Storage & Networking for NLEs: what's best for you? Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet or iSCSI, a combination of both?

When it comes to storage and networking, few applications are more demanding than nonlinear editing (NLE). Besides handling huge files, NLEs need data flowing in at sustained levels, without any glitches, hiccups or data loss. Storage failures compromise productivity and creative energy.

Nowhere is the need for speed more insatiable than the high end where editing high definition (HD) video is pushing the limits of network bandwidth and storage. There's a growing demand to network resolution-independent finishing systems (by such companies as Discreet and Quantel) to form collaborative workgroups" where multiple editors have simultaneous, realtime access to near-film resolution video in central repositories.

The conventional wisdom is that only Fibre Channel (now 2Gbps), configured as a SAN (Storage Area Network), is up to this daunting challenge--making up to 400MBps of data available to each network client without bottlenecks.

But because Fibre Channel is such a huge capital expense, it's often deployed judiciously, only to those workstations that require ultra-high-bandwidth for the most demanding realtime editorial. Unable to cost-justify Fibre Channel, the desktop NLE market--especially those working with non-realtime or compressed video--is finding Gigabit Ethernet (I Gbps) to be a better frt. At one-fifth the cost of Fibre Channel, Gig-E" has reached a point where its price performance makes it a compelling alternative for a tight budget.

And, what about facilities that have say four high-end finishing stations and maybe six low-end desktop systems, all of which need to share the same data, but Fibre Channel is too costly to connect them all? Well, an interesting option has emerged called SCSI, a newly adopted standard (not to be confused with SCSI or Ultra-SCSI) that will play a significant role in a growing trend called "IP SANs." IP (Internet Protocol) relates to the TCP/IP protocol central to standard networks like Gigabit Ethernet.

iSCSI routers, which have a Fibre Channel front-end and a Gigabit Ethernet back-end, are a hybrid solution bridging the Fibre Channel SAN with the Gigabit Ethernet workgroup to form one network on which anyone can share the same data, albeit at different data rates.

So, the controversy over whether to network NLEs with Fibre Channel or Gigabit Ethernet - or a combination of both with iSCSI--is only going to grow since hardware prices are falling while performance is rising dramatically. The vendors we canvassed have divergent views as to which approach is best suited to collaborative workgroups, from HD to DV, now and tomorrow.

STUDIO NETWORK SOLUTIONS

"Only Fibre Channel guarantees high performance to every workstation on the network no matter how many users access the data at the same time," says Gary Holladay, chief systems design engineer for Studio Network Solutions (SNS) in St Louis.

"While Gigabit Ethernet is a switched network it's a shared bandwidth environment," explains Holladay. "So, the more users 'hitting the switch' at once, the lower the bandwidth available to each client on the network Because Gigabit Ethernet is hampered by the overhead of TCP/IP processing, it's not sufficient to support several workstations requiring 170MBps for high-end video editing, especially with realtime effects.

"When several editors need to work on the same HD content simultaneously, the only way to guarantee that throughput to every client on the network is by using 2Gbps Fibre Channel, Below that HD benchmark, 1Gbps Fibre Channel is ideal for the demands of standard 601 editing," he adds.

"At SNS, we push the Fibre Channel hardware even further by optimizing the [Seagate] drives, and customizing the HBAs [Host Bus Adapters] for more streamlined, powerful and reliable SAN environments."

At NAB, SNS (wwwstudionetworksolutions.com) introduced SANmp Management and Sharing Software, which facilitates greater interoperability when sharing media between Windows and Mac OS platforms. When used with SNS's A/V SAN Pro, a SAN that scales from three to over 64 seats with up to 400MBps sustained throughput, users derive a multiplatform environment, SNS also offers A/V SAN, a two-user configuration--which, in addition to the A/V SAN Pro, was used by Grammy Award-winning music engineer David Gleeson in the editing, mixing, and recording of the music score for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

"Our customer base has grown largely by word of mouth. By seeing what we've done for others, people recognize that our integrated solution will add value to their SAN by simplifying installation and ensuring reliable operation," says Holladay. "Every business wants to save money but cost cutting should not be done at the expense of workflow efficiency or the quality of the end product"

HUGE SYSTEMS

"If you understand the fine points of Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet, it becomes clear that Gigabit Ethernet is the better solution to people's file sharing problems:' says Mike Anderson, chief engineer for Huge Systems (www.hugesystems.com) in Agoura Hills, CA."When Gigabit Ethernet is employed for file sharing on a network it qualifies as a 'SAN."' Anderson says that widely-held perceptions about Gigabit Ethernet are no longer true.