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St-Craft
05-07-2009, 03:52 PM
Hi

We finished a big project in our company and we are actualy in period of "How could do better next time".

So there some issue with hardware.

We are thinking to buy some kind of server wish anyone can have access to their computer.
Im a bit concern about memory/bandwish usage.

If we working on HD project, is it fine for the network our too much information ?

Example, i use After Effects CS3-4 and i have multiple sequence render 1920-1080 and i need to output that into .mov for example. Is it going to be 'fluid' when i work on the project ?

And one of the reason we are thinking to switch for this kind of work (compar to everyone have their file in their own computer) is Adobe Cue server (right click on desktop and voilą)



And im actualy searching for this "server".
What is it ?

Simple External driver on raid 10 and we can plug ethernet connection (LAN wire).


Not sure if i explain correctly but i hope you understand me :)
aglick
05-07-2009, 05:56 PM
Shared storage is a good idea but you don't necessarily want to have the artists accessing and working directly from the shared storage across a GigE network to the workstation(s). Things will be too slow -especially working with uncompressed HD material on a timeline in an editing or compositing application.

It's better to move any footage needed for the day's work to the artists' local hard drive every day - then to move any finished work back to the shared, backed-up storage.

Unless you install a fibre channel SAN (which is not cheap) then you will probably need to work this way for large, uncompressed media.
ArcticWolf
05-07-2009, 07:39 PM
HD's a bitch, hey? :)

We recently completed 2 projects in HD (1920x1080 and 2048x1080). Our base layer setup was generally a minimum of 3 full sequences, possibly a plate sky (sequence for a camera move) and various other layers as needed, up to about 15.

My understanding is that we had a 10gigabit LAN between the main comping suites and the RAID server. Anybody on a 'secondary' comp station was bang out of luck on standard gigabit. It was workable, especially our main suites, but we did have to starting rendering .avi's overnight as deadline started closing in.

A guy who saw our setup suggested using Brightdrive Workspace. http://www.4bright.com/bdwork.htm He was an agent for their kit, so I don't know if there are comparable pieces systems from other companies but it certainly seems the way to go.
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