Building a 4K-6K Color Grading / Finishing System

T

taynos

Member
Anyone have experience putting together a Color Grading system that can work with all the different flavors of Raw in Realtime.
Is it even possible to do for a budget of 20k?

Needs are professional, real time responsive color grading / finishing that would be found in post facility to handle supervised grading sessions. In these formats;

1 4K uncompressed .dng files as created by the FS7Q. (as well as 4K Pro res in future)
2 4K-6K .r3d files (SCARLET / EPIC w Dragon)
3. 4K C500
4. ArriRAW
5. Black Magic Raw
6. etc...

Sounds like a 12-core CPU systems are needed to handle the Uncompressed Raw. The new Mac Pro does have a 12-core system but going PC will give you the same firepower for cheaper. Also, sounds like the most powerful route to go is to build a Linux system.

I found several interesting turnkey systems, this one a joint effort by Assimilate Scratch, claims to be "4k for the price of 2k" has a starting point of of 9,995 (Which basically includes 12-core HPZ820 workstation w/ 32GB Ram, Scratch software, 10TB Array, K6000 Video, Fusion I/o,)
http://www.versatiledistributionservices.com/?PAGID=93

Would still need to add Monitors, Control Surface, SDI Video I/O, Scopes

We are aware the biggest $ issue is monitoring the 4K and most DI facilitys have a 4K projector used in conjunction with a 12bit 2K Monitor for grading.
One idea would be to rent a 4K reference monitor for supervised 4K finishing sessions. (Panasonic, Canon) But mostly would be happy with 2K reference grade like the Flanders Scientific which has 12bit processing and a 10bit panel for $5,500
http://www.shopfsi.com/productDetails.asp?ProductCode=CM240

Any insight / experience or ideas on this greatly appreciated.
 
Definitely get something with the newer architecture E5 v3 Haswell. HP is shipping the new workstations in about a month. Then again maybe Assimilate hasn't certified the new ones and maybe you really want certified hardware for whatever reason? I'm sure they will. Frankly if you are spending $10k, you should probably be able to get 16-28cores at faster clock and more efficient architecture...

You need to playback 4K uncompressed in realtime? How many streams? You may need a lot more than a 5x2TB RAID if you are thinking about uncompressed RAW or especially DPX/TIF, and 10TB seems a little small for some kinds of content (long-form uncompressed 4k for sure). And you'll likely need even more if you want RAID5 or 6 or need extra for backups. That's like 5hrs of 4K uncompressed RAW storage or 2.5hrs of 4K DPX. Granted it will go a lot further if you avoid uncompressed 4k formats.

What kind of content/projects are you expecting? Commercial, TV, Feature film?

The big question is what software you'll want to use on it, since there are very significant concerns and optimized hardware for certain applications. Are you primarily focused on Scratch? Or will you be using Resolve?

Also are you sure it comes with Scratch for $10k? Doesn't Scratch permanent license cost $20K+? Looks like there might be something wrong with that listing since I don't see a significant difference between that $10k listing and the $22k workstation with the same specs.
 
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Noah,
System would want be able to finish a feature length but mostly used for shortform. Good point on the drive space needed to finish in uncompressed. I don't foresse a lot of uncompressed features coming through, but you never know. The first independent film we have lined up would be a 2 hour feature film shot on Red Epic (5K, not sure what compression the .r3d's are at)

We are not restricted by software at all, though I know Resolve, we would be open to utilizing the best software to achieve and fit within budget. I plan to pick the brain of a friend of mine who is the owner / operator of a Mystica. He primarily deals in the realm of 3D, but my point is we are totally open to the best Software platform to handle our needs. Though in the back of my mind I'd like to focus on Resolve or Scratch, if there was this powerful Lustre system that did what we needed and our price point. We'd be open. Obviously needs are that it can handle uncompressed 7Q 4K, 4K pro res, Arriraw, .r3d. Anything we throw at it really. And it's gotta be responsive for supervised sessions.

I don't see compositing being a huge aspect for the business. Mostly single stream, color correction for live-action based footage. (Though for safety would want to be able to handle 2 streams)

You brought up some very good points regarding drive space issues and backup. I did not budget for back-up.
 
If you're gonna spend that amount. Talk with ADK video editing. Ask for Eric. They're the best at helping you build a system. They're always benchmarking and testing hardware for today's high end imaging. I don't work for them or anything, they help me with all my computer needs. They sell Macs too, so they're not biased towards pc's. For $10 g's they would be the first ones I call. Might even save you some cash too
 
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