Xu Hu Productions
DiskStation comes with large space for file storage and sharing. You also get to enjoy having it at an affordable price and the option to expand storage with its expansion units. All in all, it is a decent choice! Tora Yuan, Director
The Company
The Challenge
The Solution
Yuan's studio is currently equipped with a DiskStation DS1511+ and two DX510 expansion units. The storage is now empowered by RAID settings for data security and also turns into a personal archive and file center. Synology's solutions not only free Yuan from the worries of insufficient capacity and data protections, but also offer Yuan remote access at any time via the Internet.
High capacity of storage
Director Yuan explained that the scalability of DiskStation DS1511+ was one of the reasons why he chose it in the beginning. DiskStation DS1511+ can reach to a maximum of 45TB capacity by pairing with two sets of expansion units. According to Yuan, the size of a 30-second commercial shoot, including all the relevant materials, is around 200GB (ProRes 422 HQ format ) which is equivalent to one-fifth capacity of a 1TB hard drive. As for a standard feature film or documentary, it approximately takes up an average capacity of 4TB (Full HD ProRes 444). In other words, DiskStation DS1511+ is the top choice for Yuan as far as it is capable to provide sufficient storage space and the scalability for future demands.
RAID data protection
For Director Yuan, all the referencing data and film materials are very precious. Therefore, according to different data demands, he packed DS1511+ with five 2TB hard drives and RAID 6 fault-tolerance of data protection. In addition, he stores materials for film editing on DX510 and adopts RAID 5 with enterprise-level hard drives. These combinations greatly enhance data stability and security and further minimize the possibility of data loss.
Mac OS X complete support
Since Director Yuan is also a Mac user, he has a Mac Pro-centered set of film editing equipments in his studio. When it comes to Synology's solutions and support for Mac system, Yuan said, "Products in general only offer limited support for Mac, but Synology's solutions are highly compatible with Mac. I am very much satisfied." Besides the support for Mac OS X on file sharing and storage, DiskStation allows users to manage account and privilege settings easily. For instance, Yuan would assign accounts with basic privileges for production companies to access certain folders on the DiskStation. Yet, for staff that he works closely with, such as editors, Yuan would give them accounts with higher levels of privileges so the staff could have more access to film materials.
FTP file sharing
Besides on-site film shooting, Director Yuan's daily routine also includes post-processing the editing materials. Since both the director and the editor have a copy of the same film that need to be post-processed, the embedded FTP server on DiskStation makes it convenient to share their individual edited clips with each other. Or they can download the clips to their respective computers for comparisons and further revisions. What's more, editors and other staff can directly upload reference materials they found onto the FTP server. This way, it can save meeting time for both sides and Yuan can finish his work at the studio without trivial interruptions. To sum up, the overall efficiency of the studio is greatly improved.
Recommended Models
- DS1511+
- DX510
Recommended Features
- Large storage capacity
- Flexible RAID data protection
- Mac environment support
- FTP file sharing