Setting up an Avid group editing system using Evo storage array

[Brian Merlen]

We just got an Evo in at my job and currently we have it with three partitions. We have one NAS partition and two SAN partitions currently set up and configured.

According to my boss my Avid project files, renders, titles, sequences, and such should be created on to the NAS partition.

The two San partitions are for media, DNxHD175 X (10 bit) will be offloaded to either SAN. One is for stock reusable shots, the other is for client specific non reusable footage is our current system we intend to implement. So I will be running bnc from a Scarlet to Avid and will direct it on the fly using the capture tool as to which SAN to dump which shot.

My first question is if I set up the project this way as far as directing stuff where to go, do I set the project to "shared" or "external" when I create it?

Also is it really as simple as its being described to me, in that I direct the stuff to the right partitions and now it will work for group editing? We have 5 edit bays, one for capture, one for assistant duties, syncing dual sound, cutting VO's, encodes, uploads, stuff like that, and then three full time edit bays.

The Evo is set up and good to go, but I just wanted to make sure I set up the Avid project correctly since I typically edit in a non group environment I figured asking for clarification couldn't hurt me....

THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS IN ADVANCE!

 

[Jason Diamond]

If you don't have a qualified SAN that enables the Unity style collaborative editing in AVID you will end up with shared storage but no project sharing. meaning only one person can open the project at once vs the Unity style where multiple systems work on the same project and the server manages the bins and content from being overwritten etc...

Not sure of the total features of the EVO but i thought it was mainly Storage.

 

[Brian Merlen]

http://www.studionetworksolutions.com/evo/solutions/

From what I read they now offer native avid project and bin sharing. One of their reps was very helpful setting up their product as well as getting me started on what is needed to reconnect our former storage. Our former storage is some newegg built system that is full and since we needed to move forward anyway we want to have shared projects.

We are shooting ten hour days 8am starting Monday, so I would love to have the shared system working so that they can cut it as it comes in. I am not really an IT guy, more of just and editor/media manager/nerd in training but Evo got me most of the way there. The drives are made and supposedly formatted right to make this work and they are aware of our workflow.

But seeing as I never even worked on an shared project before, nor configured one I was looking for advice if possible... Thanks!

 

[Brian Merlen]

So I set it all up and it works, and rocks!

But when I tried capturing tethered to my Avid it crashed out... Supposedly its a Media Composer bug, and we are going to update to 6.53 on Monday...will post an update then...

But from what I have seen so far, I am quite impressed with the SNS Evo system and once we get it 100 percent this thing is going to kick some major post booty!:emote_happyhappy:

 

[Brian Merlen]

Ok, we updated all 5 of our Avid machines and still have the capture bug. It says the following when capturing and crashes. We run a Scarlet to a black magic multibridge pro to convert the true progressive signal to PsF and then bring it into our tethered Avid which is hooked to a 40TB array. The old ARC arrays capture it just fine but when I try putting my project, bins and media on the Evo it crashes out and does the following error message, any help would be hugely appreciated I have been trying to get it going with Evo tech support but am still having issues and not sure where they are coming from.... Figure it has to be the Evo since the ARC non shared arrays work fine...But our whole point of going with the Evo was to turn this into a Unity like work place so its quite annoying that our tethered Red is not working with the new storage and I am desperate for ideas at this point...


Assertion failed: 0 <= slot && slot < mNumSamps
File: ..\..\src\RequestList.cpp, Line: 1056

 

[Marc Wielage]

With a system this complex, you need to get an Avid Certified Service Representative account and paid support:

http://www.avid.com/us/support/support-contact
800-998-2843

Strictly IMHO.

 

[Brian Merlen]

We might end up doing that, but for now they have ordered a black magic decklink sdi capture card and are going to try substituting that for the black magic multibridge pro that we use to see if newer hardware helps...

we have already hired an avid tech to look over the whole system next week, so if the problem is still there hopefully he can solve it, but I am going to probably get the capture card in tomorrow from BHphoto and will give that a whirl first...