Video Editing Station - Setup Suggestions?

[brandon184]

Hey Everyone,

I'm assisting with the management and development of a new media entertainment startup. They plan on establishing their video productions soon, and are asking for my complete assistance with establishing a (single) video editing station.

I'm not really sure what I should be looking for, as this will be simple video editing of movies in and around 90 minutes in length.

Here are some key facts I'd like everyone to consider...

- I'm going with DELL.

- The budget : Nothing SPECIFIC, but it certainly isn't a free for all, and we don't want anything that we won't ever need.

- We want to produce video that is HIGH in quality. NOTHING below VHS quality.

All I'm really looking for here is some general tips of what kind of system I want, and what equipment should assist that system.

Thanks!

[nilknarf]

The PC, regardless of brand, will need massive drive space, depending on how much video they'll be working with at once. They'll need about 12GB per hour in raw DV format. Usually, they'll probably work with 4-6 hours worth of video for a 90 minute production, depanding on how many cameras are involved. I would recommend high performance SCSI drives setup in a RAID 1, 1+0, or 5 array. Definitely have the OS, programs, and swap file on a physically seperate drive from the video storage drive. I'd recommend Windows 2000 for the OS, with at least 512MB of RAM. Consider a P4@1.7GHz. Also, look at using DVD-RAM for mastering.

You may also try http://www.stagelighting.com
They're a company based here in Indianapolis. I've had some recent discussions with them about video workstations, and there recommendations are right in line with everything I've learned in the past 10 years in this business. I'm not sure if they build the systems themselves, but they do sell video workstations.

I can get you some more links to other companies if necessary. Most of the good systems start around $7500, and go up from there depending on what they want to do, and how high of quality.

My personal system was custom built by me. It's a Dual P3@1GHz with 2GB of RAM and 150GB of drive space, and two 300W redundant power supplies, running Windows 2000. I can work with just about any video format. I'm currently looking at installing a 9.4GB DVD-RAM drive and new editing software, as well as going to multiple monitors. My drives are currently in an IDE RAID-0 array (IDE striping) for performance and capacity vs. cost reasons. I'm try to find the money to install 3 15K RPM 73GB SCSI drives on a RAID-5 array. Of course, I also just recently verified the copyright permissions for my biggest client, which means I can now work on about 200+ hours of audio and video. And at 12GB per hour, I can only work on about 10-12 hours at a time.

[nilknarf]

Actually, I just got some additional info on DVD writable drives. Forget DVD-RAM, its not compatible with standard DVD players. Look at DVD+RW, which is supposed to be compatible with most DVD players.

Also, do you know what formats they intend to work with? Anything digital works best with a FireWire (IEEE 1394) interface. On my system, I work with both and have a DV Bridge for the analog stuff. It basically makes my computer think I'm using a DV camera, and it works both ways.

Tim