Today's digital filmmakers, including those that shoot with Canon's new breed of HDSLRs, are always on the lookout for the latest tools that reflect their creative spirit and are designed with their constant storage needs for acquisition archiving and editorial in mind. The new i5 and i7 quad core 27 inch iMacs certainly fit the bill here (I own an i5 quad for archiving and media file management), addressing both power for editorial with the new processors and design aesthetics with the inclusion of a beautiful 16:9 display fitting for viewing 1080P HDSLR footage from my
Canon 5D Mark II HDSLR. On any given shoot day, however, I may blow through three or four 32gb compact flash cards in capturing RAW plus jpeg files or in shooting HD video. Seeing that this all adds up rather quickly, using an iMac for managing your HDSLR media file acquisition without the proper storage solution can be challenging and it is certainly tedious having multiple external firewire or USB drives laying around for the job to keep track of. But I think I just found a solution I am willing to put into my archiving and editorial workflow.
Stardom Storage Solutions has announced the
DeckRAID DR4, a $499 RAID 5 "content safe" storage solution designed to sit neatly underneath an iMac footprint (think space saver). Of course, it can be used with a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro if that is what you have via its' quadruple interface: FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA (with expansion card). All you need to do is add your own SATA II hard drives to the DR4 (it is sold empty with no drives).
The DeckRAID DR4 provides up to 6TB of RAID 5 data redundancy and added security for your media files via its four-bay, hot swappable form factor which is immediately recognized by Mac OS X (and Windows) without software. You simply plug your drives into the DR4 (2TB drives x 4 = 6TB of storage) and you are ready to work.
According to Stardom, the DeckRAID DR4's RAID 5 engine delivers digital data to multiple discs simultaneously and efficiently with optimal performance. "It provides throughputs of up to 220 MB/s, accommodating the most performance-intensive application such as digital images, pre-press and post-production projects." For what I want to use it for, connected to my iMac to media manage and archive images and HD video from my HDSLR, this appears to be a perfect solution, although I have not tested an actual unit yet and will provide an update when I do.
As we all have discovered in our work, hard drives eventually fail and this is what makes the DeckRAID DR4 a desirable solution. If a hard drive fails, the DR4 will alert you via its hardware system status indicator and built-in audio alarm as it continues to perform using the remaining drives. What makes the DeckRAID DR4 appealing is that it allows you to hot-swap drives from the RAID array without shutting down your iMac. Simply replace that faulty drive with by pulling out the drive module and inserting a new one. What I like here is that if this in fact does occur during archiving and media management of my HDSLR files, my whole workflow does not come to a complete halt. I can continue on using the DR4 with no down-time while it is repairs and rebuilds in the background.
If you're a steady HDSLR shooter using an iMac to archive and media manage your digital images and footage, the DeckRAid DR4, with its' sleek design and workspace saving footprint, 6TB storage capacity and RAID 5 hot-swapable redundancy, may serve as an ideal solution to your increasing storage needs.
The
DeckRAID DR4 Features:
• Quad interface e-SAT/FireWire 800/FireWire 400 & USB 2.0
• RAID 5 integrated controller
• Hassle free drive installation and removal
• Alarm buzzer should a fan, hard drive or power supply fail
• 4cm Ball Bearing quiet Fan x 3
Stay tuned for part two of this article as I report on actual use and testing of the DeckRAID DR4 in actual workflows.
