Tethered recording with Komodo?

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Use case: recording R3Ds to external media from a Komodo. Ideally, direct ingest to a big RAID.

On DSMC2 it's possible to use the ethernet adapter for off board recording. Due to bandwidth limitations it requires more compression than recording to an on board RedMag, but it does work reliably. Would like to use Komodos for tethered recording, but as far as I can tell, the wireless Komodo Link is the only supported option. RF interference, especially in the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands the Komodo Link supports, would make recording a clean signal with no frame or packet loss virtually impossible.

Since this is RedUser, and I know RED is always interested in what people might want to do with their cameras, I have a thought...

The 12g SDI port certainly has the theoretical bandwidth to support a 280MB/s signal. Could it be used for R3Ds? Could you switch between the SMPTE 2084 RGB output and an R3D bitstream in the menu? Clearly the camera is creating that R3D bitstream to write onto the internal CFast 2.0 media, so it's there. What it would take to support routing that to the SDI port I don't know.

IAC, curious if this is something the RedTeam is considering. Some RedUsers would certainly be interested, others already stopped reading ;-)...

Cheers - #19

 

[M Harvey]

I don't know if you're generally interested in recording to external media, or really just specifically want to know if possible over SDI, but you could also consider a Cfast-to-SSD adapter device. They make them for Blackmagic cameras, not sure if anyone has tested with a Komodo...

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Found a company, Zitay, that offers a CFast "dummy" card tethered to an external SSD.

https://www.zitay.net/CFAST-to-SSD-c21055.html

Now, if they can go from the "dummy" card to a 10GigE port instead of an SSD... Then I can, theoretically, feed R3Ds to a fast RAID all day long. In reality, signal loss might be an issue, but if that can be overcome...

Cheers - #19

 

[Thomas B.]

Would be interesting to know if your use case can be solved with Komodo Link Adapter. R3D file transfer via USB-C to Ethernet Adapter Cable should work, but if GigE speeds is not sufficient for recording then could it work to record externally via USB-C?
RED has added some more information in the product description. https://www.red.com/red-komodo-link-adaptor

 

[Jeff Whitehurst]

I've had a very good experience with Canon C200s and the SolidPod. The new slim version claims compatibility with Komodo. How that might connect to enable live capture to RAID I cannot say.
Hope it helps, Jeff

https://store.n.ki/products/solidpod-slim

 

[M Harvey]

Now, if they can go from the "dummy" card to a 10GigE port instead of an SSD...

Yes, that's the type of device I was talking about (Jeff below mentions another that has nice rigging options). Do you know of any msata-to-ethernet adapters? Would love to know what you find.

@Thomas B. --would be pretty cool if the Komodo Link Adapter were able to do this. I'm not sure if it allows "live" transfers, though-- the protocol is described as "FTPS," and the description on RED's page is "Download R3D or ProRes media files" (which suggests to me completed files, since I imagine they'd otherwise be advertising this capability in a big way, but who knows). There's some discussion of FTP transfers in the thread on firmware 1.5. Anyone given this a try?

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

According to RED's documentation (thanx Thomas B.), the Komodo Link Adapter, with a USB-C to Ethernet adapter, would work for transferring files after a clip is created @ up to 125MB/s. The max write speed of the Komodo is 280MB/s, so presumably transfers would take 2.3x real time or less. Obviously real world conditions might impact that, but as long as I can use 2.5x as a conservative rule of thumb, that would mean I need 10 minutes to move 4 minutes of footy. That's viable in most production scenarios.

Theoretically, if you used the LQ setting you might be able to get the data rate low enough to transfer on the fly. The manual does not indicate support for live recording, which isn't surprising since there would be the risk of dropped frames. It would be nice to have as a feature, but would need a BIG ASS warning about the dangers.

If anyone out there is using the Komodo Link Adapter, to a USB-C to Ethernet adapter, to an Ethernet network - please share your notes with the RedUser community. Thanx.

Cheers - #19