It’s not all that often my jaw just drops, but today was the exception. Steve Modica, Corky Seeber and Alan Butler brought Small Tree Communications’ newest toy by the shop today. The all new Titanium 4, an incredible new concept in portable shared storage awesome for both in the studio and on the go at an awesome price point.
It’s kind of like an oversized lunchbox, not all that large at all. Inside this box is the computer, the ethernet switch (four ports) and four hard drive slots where you can put the drives of your choice in there. With 4TB drives now available you can have up to 16TB of storage inside this box with up to 4 computers sharing the media, in realtime. No complicated software to install, just connect the computers, set up a few settings and start editing.
Ok, this shot is sideways but you can see the four ethernet ports on the back of the machine, that’s where you connect your four computers. Laptops, desktops, Macs, PCs, whatever, this is exactly like the full sized system we use in our shop, except it’s fully contained inside one box.
This is not only an AWESOME step up not only for remote field production but even for small to mid sized companies. How many of you home-based editors have at least two computers you use daily? Most of you have a desktop and a laptop in use. Well, now connect both of those computers to your media array as you need and be more efficient.
Corporate / Church production divisions that have up to 4 workstations, here’s your shared storage solution in a box. Just run Cat 6 Ethernet cable from your computer to the box and go.
Steve Modica and the entire team at Small Tree should really be proud of this one. If I could have designed a portable shared storage system, it would not be this good.
And here’s the best part. The 8TB version is UNDER $7,500. Keep in mind this is the computer, the ethernet switch and the media IN ONE BOX. So you’re getting the computer to manage the system, the ethernet switch for four clients and the media storage for that price. That’s less than me purchasing a Mac Pro right now plus an 8TB RAID and the Ethernet Switch as stand alone items.
I honestly have to say, Small Tree has hit an absolute, out of the park, home run with this concept. I cannot wait till we get a test unit in the shop to start hammering on.
Oh and it’s not vaporware, it’s available right now, today. Read all about it on Small Tree’s website.