Q I am now shooting
using tapeless cameras
(Panasonic p2 and the
ex-1 when we can get
one). Where I used to
have a cassette I am
now having to rely on
hard drives to store my
archives. Do I still back up
to tape, is there a reliable
and well priced hard drive
archiving system.
Basically what is the best
way to store my daily
rushes?
A There are many issues
regarding archiving
too many to list on this
page suffice to say that
for the majority of small
production houses and
individuals tend to rely
on the method of storing
tapes.
So the Ideal approach to
archiving solid state media
would be to treat them
like conventional tape.
Store the media like tape
and view the media like
tape with the appropriate
recorder/player. However,
the media costs many
more times that of tape.
So this clearly isn’t an
option…Yet
Although there are
numerous archiving
solutions out there on the
market, Prices tend to
start from around £12k
This is very good value
for money for what they
offer, but maybe justified
only by larger production
house’s who have large
archive to manage and the
manpower to administer it.
A logical solution would
be to either purchase
a high density storage
device like SONY’S new
BLUE RAY BWU-100A
(circa £1000) an internal
DVD drive with up to
50gb on a disk to store the files. Or alternatively
why not invest in a RAID
Solution (redundant array
of inexpensive disks)
basically a bunch of
drives in a box with a
raid controller built in.
Material that is stored
on these drives remains
stored on these drives
indefinitely. Even if one
or more drives fail. You
never lose your data. RAID
comes in various sizes
and prices. A typical raid
solution enough to store
1000 hours of DVCAM/
HDV rushes cost from
around £ 2000. Couple this
with media management
software built in to the likes
of AVID and Sony Vegas
software you have a very
reasonably priced cost
effective solution to your
immediate archive needs.
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