Avoiding Professional Obsolescence

nrausch · Xsan Master Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 202

On behalf of Editshare,
I have installed and integrated about 25 in FCP, AVID, and Mixed & dual boot environments. With and without ProTools audio workstations attached. Schools, Reality TV shows, Offline Film & Documentaries environments with lots of attached clients.
For low-res offline editing, or ProRes editing over Gigabit ethernet... they are awesome and can get way more streams than you would think. (If the best practices are followed.) System/ storage expansion is 50 times easier than XSAN or Unity.

For uncompressed workflows and higher res workflows... they do offer 10Gb cards and connection options. (Granted these are a bit pricey, but the option exists, and ideally one station is connected this way for conform/ outputs.)

It's a fantastic product that can support almost any workgroup or combination of NLEs, and does offer FinalCutProject sharing that does not exist ANYWHERE else.

Also, their MAM system (Flow, and Flow Browse) is pretty cool.

I prefer the open file system, robustness, and elegance of Fiber channel and XSAN most days. But for the dollar, and for most people's workflows. Editshare is what the kids call "The Bomb".

I understand that no one was insulting Editshare, just the Ethernet workflow. It does have it's limitations like anything else.

But for everyone who isn't familiar with Editshare, it's VERY worth looking at.

-This is not a commercial, I just really dig the product and the company.

handygeek · Knows DNS is the answer Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 37

What do you think is so cool about their MAM? Is it Final Cut Server replacement level?

BenB · fully protected Joined: 30 Jun 2009 Posts: 10

nrausch · Xsan Master Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 202

It's a MAM and an ingest server device. I'm not sure how much "like" Final Cut Server it is... you'll have to check out the specs on their site to see if it does the things you like. It may have all the features some folks need though. I don't think it's really a replacement for FCSVR, but it has some great features.

http://www.editshare.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=51

First of all, it does chunking.

So as it ingests, editors can start working with the media as it's being ingested.
(after the first minute or so.)

It can ingest to several flavors of codec at the same time, with metadata tagged by capture.( I.e. Ingest one tape as MXF and ProRes at the same time for AVID and FCP stations.) (As well as having a Proxy generated as one of the codecs.)

You can subclip, with out an NLE! Can't do that in FCSVR!

FYI they also have their own NLE (Lightworks) and Broadcast playout servers (Geevs), and lower cost Archive disk storage.

Start to finish workflow. Great products, great company, and they don't waste their time manufacturing iPads or selling mp3s.

handygeek · Knows DNS is the answer Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 37

It's starting to sound like it might do well here: In-house studio, talking head videos, using ProRes and DV50 material - mostly. How does their pricing work? Is it sold in module? And how, if at all, can we leverage our 4Gb Fibre-connected 60TB of space we currently use with XSAN?

nrausch · Xsan Master Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Posts: 202

You should get in touch with Editshare or a local re-seller/ integrator.
If you're in NYC, I can consult.

ProRes and DV-50 are cake, and it sounds like this may be a good solution for you.

Their pricing is based on a dongle that licenses the amount of storage your chassis is authorized to use, then you can add another chassis later with another dongle when you need more storage. Expansion is WAY easier and safer than with Unity or Xsan. There are no per client lic fees (awesome), then there are dongle lic for the ingest server option, etc...

As far as leveraging your existing Xsan, your clients would need a dedicated Ethernet card for editshare. Then they could mount Editshare volumes and XSAN concurrently.

I have several deployments where the clients use XSAN and Editshare OR Editshare and Unity concurrently. XSAN is a bit tougher as it requires the two Ethernet ports, so you would have to add a gigabit ethernet card.

But, now you can use mac mini's and iMacs with FinalCut as edit stations!
And save the MacPros for ingest/ output.

Many facilities are setup with Just 3 or 4 MacPro's with ingest/ output capabilities, and an army of Mini's and iMacs for cutting. Great workflow!

You should really have an integrator come look at your setup and discuss your best options for the future.

handygeek · Knows DNS is the answer Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 37

Perhaps. We may just go back to the drawing board and if we do, this option will be in the mix. If not, we're much more likely to go StorNext. Thankfully, we have time to discuss options now before our situation is dire.

ogminlo · Xsan Master Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 149

ogminlo · Xsan Master Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 149

bforcier · fully protected Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 12

ogminlo · Xsan Master Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 149

BenB · fully protected Joined: 30 Jun 2009 Posts: 10

So much "speculation" and unfounded "panic" here. Anyone care to talk about facts? So many points about the "latest" technology coming up being missed. Sorry, don't buy into the "we're all screwed" attitude when in fact we're not, and have no clue what will happen next with Apple. Something will come along from Apple, it always does. They've never out right abandoned anything historically yet, not realistically.

Shake? The core of it's technology is inside FCP and Motion now. What isn't is so outdated technology it's not worth bothering with. Somethings reach the end of their technological ability long before they reach the end of their longevity. And yes, it's frustrating, but I've been an IT engineer for almost 20 years, and this is a normal fact of life. Apple dropping Xserve is nothing new, unless you're a newb.

Don't totally agree, but interesting points made:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/11/09/why_apple_axed_xserve_and_how_it_can_reenter_the_sever_market.html

proton · Xsan Master Joined: 29 Nov 2007 Posts: 66

I recently got some information from my Apple contacts. It's not much but still:

altbrue · JBOD Joined: 17 Nov 2010 Posts: 1

Just thought I'd chime in with a few other ideas that I've been looking at on the storage front. I've been working with xsan now since version 1 and I'm now managing a 300 TB xsan, (along with a number of other things).

Recently especially in the high performance arena I've been moving over to Nexenta and 10 GbE solutions with SSD cache you can really start to see some amazing things with just straight NFS performance with ACL's as well as tying together all the other fun features of ZFS (in line de duplication is cool).

With a Chelsio card at $500 and if you know where to look 10 GbE switches cheaper per port than fibre, the ROI can make a lot more sense than a lot of other solutions. Also for you data vault types I just had a 48 TB nexenta node put together for under $12,000.

Just wanted to say if you've taken the time understand xsan inside and out taking it to the next level isn't really that much harder.

MattG · Xsan Master Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 456

I've written up a few thoughts on the future of collaborative workflow on Meta Media's blog. Feel free to take a look and comment.

http://www.empoweringcreativity.com

Cheers,
Matt