hello,
we have about 1000 films ( around 2000 hrs of SD footage) on digibeta tapes. we need to capture some scenes, edit and create programs on daily basis. Insted of capturing everyday, we are planning to digitise ALL the films together in uncompressed resolution, and use them as per need. One hour Uncompressed SD is aprox 100 GB. So capturing ALL tapes will require 200 TB of space. We will also be adding more films in HD format in 2/3 months time.

Can anybody suggest us a low cost solution ? Can such a huge amount of storage be attached to a single xw8600 wokstation with MC-mojo DX ? Is it possible to achive data redendancy ?

Thanks in advance for all the help. I will be obliged.

SPost.

 bump.

There is no 'low cost' solution for 200 TB+ of storage. Even at around 20 TB you are looking at $22K+. So 200 TB is about quarter of a million dollars. Even big facilities do not have such size unless doing major DI work. If you need protection (say RAID 5 or 6) the cost will increase as it requires more drives. For such I would assume you will need a custom server with an enterprise level provider (HP, IBM, etc). Most video oriented SANs taps out at around 20-40 TB. I would rethink your workflow.

 Oh ... i see..

so which means i will need a SAN set up with 1 enterprise level server, 1 Avid workstation, 1 Swich and storage arrays.... am i right ?

Well, a switch isn't required for a single workstation.  Check out TerraBlock.  Good $/GB ratio, RAID-5 protected, and you can mount volumes as needed.  Each 24D chassis is 24TB's.

http://www.facilis2.com/

 

 

 

SPost:

Can anybody suggest us a low cost solution ?

 

Capture everything at 15:1s. edit. then online at uncompressed. Even in this day and age, for a project of this size, I think it would be much easier to handle the media this way rather than to have 200-300 TB of storage.

 

And I've used the Terrablock before, It's really really good.

 thanks a lot ...will check that.

 Can we attach multiple 24D chasis to a workstation ? if yes how ?

A switch may or may not be needed for a single station. Terrablock maxes out at 24 TB per server. I know you can connect to 2 at the same time (2 servers and 1 station on same switch). Not sure about 8 of them though. It would be probably something like a blade server, Avid ISIS for example. It maxes out at 192 TB. Data centers for enterprise usage is the level you are looking at.

 Yep we have a Terrablock8XS and it's offers a lot of bang for the buck and allows many seats to use the same material. 8TB was $14KUS, so yeah gget the 24X.... and best of all if you have any problems you can call them and they're very responsive. Once you get the footage in you should also consider a LTO tape back-up soution. I think they're up to 800GB on compressed back-up per tape, 400GB uncompressed. Good luck!!!!

Yes you can. You will need a FC switch. Facilis can walk you through mounting them. However, I am unsure if there is a limit how many TB servers you can mount.

 thanks everybody...

will talk to them and find out

 What about capturing in 15:1 or another compressed codec and then batch capturing uncompressed when you are finishing. IMHO I just can't see the benefit of storing everything uncompressed when I look at the cost for the storage, unless you need to work with uncompressed right away.

 Sorry, didn't see that mr difficult had already the 15:1s solution

You can have multiple chassis grouped together, and there are many configurations.  For multiple chassis', you'll probably want a switch.  We have 8 servers for 120TB's, connected through a QLogic 9000 Series 128-Port Switch (currently populated with 64-ports).

You should talk to either Facilis directly, or a Facilis authorized reseller for options, configurations, and pricing.