[MacDV] XRAID network

[Mark M. Florida]

I would think that since the network volumes are not connected like a local
drive, that there would probably be latencies involved in network protocol
overhead that could cause problems.  TCP/IP is a latency-tolerant networking
protocol, but video editing requires data in absolute real-time (or faster
than real-time if working with multiple streams simultaneously)...  To great
tastes that don't taste great together...  (wha?)  ;-)

What *may* work, however, is a Fibre Channel network with the Xraid.  I
don't know if Apple's Fibre Channel PCI card drivers would allow access to
an Xraid like a SAN device (Storage Area Network), where all connected
workstations connect to the Xraid as if it were a local drive, providing
real-time access as needed (low latency like a local drive)...  That may be
worth investigating.  That would be sweet, though -- an Xserve in your video
equipment rack and an Xraid serving the video to all edit stations via Fibre
Channel...  :-)

I know there are other Fibre Channel RAID vendors that offer specifically
that functionality so that you can have one huge disk array that is accessed
by separate servers -- it should work no problem with "client" machines as
well.

I guess the main issue is that standard network protocols are specifically
designed to tolerate certain latencies that may occur along the network
path, where storage protocols like FireWire and Fibre Channel are built to
offer real-time, low-latency access similar to a local hard drive.

Hope that helps.

- Mark


> He all,
> 
>   At our company we are thinking to buy a XRAID (2.52 TB) in order to edit
> from 4 stations (G4 / FinalCut ) in DVCAM format.
> 
>   Is possible to capture or edit using the same material at the same time
> from the 4 stations?, are the disk array and the gigabit network fast enough
> to do that?
> 
>   looking at the numbers (Disk and Network speed) seems to be possible,
> any experiences, suggestions?
> 
> Thanks all in advance
>