Read about them here

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Studio Network Solutions EVO 48TB Online Media Storage (black) along with our original Small Tree 48TB system now operating as our near-line Archive. 96TB in about 6 rack units!

The Studio Network Solutions EVO line includes a ShareBrowser tool which allows us to manage the system quite easily and does away with a lot of OS X and Windows permissions issues we’ve experience in the past.   All User prefs are set via the administration tools and individual users can lock individual files as they’re working if need be.   This adds a whole new level of efficiency and control for us.

Here’s a look at the basic NAS and Project Sharing panel where we can set who has access to which volumes and even down to projects.

You can see we have broken the 48TB down into four partitions, EVO 1 – 4.   We do that to make it easier to manage the system and also from time to time we can wipe out a partition to completely erase it giving it a clean, fresh directory.   Over on the right you can see “Users.”   Clicking that brings up the main User Management controls.

Here’s the User Management controls for EVO 1 and how we can do a very simple, top level “Allow / Deny” access.  We can also assign whether the user will connect afp or smb depending on how your network is configured.  In our case all the Macs connect afp while the Windows system connects smb.   The user names you see here correspond to our systems and not individual users, however you can set up individual users if you’d like.   What this really does is takes away permission settings from the Mac and Windows OS where we have run into some stumbling blocks trying to get things to work cross platform.  In fact permissions issues just from Mac to Mac were causing some issues.   Now everything is set and managed within the EVO Browser.

Here’s the EVO ShareBrowser on Mac.  This gets installed on every client workstation and this is how you mount / unmount all the volumes and also do the tagging and keywords.

And here it is on Windows.

You can see they pretty much look the same and you can also see one of the locking features of the EVO Browser in the Windows image.  The Premiere Pro project file is locked and controlled by Edit 3.  This both allows two editors to use the file at the same time and ensures that they will not overwrite each other’s work.    You can read more about this in another recent blog “Two Editors, One Adobe Premiere Pro Project File.”

You’ll also notice on both the Mac and Windows systems, all the connected drives to the computers systems show up and can be indexed and managed by the EVO ShareBrowser.   The software is not wholly connected to just the EVO storage.  So we can Asset Manage all of our media through the EVO ShareBrowser system if we so choose.

Here’s a very simple example of tagging assets through the ShareBrowser.

I’ve got the folder selected and on the right side of the screen you can see the windows for Tags and Comments.   These are exactly what you think they are.   Simple asset management to tag and keyword all assets from folder level down to file level to make for much easier location and retrieval later.

Now the tags have been added to that folder and now those are searchable elements to retrieve those assets later.   The Tags and Comments can also be exported as an XML and brought into Adobe Premiere Pro and other NLEs.   This is a very high level asset management system.  In no way does this replace full asset management systems like CatDV or Axle which are both very in depth products.   There is also no way to generate a proxy directly through the EVO, this would be done with a third party software.  But for a first level, very simple “Tag the assets as they are loaded” this is an awesome addition with minimal training required.   With the coming of Contemporary Living Network and the sheer amount of data we’ll be dealing with when that launches, this will be a great first step asset management tool for the initial tagging of the assets.

The system runs on both 10GigE and GigE and we have it running through our existing Small Tree 10gig Switch to all our workstations.  For systems that have an internal 10gig card, we’re seeing Read speeds top 700MB/s.   For those with external boxes, like the iMacs with a 10Gig to Thunderbolt adapter, we’re seeing Read speeds top 300MB/s.  This is all in early testing as anyone will tell you, the Write / Read speeds off any test only give you part of the story.   The efficiency and video playback is wholly dependent on how the entire system is configured.   We’re good playing back and editing both HD and UHD on this system.

We’re pretty excited to bring this system online, not only for the boost in our storage capacity, but for the new way to manage the media across our entire network.  It’s going to really enhance the way we work with your projects.   There is a LOT of control for management of the shared storage and if you really want to know the nitty gritty, reach out to the guys at SNS for more details.    Better yet, if you’re going to be at the NAB Show 2015, you can find them at Booth SL12413.  In fact, BCM Founder, Walter Biscardi, Jr will be at the booth most of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday of the show.  So come on by,  say hello and let’s talk Shared Storage and Editing.

Of course if you’d like to see the system here, well give us a shout and come on out to the shop.  Molly the Wonder Dog would love to show you how the new system looks in person.

[hr]

BISCARDI CREATIVE MEDIA is a full service digital media production company near Atlanta, Georgia with services that include Video Production, Sound Production, Sound Mixing, Graphic Design, Animation, Post Production, Video Editing, Color Grading, Finishing, Digital Asset Transfer, Digitizing and Archiving. Quite simply we’re the people who make video and media production easy for you.   No technobabble.  Just clear, concise and creative content delivered where and how you need it, on time and on budget.  Office and production space is also available for short and long term projects

The post New Shared Storage / Media Asset Management System Online! appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Studio Network Solutions EVO 48TB Online Media Storage (black) along with our original Small Tree 48TB system now operating as our near-line Archive. 96TB in about 6 rack units!

The Studio Network Solutions EVO line includes a ShareBrowser tool which allows us to manage the system quite easily and does away with a lot of OS X and Windows permissions issues we’ve experience in the past.   All User prefs are set via the administration tools and individual users can lock individual files as they’re working if need be.   This adds a whole new level of efficiency and control for us.

Here’s a look at the basic NAS and Project Sharing panel, which is web browser based, where we can set who has access to which volumes and even down to projects.

You can see we have broken the 48TB down into four partitions, EVO 1 – 4.   We do that to make it easier to manage the system and also from time to time we can wipe out a partition to completely erase it giving it a clean, fresh directory.   Over on the right you can see “Users.”   Clicking that brings up the main User Management controls.

Here’s the User Management controls for EVO 1 and how we can do a very simple, top level “Allow / Deny” access.  We can also assign whether the user will connect afp or smb depending on how your network is configured.  In our case all the Macs connect afp while the Windows system connects smb.   The user names you see here correspond to our systems and not individual users, however you can set up individual users if you’d like.   What this really does is takes away permission settings from the Mac and Windows OS where we have run into some stumbling blocks trying to get things to work cross platform.  In fact permissions issues just from Mac to Mac were causing some issues.   Now everything is set and managed within the EVO Browser.

Here’s the EVO ShareBrowser on Mac.  This application gets installed on every client workstation and this is how you mount / unmount all the volumes and also do the tagging and keywords.

And here it is on Windows.

You can see they pretty much look the same and you can also see one of the locking features of the EVO Browser in the Windows image.  The Premiere Pro project file is locked and controlled by Edit 3.  This both allows two editors to use the file at the same time and ensures that they will not overwrite each other’s work.    You can read more about this in another recent blog “Two Editors, One Adobe Premiere Pro Project File.”

You’ll also notice on both the Mac and Windows systems, all the connected drives to the computers systems show up and can be indexed and managed by the EVO ShareBrowser.   The software is not wholly connected to just the EVO storage.  So we can Asset Manage all of our media through the EVO ShareBrowser system if we so choose.

Here’s a very simple example of tagging assets through the ShareBrowser.

I’ve got the folder selected and on the right side of the screen you can see the windows for Tags and Comments.   These are exactly what you think they are.   Simple asset management to tag and keyword all assets from folder level down to file level to make for much easier location and retrieval later.

Now the tags have been added to that folder and now those are searchable elements to retrieve those assets later.   The Tags and Comments can also be exported as an XML and brought into Adobe Premiere Pro and other NLEs.   This is a very high level asset management system.  In no way does this replace full asset management systems like CatDV or Axle which are both very in depth products.   There is also no way to generate a proxy directly through the EVO, this would be done with a third party software.  But for a first level, very simple “Tag the assets as they are loaded” this is an awesome addition with minimal training required.   With the coming of Contemporary Living Network and the sheer amount of data we’ll be dealing with when that launches, this will be a great first step asset management tool for the initial tagging of the assets.

When you quit out of the ShareBrowser, you’re presented with an option to manually change the locking status of your projects.  

If you’re done for the day and you want to open up your files to be used / altered by others you can do so.  But remember, there are administrative controls that still supersede what an individual user can unlock.   

You can login to the system from outside the facility via the web browser too to manage the system.   This is especially great for weekend and evening management allowing the administrator to work from wherever they are and not have to run back into the shop.  Overall the asset management controls are perfect and quite simple for any multi-user shop.  Assigned file types can automatically be locked, such as Projects, to ensure that they don’t get accidentally changed.   If you’re running a shared storage setup, this is super easy, super simple to get going with.  

The one thing SNS needs to work on is consolidating their interfaces.   Right now there are two Admin control interfaces, one web based and one application based.  Each has a certain set of controls that they operate which is a bit cumbersome.  Having both a web interface and an application version is a great idea since, as I just mentioned, you can log in from outside the shop to make admin changes.  And when you’re in the shop, you can run the app which does operate faster.  But both Admin control interfaces should have the exact same controls no matter how you log in so I don’t have to remember “now which Admin controller do I need to log in to for adding a User?”   There’s also some tweaks that need to be made to bring commonly needed controls more to the front of the interfaces rather than being buried a bit.   It’s a common “engineer is trying to protect the end user from making mistakes” syndrome that we see all the time.   We’re professionals, just put the “big obvious button” in front of us and let us make the changes quickly.   Yeah, we’ll make mistakes along the way, but that’s ok.  The ShareBrowser is just a single interface so that’s good.   I’m looking forward to chatting with the SNS team to see what changes are on the way and what we can do to help streamline the Admin controls.   Just having these simple interfaces is really a wonderful thing when all you want to do is get into the storage, make the change and get right back to creating.  Especially smaller shops like ours where I’m the editor, animator, writer, engineer, barista, and producer all in one.

The system runs on both 10GigE and GigE and we have it running through our existing Small Tree 10gig Switch to all our workstations.  For systems that have an internal 10gig card, we’re seeing Read speeds top 700MB/s.   For those with external boxes, like the iMacs with a 10Gig to Thunderbolt adapter, we’re seeing Read speeds top 300MB/s.  This is all in early testing as anyone will tell you, the Write / Read speeds off any test only give you part of the story.   The efficiency and video playback is wholly dependent on how the entire system is configured.   We’re good playing back and editing both HD and UHD on this system.

The system connects currently to four Editorial Workstations (Premiere Pro primarily), ProTools 5.1 mix system and a Davinci Resolve system.  In addition, it connects to four Producer iMac stations, two Library Media Management systems and various other connection points throughout the shop.  All the main workstations are 10GigE while the rest are a mix of 10 and 1Gig.

We’re pretty excited to bring this system online, not only for the boost in our storage capacity, but for the new way to manage the media across our entire network.  It’s going to really enhance the way we work with your projects.   There is a LOT of control for management of the shared storage and if you really want to know the nitty gritty, reach out to the guys at SNS for more details.    Better yet, if you’re going to be at the NAB Show 2015, you can find them at Booth SL12413.  In fact, BCM Founder, Walter Biscardi, Jr will be at the booth most of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday of the show.  So come on by,  say hello and let’s talk Shared Storage and Editing.

Of course if you’d like to see the system here, well give us a shout and come on out to the shop.  Molly the Wonder Dog would love to show you how the new system looks in person.

The post First Look: Studio Network Solutions EVO with ShareBrowser appeared first on WalterBiscardi.com.

Well along comes Studio Network Solutions with a simple way for two editors to open the exact same project at the exact time with no fear of one person overwriting the other’s work.  Makes it super easy for two editors to work together if need be or for a Producer to simply open a project for review on a second workstation while the editor keeps working.  They employ file locking via their EVO ShareBrowser software.

Ok, here’s the EVO ShareBrowser on Edit Workstation 3.  It’s an iMac running OS X Yosemite.  (click on the images to make them larger) Along the left column you can see both the EVO storage (we broke it into four partitions) along with some other storage we have on the network and local.   I’ve already highlighted the Premiere Pro Project file which is sitting on EVO 1 and ready for edit.

I launch the project from the Browser and you can see what happens below. The EVO ShareBrowser has automatically placed a lock on the project file.  It’s an open lock because I launched it first from this system so Edit 3 has control of the project file.

Now I go over to our Edit 1 Workstation.  It’s a Dell T5500 Precision running Windows 7. There’s that exact same project file on EVO 1 only here you can clearly see the lock is closed AND I can clearly see that Edit 3 has control of the lock.

I want to see that project anyway so I double click to launch. In case I missed the lock icon, the EVO ShareBrowser tells me right away that the project is being used elsewhere and I can only run in Read Only Mode.

I click Yes to Continue. You can see that the Lock is now Red reminding me that I do not have write control of the project, but there’s the exact same project open on the Edit 1 system at the exact time it’s running on Edit 3.

So what can I do now?  I can edit, I can make notes, I can simply watch and review, I can log, I can do anything I would normally do with Premiere EXCEPT save that exact same file name.   See the EVO will prevent that since the project file is locked.  If you forget this and simply click on “Save” this prompt pops up. But I can go ahead and “Save As” and simply give the project on Edit 1 a new extension to the name.  You can see the Edit 1 has control of the new “B” project file. At this point if we want to merge the two projects together, the editor in Edit 3 would be able to import and merge the changes between Edit 1 and Edit 3.  Yes this needs to be done manually, but it adds another level of efficiency that we haven’t had to this date.

Why?   The file locking removes the fear that we might accidentally overwrite someone else’s work while they’re working.   When keeping the files local on each workstation, sometimes you have to go to that workstation, copy the file (maybe turn on the machine if it’s not on) and then take that file to your local workstation to start editing.   This makes absolutely sure nobody will accidentally overwrite your work, but it can also be a bit of a pain.

With this file locking system that the EVO ShareBrowser provides, we are immediately switching our workflow with our project files now living directly with the media on the EVO server.   If a secondary editor joins on to a project, they can simply just open the project where the editor 1 is at this very moment and start right into the edit with a “B” project.  It’s a small thing, but we’re loving this new wrinkle in the workflow.  Oh and editors can request the project files be unlocked allowing another person to take over by simply messaging across the EVO network.

This is by no means Adobe Anywhere or Avid workflow, but it’s a nice small step forward in efficiency.   This project locking feature can be applied to as many project types as we need including After Effects, Photoshop, ProTools and more.   For us it’s a pretty cool step forward to be able to have the project files out and easily accessible for the entire shop rather than locked on each computer system.    I’m hoping soon we’ll get to have the feature of Anywhere in a much more scaled down feature set for just in use in a local shop rather than the big cloud architecture now supported.

Of course I did also receive this today.  Wonder what it means?   NAB is less than two weeks away……

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Revised April 2, 2015

Saturday, April 11th.

TBA.  Maybe an In and Out Burger run?

Dinner with some friends.

Sunday, April 12th.

Early breakfast, then headed over to the Convention Center for some set-up and pre-show exploring.

JB&A Distribution Workflow Event – Starts at 10am at the Westin Hotel.

This event is a technology workflow event that requires a pre-registration for a meeting with specific vendors.  I will be stopping in to meet with the guys from Studio Network Solutions.  No set time yet.

#PostChat Meetup – 8pm outside the O’Shea’s bar in The LINQ

Casual meet-up open to everyone!  #PostChat is a weekly Twitter conversation about all things in Post Production.  This is our chance to all get together and meet the people behind the Twitter avatars.  Just come on out to say hello and kick off NAB 2015 in a fun way!

Monday, April 13

Attending the AJA and Blackmagic Design News Conferences in the morning.

Walking the Show Floor – I’ll be around most of the day, I have meetings throughout though..  I’ll pretty much be around South Hall all day I suspect looking at the new Post stuff and might check out the Aerial / Drone pavilion.   Will probably be wearing my classic Biscardi Creative Media teal bowling shirt with black trim.

Rampant Design Demo – 2:30pm at Booth SL5706 in the Plug-In Pavilion

“Macro Quality for Micro Budget.  How The Simplicity of Rampant Quickly Raises the Bar.”  How I use the super easy drag and drop Rampant Design effects to add high end quality and enhancements to micro budget / low budget / no budget projects.

Working Together to Close the Gender Gap in Post Production – 5:00 in N252.  Open to all NAB Attendees

I’m going to try to attend this as the topic is important and features some of favorite folks in Post.  I have meetings right up to this event, but even if I don’t make it, if you have the time please attend.  This panel will discuss the impact of gender equality in the post workplace, strategies for recognizing and un-learning our own internalized sexism, and how we can all work together to adjust hiring practices and erase gender biases in order to ensure the future of women in all post production roles.

Media Motion Ball – 5:30pm at Monte Carlo’s Main Ballrooms  (I’ll arrive closer to 7pm)

For me this is the highlight event of the week.  Great food, great crowd, awesome prizes and a really laid back atmosphere to meet up with other creatives.  I’m aiming to get there by 7:00pm.

Tuesday April 14

Capture and Conquer – 8:00am – 9:30am  The Cosmopolitan Hotel presented by Marco Solorio and Suzette Muriel

A workshop created by Marco and Suzette to help creatives better understand and position their business for maximum revenue.  I, for one, can definitely use some insight into this.   Two of the most successful people I know, I’m looking forward to attending this event.  VERY limited seatings available.

Studio Network Solutions – 10:30am – 3:30pm at least, Booth SL12413

I’ll be there after the morning workshop to chat about the SNS shared storage solutions which brings a MAM and full media management directly on board adding more efficiency and capabilities to the Post workflow.  And of course, I’m happy to answer any other Production, 4k / UHD, Post, Adobe Premiere Pro workflow questions you may have.

SuperMeet – 7pm at Riviera’s Royal Ballroom

Part Networking Event, Part Carnival, Always Entertaining is how I describe the SuperMeet to anyone who has never been.  I tend to arrive on the earlier side and am generally out by around 9:30 or 10:00pm to go have a late dinner or another event.

AJA Video Systems private event – 9pm.

Wednesday, April 15

Studio Network Solutions – 9:00am – 2:00pm, 3:00 – 4:00pm at least, Booth SL12413

I’ll be there most of the day to chat about the SNS shared storage solutions which brings a MAM and full media management directly on board adding more efficiency and capabilities to the Post workflow.  And of course, I’m happy to answer any other Production, 4k / UHD, Post, Adobe Premiere Pro workflow questions you may have.  I have to step away for a meeting at 2pm.

Harrah’s Piano Bar – 10pm – ?

Seems to be a yearly tradition, I usually end up here with some of the Flanders Scientific clan and it’s an absolutely hysterical way to spend an evening.  Usually the crowd and people watching is more entertaining that the twins who do the singing.

I’m out first thing Thursday morning on the way home.

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