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By Chris Blair

For our first 11 years in business, we used direct attached storage for reading and writing files on our computer systems. But in early 2008, we switched to an enterprise level, network attached system (NAS) for project and media files. The reasons for the switch were varied, but the biggest was to improve productivity and efficiency.

With direct storage, we often worked on multiple client projects simultaneously where employees needed access to the same media. So if two people were working on projects for the same client using the same media, all that data had to be on both computer systems. Multiply that across four workstations and we spent a tremendous amount of time copying, transferring and backing up files. That workflow translated into wasted drive space, slow transfers and lost productivity from the time it took to move all that data.

You might ask, “why didn’t we already use shared storage in our workflow”; The answer, like most things in life… money. Before about 2007, it was just too darn expensive. Up until then, direct storage was the fastest and most affordable way to move large files…and in our business, speed is critical. Plus, our entire office was wired with a 10/100 ethernet system that was inadequate for the speeds we needed.

Here’s where it got interesting. I must’ve spent 2 months researching shared storage options with an eye on systems designed for real-time capture and playback of broadcast quality video and audio. The system had to have easy administration (since I’m not an IT person) and had to handle many file types. But before I could evaluate systems, I had to first learn the difference between the various shared storage options (and there are many). The two most widely used are Storage Area Network or SAN, and the previously mentioned Network Attached Storage or NAS. Others gaining popularity include iSCSI, SATA over Ethernet (called AoE), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), HyperSCSI…well you get the idea! It was more than just a little confusing.

For this post, I’ll just stick to NAS and SAN systems since they’re the most common. Just understanding how they worked was a daunting and confusing journey.

SAN

 SAN systems typically use fibre channel to move data. That means you cannot use existing ethernet cabling in your building. So before you spend a dime on storage, you have to run new cabling, buy new fibre channel data switches (similar to an ethernet switch), and buy and install new fibre channel network cards in your computer workstations. Sound expensive? It is. Then you need a SAN computer server with 12-24 striped SATA drives. Sound more expensive? Yup…it is. A decent SAN system typically costs $50,000 and up and it’s not unusual for them to cost over $100,000. Worse, they’re difficult to set-up and administer and require third-party software to facilitate the type of file-sharing we all take for granted using typical office networks.

NAS

NAS systems can use existing ethernet cabling (Category 5e and up), usually require a multi-port, managed gigabit ethernet switch (ours has 48 ports), gigabit ethernet network cards in workstations and a multi-port gigabit ethernet card in the storage server. All of which are way cheaper than fibre channel hardware.  However, a fast, reliable NAS system (especially for video editing) is still not cheap by today’s storage standards. Our NAS system cost a little over $15,000, including a new ethernet switch, new ethernet cards, a 4TB media storage server, a 2TB project server, a 4TB backup drive and a sturdy metal rack to hold all the rack-mountable hardware.

The truly frustrating part of making a purchase decision was all the misinformation that exists about high-speed, broadcast capable shared storage systems. There are many companies that claim they design and sell these type of systems, but in reality, there are probably less than 10 that actually know what they’re doing. Some were just way out of our league when it came to cost, often dealing only in SAN based systems with prices starting at $50,000. So the options dwindled to less than a handful when it came to companies making NAS based systems that could truly deliver real-time streams of broadcast quality video across multiple workstations. The fact that we’re a Windows based company in a decidedly Mac-centric industry made it even more difficult. In my opinion, the company we chose, Apace Systems is the best of the bunch by a long shot!

Our system uses the specialized vStor 4TB network media server from Apace Systems for all video and audio files, a 2TB (LaCie) network drive for project storage (video timelines, photoshop files, InDesign layouts etc.), and a 4TB (LaCie) network backup drive.

The vStor system is specifically designed for the rigors of video production, providing as many as 12 streams of broadcast quality standard definition video across our 4 connected edit systems. It can also deliver multiple streams (4-6) of DVCPro100, Cineform or Apple ProRes HD. It’s truly an amazing product that delivers on ALL its company’s performance claims. We haven’t experienced ANY down-time since it was installed in February 2008. That’s 30 months of 24/7 operation without a single corrupt file, system lock-up or hiccup of ANY kind. In fact, it has only been turned off twice in that time, both after storm related power failures. We just power it back up and we’re back to working in minutes.

Apace also spent hours on the phone via Go To Meeting setting up the software portion of the system, which controls how your various workstations connect. We had to install the hardware ourselves, but it was pretty straightforward.

First, we placed the unit in a rack and connected cables from our 4 main workstations to our new switch. From the switch, the workstations were routed to the four-port gigabit ethernet card on the vStor. That’s it! The only drawback is the vStor is big, heavy and loud, so it had to be put in a large, well-ventilated closet (where our phone system was already installed), and we added sound adsorption foam to dampen the noise. You CANNOT place the vStor anywhere near your editing suites because of the noise it generates.

Other unique features of the vStor are automated defragmenting routines on the drives (which occurs when the system is idle); RAID 5 formatting, which means if one drive fails, all your data can be rebuilt once a replacement drive is installed. They even included an extra drive in the purchase price, so if we have a failure, we have an identical replacement ready to install.

I cannot say enough good things about Apace. Their product and customer support are outstanding. Plus, their reseller (IEEE in California) provided great pre-sales support and was by far the most knowledgeable of all the various sales representatives I talked to from shared video storage companies.

The LaCie drives have been almost as reliable as the vStor, with just a few quirky sharing and permission issues when rebooting from power failures. Of course the LaCie drives aren’t nearly as fast or robust as the vStor, but they cost about 80% less than it did. They are fast-enough, but if I had to design a system again, I’d look for a faster array for the main project drive. I’d keep the LaCie network drives for backup purposes, since they are definitely workhorses and are plenty fast for backup.

Speaking of speed…the LaCie’s average about 25MB/sec both read and write, while the vStor delivers about 95MB/sec read and 65MB/sec write when the unit is 25% full or less. As the drive fills up, speeds slow down, with read speeds coming in at about 75-85MB/sec and writes at about 45-50MB/sec. But that’s still fast enough to capture uncompressed standard definition video across two workstations simultaneously, and deliver 10-12 streams of DVCPro50 video across all our workstations, which means we can get multiple streams in real-time across all 4 edit systems. We typically use 3 of the systems for traditional digital editing and the fourth for compositing, so we actually can edit with up to 4 real-time streams in the 3 main suites even if all three are in use at the same time.

Apace systems are also capable of delivering multiple streams of compressed HD, including Apple ProRes, Cineform, DVCPro100 and AVID DNxHD.

But we rarely need that level of performance since most of our projects are SD and typically use just a couple of video channels in the majority of the timeline. But even under heavy use, we virtually never see a hiccup in the playback of video streams, or have a need to render since our trusty Harris VelocityQ editing systems can deliver 4 compressed streams of SD video in real-time. We also easily edit HD video projects using this system, but naturally, there is less real-time performance.

All in all, investing in high-speed, enterprise class shared storage was one of the best things we’ve ever done from a technology standpoint. It speeds work-flow, makes backing up files easier, and requires far less administration or maintenance than it took to keep half a dozen separate SCSI arrays running smoothly.

Filed under: Computers, Production Techniques on August 22nd, 2010