Comments on: The (digital) Simple Life, all 30 terabytes of it http://strom.wordpress.com/2006/03/23/the-digital-simple-life-all-30-terabytes-of-it/ New and improved with just a hint of lemon Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:05:05 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: strom http://strom.wordpress.com/2006/03/23/the-digital-simple-life-all-30-terabytes-of-it/#comment-69 strom Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:50:18 +0000 https://strom.wordpress.com/2006/03/23/the-digital-simple-life-all-30-terabytes-of-it/#comment-69 While this article is a great example of how digital technology can enable a smaller firm to manage terabytes of data, I think perhaps there are bigger messages here too. About the only thing that's new at Bunim-Murray is that they were able to piece the system together with all-Apple gear; that's of course a powerful endorsement for the do-it-yourself crowd, but B-MP are in no way pioneers in this regard. 4MC, Liberty, of course the rest of the big-media companies--they've been using SANs to manage everything from film DIs (Digital Intermediates) down to nightly TV for nearly a decade. Nearly every show you've watched in the last four years, certainly almost every TV show, was digitized, edited and output from a system identical in method/production flow to what B-MP showed you. About the only truly revolutionary part of the equation is if B-MP went (1) completely tapeless and (2) didn't use Sony XDCAM products. It's especially revolutionary if they (3) rolled their own digital capture system, e.g. with Aja cards directly from the back of the cameras. The remaining tyranny of the broadcast quadropoly (Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon; to a lesser extent Philips & Ikegami) is the storage medium on the back of the camera; whether King Tape or their own proprietary tapeless storage (Sony: XDCAM disc; Panasonic: P2 PCMCIA storage), they have kept pro camera/equipment prices from falling as quickly by requiring, if you will, their own dongle. Once ingested into your own digital asset management system, you're (almost) home free, but that's been the remaining hold they have on the production process, at least on the origination end. Not to sell B-MP short; it was a big business decision for them to bet this system would meet their needs and save a pile of cash, particularly on employees. Moving to 100% tapeless production was a singularity for the industry, albeit one we've written about for over a decade. True, B-MP wasn't ever going to buy anything that said DataDirect on it (the leader in HD-ready SANs; also the darling of Sandia et al); instead, the Apple-Uber-Alles approach was ALWAYS going to be their mantra. Not necessarily bad, but certainly it shows a particular bias all too common in Hollywood. And Apple XSANs aren't even close to being the most cost-effective SAN, not at the 30+ TByte mark, not on paper anyway. Certainly the all-Apple straitjacket makes it more difficult to, e.g., attach non-Apple equipment to an Apple SAN, unless their storage virtualization software has matured greatly since I last saw it. (Memo to self: check this out at NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters show, April 23-26, Las Vegas.) Another big story: The affordability of this technology is highly disruptive; a recent study (I believe it was Deloitte) showed headcounts at the surveyed effects/post houses to be well down from previous years. Professional effects artists, editors, segment producers, etc., are at risk for the constant churn and job-loss that has been the IT industry's mantra for a decade. So, too, the heavenly host of late lamented effects/production companies rotting in a shallow grave somewhere between Burbank and Santa Monica; it's a tough business to compete in. I'm not suggesting we mourn the lost buggy-whip manufacturers, but if a single person can run an automated studio, there are 5-10 people who lost their jobs that day. The human and business stories are important here. My two cent's worth. Alex Pournelle Contributing Editor, Byte Media Lab Alexp@earthlink.net While this article is a great example of how digital technology can enable a smaller firm to manage terabytes of data, I think perhaps there are bigger messages here too.

About the only thing that’s new at Bunim-Murray is that they were able to piece the system together with all-Apple gear; that’s of course a powerful endorsement for the do-it-yourself crowd, but B-MP are in no way pioneers in this regard. 4MC, Liberty, of course the rest of the big-media companies–they’ve been using SANs to manage everything from film DIs (Digital Intermediates) down to nightly TV for nearly a decade. Nearly every show you’ve watched in the last four years, certainly almost every TV show, was digitized, edited and output from a system identical in method/production flow to what B-MP showed you.

About the only truly revolutionary part of the equation is if B-MP went (1) completely tapeless and (2) didn’t use Sony XDCAM products. It’s especially revolutionary if they (3) rolled their own digital capture system, e.g. with Aja cards directly from the back of the cameras.

The remaining tyranny of the broadcast quadropoly (Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon; to a lesser extent Philips & Ikegami) is the storage medium on the back of the camera; whether King Tape or their own proprietary tapeless storage (Sony: XDCAM disc; Panasonic: P2 PCMCIA storage), they have kept pro camera/equipment prices from falling as quickly by requiring, if you will, their own dongle. Once ingested into your own digital asset management system, you’re (almost) home free, but that’s been the remaining hold they have on the production process, at least on the origination end.

Not to sell B-MP short; it was a big business decision for them to bet this system would meet their needs and save a pile of cash, particularly on employees. Moving to 100% tapeless production was a singularity for the industry, albeit one we’ve written about for over a decade.

True, B-MP wasn’t ever going to buy anything that said DataDirect on it (the leader in HD-ready SANs; also the darling of Sandia et al); instead, the Apple-Uber-Alles approach was ALWAYS going to be their mantra. Not necessarily bad, but certainly it shows a particular bias all too common in Hollywood. And Apple XSANs aren’t even close to being the most cost-effective SAN, not at the 30+ TByte mark, not on paper anyway. Certainly the all-Apple straitjacket makes it more difficult to, e.g., attach non-Apple equipment to an Apple SAN, unless their storage virtualization software has matured greatly since I last saw it. (Memo to self: check this out at NAB, the National Association of Broadcasters show, April 23-26, Las Vegas.)

Another big story: The affordability of this technology is highly disruptive; a recent study (I believe it was Deloitte) showed headcounts at the surveyed effects/post houses to be well down from previous years. Professional effects artists, editors, segment producers, etc., are at risk for the constant churn and job-loss that has been the IT industry’s mantra for a decade. So, too, the heavenly host of late lamented effects/production companies rotting in a shallow grave somewhere between Burbank and Santa Monica; it’s a tough business to compete in.

I’m not suggesting we mourn the lost buggy-whip manufacturers, but if a single person can run an automated studio, there are 5-10 people who lost their jobs that day. The human and business stories are important here.

My two cent’s worth.

Alex Pournelle
Contributing Editor, Byte Media Lab
Alexp@earthlink.net

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