Q: Do I need Final Cut Server?

Technically, you can run FCSvr on a FCP workstation. I wouldn't recommend it though. FCSvr does a lot of encoding tasks that are very processor intensive, and that would seriously compromise your ability to also use your Mac Pro as a workstation.

Nothing lets two editors work on the same project file simultaneously. FCP just doesn't allow it.

You could put FCSvr on your Mac Pro to play with it, learn it, and then migrate it to something more substantial if you like what you see. Before you spend any money though, I'd encourage you to read the documentation to gain a better understanding of what FCSvr does and doesn't do and how it works with FCP.

It really depends on what your workflow is.

If the content is loaded at the beginning of your project and you're not generating lots new footage once you've started, you may not be doing a lot of daily encoding, so it may not interfere much. Likewise, if you sit near each other and can coordinate work ("i have to render this - can i slow your machine down a bit?"), and you're ok with that, it may not be a big issue.

Organizing your media is definitely a strength. The more you have and the more you'll be adding, the more it makes sense to have a dedicated machine.

Your bigger bottleneck may be the use of the gigabit ethernet. Is the other person actually trying to edit over it, or do they copy it locally? FCSvr makes it easy to work off local cache files so that may be some of the justification as well.

I'm kind of confused. I appreciate final cut server has huge capabilities. Is it overkill for a 4-workstation setup though? We don't often work on the same project timelines (collaborate) but we sometimes would need to reference the same media. We will be running shared storage SAN and using MetaSAN (like Xsan) to protect data and manage the permissions. Do we also need final cut server? We honestly don't really want to change our workflow by putting inan assert manager as well, maybe one day.

FCSvr gives you an additional layer of project organization beyond the FCP project file. Productions in FCSvr can be used to gather project files and project media logically that might be spread all over your storage. You still can't work in the same project file at the same time, but all your media is organized separately from the Finder and you can reorganize it without unlinking your media.

You don't need FCSvr in a shared setting, but it can help a lot.

I am very new to FCS but let me say it adds to your work in some very constructive ways. The organization and search functions alone make more B-roll available so I find myself using it more. I have been uploading lot's of stills as well as all rights stock footage and music we have purchased in the past. When it come time to add cutaways the search function will sometimes kick out footage and still images with corresponding keywords that I would never have thought of using. We are using 3 iMacs on Gigabit Ethernet and a Dual 2.8Gig Quad core Xenon Tower (that used to be my edit station) as the server. Checking out a large project the first time takes a few minutes, but if you have your cache on a large external HD and don't clear it, the proxies stay resident most of the time, so you are just checking out the FCP project and any new material added. I am pretty pleased with the performance overall.