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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

New LTO4-A drive

since these tapes will be able to be read by regular LTO4 drives, my interest is there for sure. a little pricey yes, but much more feature rich and more flexible which works for me. how fast will the transfer times be for LTO4? same as normal LTO4 devices?

also, will you have a rackmount option?

and.....when will it be available?

last question.....i assume these will write to LTO3 tape as well. if so, will the LTO3 tape also be readable by any other non-A LTO3 drive???

thanks.....
 
JanneJansson said:
Pass, I can get a box full of WD 2TB drives for that. .. and the rw GMR head is in a dust proof place also.
Click to expand...

If you want to trust your data to a disk drive sitting on the shelf, you should understand that while the head is dust proof and the data is well and truly encased in a block of aluminum, you may still not be able to get it to spin up after it sits for a few years.

In my experience consulting to Quantum for 4 years, I've seen many HDD converts to data tape because one of their disks wouldn't work after being stored. You can always go to "drive savers" to recover the data, but pay for that once (not to mention the inconvenience and turn-around time) and you will will convert too.

There is a reason why banks, insurance companies and medical records are all archived on data tape...
 
Chris Parker said:
how fast will the transfer times be for LTO4? same as normal LTO4 devices?

also, will you have a rackmount option?

and.....when will it be available?

last question.....i assume these will write to LTO3 tape as well. if so, will the LTO3 tape also be readable by any other non-A LTO3 drive???
Click to expand...

Transfer rates will depend on network configuration, connection technology (we support NFS, SMB, afp, and FTP) and the speed of your source machine. We know we can hit better than 50MB/s with FTP and will have more benchmark stats as we complete our development and testing. We also expect faster yet with direct connected devices in later products.

While you can hit better rates by putting an LTO inside your Mac Pro, if you try to archive data from any other machine on the network, you won't come near our performance assuming you even figure our a convenient way to do this.

We will have a rackmount unit available by year end.

Yes, we will read and write LTO-3 tapes, also tar compatible with non-A LTO-3 drives. Because we are under license from them, we will even back-read Quantum's proprietary LTO-3A tapes!
 
A-Series said:
Yes, we will read and write LTO-3 tapes, also tar compatible with non-A LTO-3 drives. Because we are under license from them, we will even back-read Quantum's proprietary LTO-3A tapes!
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And this feature alone is significant for a facility. One deck that reads whatever LTO tape someone has ... LTO3, LTO3A, LTO4 and now LTO4A.
 
Very nice LTO4-A solution...well worth considering.

I have a peripheral question: We do a lot of real mobile production, sometimes not being able to get back to the studio for weeks on end. On the road we back up to redundant drives, mail one back to the studio, and keep the second drive with us. I'm looking for a small, mobile, affordable, plug and play, LTO drive that is easily transportable, that can run off a MacBook Pro, and has an option for battery and/or solar power if we're remote.

I see its been mentioned you can put LTO inside a MacBook Pro. How robust and dependable is that? Options there?

There's a lot of mobile production being done, and I think such a product would do well with owners/users of today's digital cinema cameras. Maybe there are products like that already made. Ideas or solutions?
 
i take my lto3-a drive on the road all the time. not battery powered, but you could always do the tape backup in the hotel at night, or wherever you have power (which is where your camera batteries would be charging). these are plug and play with laptops, as i assume this lto4-a would be......
 
Chris Parker said:
i take my lto3-a drive on the road all the time. not battery powered, but you could always do the tape backup in the hotel at night, or wherever you have power (which is where your camera batteries would be charging). these are plug and play with laptops, as i assume this lto4-a would be......
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Thanks Chris. I've been using LTO3A at the studio, and am about to upgrade to LTO4-A, and the unit featured on this thread looks like a good solution for that.

How large/heavy is your LTO3-A drive you take on the road? Is it the best solution for mobile LTO BU you've found?
 
Thanks for that info Zak. I would like to see pictures of that case. Please PM me and I'll ping you back my email address...

Thanks!
 
A-Series said:
Yes, we will read and write LTO-3 tapes, also tar compatible with non-A LTO-3 drives. Because we are under license from them, we will even back-read Quantum's proprietary LTO-3A tapes!
Click to expand...

Excellent! And that begs the question of interfacing with these tape systems. I'm hoping it won't be a big deal for software vendors to incorporate support into existing backup software so we can read existing tape archives.
 
The initial product will be about the same volume as the Quantum LTO-3A perhaps slightly more portable but 110/220 powered. We're looking a doing a mobile version - I like the solar idea but that may be just a bit impractical! A 12VDC version is certainly do-able.

Keep those ideas percolatin'
 
Gibby,

The LTO3A I have now is not super small, but it has travelled well with me. i keep it safe and as vibration free as possible, but it seems more rugged than the manual would have you believe.

For me, if I were shooting in a remote location, say the Saudi desert (shot there several times) i would not take that deck into the field with me, but rather do my LTO backups at night in my hotel.

For me, battery power is no big deal, as I couldn't think of a situation where I REALLY needed it that bad.
 
Chris Parker said:
Gibby,

The LTO3A I have now is not super small, but it has travelled well with me. i keep it safe and as vibration free as possible, but it seems more rugged than the manual would have you believe.

For me, if I were shooting in a remote location, say the Saudi desert (shot there several times) i would not take that deck into the field with me, but rather do my LTO backups at night in my hotel.

For me, battery power is no big deal, as I couldn't think of a situation where I REALLY needed it that bad.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input Chris...and Tom...

For certain genres we do - some wildlife, adventure travel, nature shows - we're remote for a few weeks at a time. There is no hotel to go back to - and naturally no AC power accessibility. Carrying (and protecting) a bunch of drives out into a situation like that is a logistical nightmare. A small, portable LTO drive, with a battery power option, and a way to use solar collector panels to charge the batteries, would solve that nightmare - it would much easier to carry and care for than a bunch of drives. We already charge camera batteries with solar collectors in certain situations, so also charging LTO batteries shouldn't be a problem.

If its just a few days remote, then sometimes we'll just bring along a few extra RED Drives into the boonies/bush - ration out our shots on the drives - and then back it all up when we get back to civilization.

An LTO drive manufacturer naturally wouldn't manufacture all those mobile LTO components (drive, battery, solar collectors), but if someone would just make a real compact LTO drive, we have a lot of 3rd party options for the battery and solar collector panels.

With LTO drives being originally designed for mainstream businesses, there wasn't a real need for mobile backup options (small, mobile drives). But now that LTO drives are a mainstay for backup by camera owners like RED, and other small businesses, it may be time fore someone to roll out a truly small, mobile LTO drive. Just thinking out loud, any kind of mobile production, even ones who are mobile, but don't go out remote, could benefit from having a real small LTO backup drive to carry along, instead of a suitcase full of hard drives.

When we get back to the studio, this Cache-A drive looks to be an excellent solution though.
 
Tom,

Any ideas yet whether this solution will be compatible with Final Cut Server? So far there's no clear solution for automated archival out of FCSVR and Apple and Quantum will only say 'eventually'.

Looks like a great option otherwise. When do the first units begin to ship?

Cheers,
Dan
 
i now see your point gibby. sounds like that would be a handy solution for you if it existed. i am not sure the lto manufacturers would ever make it based on the size of that market.

i too would like a RUGGED (if not super portable) LTO option to come out. one that can be banged around a little without fear of damage.
 
Dan Graetz said:
Tom,

Any ideas yet whether this solution will be compatible with Final Cut Server? So far there's no clear solution for automated archival out of FCSVR and Apple and Quantum will only say 'eventually'.

Looks like a great option otherwise. When do the first units begin to ship?

Cheers,
Dan
Click to expand...

We will have some work to do for FCS but it is on our roadmap. There may be some inherent additional synergy between our system and FCS vs. Quantum and FCS because of our internal catalog database. Sorry, but this will be later this year.

First units are expected to ship by the end of May.

Thanks for the interest!
 
I would love it, if these things are plug and play, to do the back up myself on location. But I don't know if it is worth it when we could get it done once a week or every two weeks and hold the footage in our RAID-6 till then. The issue is that out LTO people would be about 3hs driving from out location... I am sure we'll find a good solution... still a portable, rugged and AFFORDABLE version of these would sell very well, allowing most productions to rent one along with their camera packages...
 
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