On Set Data Wrangling
 

Just wanted to let you all know about the on set data management system I've developed. It will handle Red CF, Panasonic P2, and Sony SxS all in one system. It is meant mostly for longer form production. Take a look and let me know what you think. I'd appreciate some feedback since this is a new venture for me. The website is new, so more info will be forthcoming.

www.digitalmonolith.com

Chris

why did you go with raid 5? wouldn't raid 1 be better for this application? also what are you using for p2 and sxs interfaces?

Too big.

Agreed on RAID 1. I use a MacbookPro with external RAID 1, DualAdapter for P2. In battery-powered emergencies I could even off via MBP to bus-powered single drives.

RAID 1 is more equivalent to "media" than 5.... pull out 2 drives, there's your "tapes" for the shelf.

And no one shoots all those formats. You tend to have 1.

looks like a big home built pc with some hard drives and card reading slots. what is special about it? seems quite big to be bringing on sets. will it run on battery power? seems to me the whole point of solid state recording media and compressed formats is not having to carry a 2TB RAID everywhere. might make sense for an uncompressed workflow, but is it designed for production? shock mounted parts that can handle abuse etc. it looks a bit like a computer made from off-the-shelf-parts that anyone could build for <$1k. is there a special software interface? or is it just windows with free sony/red/panasonic utilities preinstalled?

This is for long form work and for people who need redundancy.

There is a 2.7 TB Raid 5 Drive as well as 2 separate 500 Gig dailies drives.

So the data is recorded to 3 separate locations at once w/ data verification. (more redundancy if you count the raid)

When you are done for the day, you take one of the dailies drives and put it into one of the included quad interface drives and give it to whomever you like, Editor, VFX, Mac or PC.

I will agree with you that it is a bit big, but if you want this kind of redundancy without having to hang all sorts of drives off a laptop then this is for you. All you have to do is insert the drives and turn it on. It is extremely quiet and will come with a version of Avid Media Composer to rough some edits out and preview shots. It's certainly not for the documentary style shoot, but for longer form feature type work, it could be a real lifesaver.

It doesn't as of yet run off battery. We are not trying to sell the product per say, we want to rent it out for shoots that might have a need to make sure their footage is safe.

BTW good luck trying to build a 2TB raid 5 system (with a respectable raid controller) for less than 1K let alone add a powerful computer and editing system. Hey if you want to build your own system then this is not for you, but if you want redundancy and don't have the time or inclination to build your own, you can rent ours for a reasonable rate. $200 a day for computer and drives, $300 a day for the the On-Set config with the slide out monitor and keyboard, ups, and network switch.

Thanks for your input.

Chris

Just being honest, I don't think it'll fly. I think people would be like myself, where it's my own system that I know & trust. Established, repeated workflow. And it's easy enough to DIY. But good luck regardless.

This is for a feature film, with an actual budget, with an actual DIT. A full on professional system. Very nice.

Keep up the good work.

That's actually a pretty sweet box and yes there's a niche for it- more and more every day in fact as workflow from cameras like RED is a gangly beastie. I would think your primary customer is going to be direct rentals and sales to large rental houses rather than direct sales to owner operators. I think a good booth at DV Expo or the like would be the way to drum this up. That and a nice review from one of the higher end videography type magazines.

Noah