Field Workflow with Network Attached Storage

V

va-vid

Member
I shoot in the boonies with a big pack and two 64 GB P2 cards in my 170. I'll be starting multiple day trips soon and need fast, but reasonably priced downloads at night in the hotel. Here is my new idea to balance speed and cost. I'm looking for a reality check before plunking $.

1. Plug P2 card in PC laptop w/ pcmcia slot and 1000 Mbs network direct connected to a relatively small two drive raid 1 NAS. They were configured to work directly together at the studio. If I use 6 Gbs SATA drives in the 3 Gbs SATA NAS, it should be able to absorb data from the card as fast as the PCMCIA bus will theoretically allow. I get an automatic backup since we are raid 1. When 6 Gbs SATA gets more hardware out their, I just replace the NAS box.

2. Back home in the studio, I reconfigure the NAS to live on a standard peer-to-peer 1000 Mbs network. Files are then dumped direct to the MAC PRO over the network. I figure this will be painful the first time, then I'll have the process down and it should work well.

3. BIG QUESTION - what am I over looking here? will I really see the speed increase I so desperately want with 128 GB of DVCPRO to download in time for me to get some sleep?
 
Check out the Maxell iVDR system. You can record and encode directly to swapable ruggedized HDDs with the VC102. Or download at the end of the day. I have the Xtreme adapter and a couple of drives and the stuff works really well and is pretty fast going direct via cam-host firewire mode. Not a raid, but really nice hardware.

Note: the Xtreme adapter doesn't run on the battery, only the VC102. But, the Xtreme can be usb powered or by wallwort. 500GB drives are coming.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=maxell+iDVR&N=0&InitialSearch=yes

Regards,
Grant
 
Field workflow, NAS

Field workflow, NAS

Thanks for the link. It looks like a solid unit, but is similar to a Lacie I have already. I'm trying to get a mirrored solution so I automatically get a backup in the same time as making only one copy, and hopefully faster than a typical USB drive.

How long does it take you to download a 32 GB card?
 
Note the iVDR unit uses firewire for download from a P2 cam. USB is an option, but can also power the unit. I haven't timed my unit, but my estimate is 2GB/min.

Did you read that the drives are mil-spec for some pretty rugged conditions? Maybe LaCie makes rugged HDD but they don't have a sterling reputation in these parts.

For a mirrored solution, check this out:

http://www.imagineproducts.com/

Regards,
Grant
 
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