealth of free sound effects. Score creation with Soundbooth CS4 is similar to using Smart Sound’s Sonic Fire Pro, letting you tailor the length and arrangement of the score to your video. Now with multi-track support, you can mix dialogue, music and effects within Soundbooth CS4. A video editor will find Soundbooth CS4 useful for its cleanup and music tools, but a Web producer would potentially do 100% of the audio production for a Flash Web site or a podcast with Soundbooth CS4. Changes in the other applications might seem less dramatic depending on your needs. Adobe is a company that’s neutral in many of the big platform debates. They sell software and don’t have a vested interest in selling hardware. As such, there’s plenty of third-party hardware and plug-in support to make Premiere Pro attractive to first-time NLE users or switchers from other systems. With integrated metadata support, native operation with tapeless cameras and the ability to export to just about every popular media format, CS4 is a package you’ll want to add to your system. DV ROOM FOR MORE SONNET OFFERS AN IMPRESSIVE LINE FOR LARGE-SCALE VIDEO STORAGE. BY MICHAEL HANISH S You’ll find an extended version of this First Look on our site. Visit DV online. onnet Technologies recently introduced three storage solutions in both rackmount and desktop format. Sonnet’s high-end and high-performance RAID systems come in 8-drive, 4, 6 and 8TB configurations, with the “D” series in a desktop case and the “R” series as a 2 RU rackmount. The R800 8TB system is the basis for this review. My test host for the R800 RAID system was an early 2008 Mac Pro tower with two quad-core, 2.8GHz Xeon processors and 16GB RAM, running OS X 10.5.2. I installed the controller card in the top PCIe slot, connected it to the enclosure with the two InfiniBand Multilane to mini-SAS cables, installed the software, fired up the enclosure, and after a restart, the RAID, configured as RAID 5 at the factory, appeared on my desktop. By the way, an 8TB RAID formats out at 6.37TB. My results on a RAID 5 volume, using AJA’s Disk Read/Write Tests with a 4GB file size and 2048x1556 10-bit RGB frame size, varied between 501.7 and 535.6 Mbps for writes and 468 and 494.2 Mbps for reads, averaging a bit lower than Sonnet’s published test results, no doubt because of some bottlenecks or inconsistencies in my system. The real-world tests, working on my Media 100 HD, Kona 3 based system showed me that throughput was more than adequate, to say the least, for any aspects of my projects I wanted to throw at the hardware. I began by digitizing a lot of 1080/60i clips from a Sony PWM-EX1’s SDI output, using the ProRes 422 HQ codec. In edit mode, I stacked up four HD layers for a composite and threw a title on top, and still all played in sync with the stereo soundtrack with no rendering. Even adding a few more stereo audio layers didn’t bog down the RAID. A RAID 0 configuration yields about 50 to 60% better performance, but at the potential cost of losing everything if a drive goes down. Fan noise is unavoidable with units such as this, and the R800 is no exception. But I am glad and relieved to report that noise for this unit is noticeable but not overwhelming. The 4’ cables that run from the R800 to the controller card in the host computer allow a degree of flexibility in placement, for noise reduction purposes. My one concern with the Sonnet RAID system is its lack of expandability. To enhance your storage capabilities, you have to buy and install another RAID system and host card. To be fair to Sonnet, in the interest of speed and performance, most systems work this way, but not all. DV You’ll find an extended version of this review on our site. Visit DV online. SCORE SONNET R800 RAID PROS: Hardware and software compatibility with many computer systems; low operating noise level. CONS: Lack of expandability. BOTTOM LINE: A solid, high-performing, reliable unit for a wide range of situations. MSRP: 8TB rackmounted version, $7,195; 6TB, $5,695; 4TB, $4,695. Desktop versions are $200 less in each size. CONTACT: www.sonnettech.com www.dv.com 8 dv october 2008 http://www.dv.com http://www.dv.com http://www.sonnettech.com http://www.dv.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Digital Video - October 2008

Digital Video - October 2008 Contents First Look: Creative Suite 4 D800 Raid Edirol F-1 Video Field Recorder Universal Dolly BT-LH1760 Monitor Bench Test: XDCAM EX PMW-EX1 Camcorder The Dead Can Dance Cutting Crew Unrest In Peace DV101 Production Diary

Digital Video - October 2008

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