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rjoaquin
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Q: Difference between Xsan and Final Cut Server

I'll admit that i'm a noob with this stuff so i was hoping somebody could advise me on this. I have an intel macbook pro and a power pc g4 mac pro but plan on upgrading to the intel version of the mac pro soon. Between the macbook pro and the new mac pro me and a friend will be editing the same final cut projects on both machines.

Is it better to go with Xsan or Final Cut Server for this workflow? I don't understand the difference other than with Xsan we both can work at real time with the media because of fibre technology versus using server where we both would have to wait to download media locally to our machines.

Can someone please help me and clarify this and if there's a better workflow when working on 2 final cut editors?

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), M9677LL/A

Posted on Feb 10, 2011 11:00 AM

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rjoaquin

Q: Difference between Xsan and Final Cut Server

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  • by receng,

    receng receng Feb 10, 2011 12:14 PM in response to rjoaquin
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Feb 10, 2011 12:14 PM in response to rjoaquin
    Xsan is high bandwidth, shared storage. The costs for it are not only the software user licenses, but server(s) hardware, Fibre switch(es), Fibre cards and cables, RAID units and Client machines. The Xsan needs a minimum of one machine dedicated and server, one Fibre Channel RAID unit, one Fibre switch and two fibre cards for clients
    Final Cut Server is an asset management / organization tool and can use any storage, including the Xsan. Final cut server needs a Mac Pro or Xserve to run and access to some kind of storage where all your assets will be placed.

    Many people use Final Cut server with the Xsan storage.
    The main advantages of the Xsan are high bandwidth and that multiple users can open the same media.
    The main advantage of Final cut server is organizing your media in productions, associating metadata to it and quickly searching for it.
    You are correct when you say that you have to download things locally from Final Cut server to work on them, but local may mean the Xsan Volume mounted on your desktop if you have both products.
    This upload/download process can be slow over a regular network if you do not have the Xsan.

    It all depends on your budget. The Xsan can be very costly. Just one fully populated raid will cost between $11000 and $15000. If you don't have a Xsan you will need to transfer files back and forth between the two editors.

    I hope this helps.