Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1509389
REVIEW www.postmagazine.com 36 POST SEPT/OCT 2023 www.postmagazine.com 36 POST SEPT/OCT 2023 dvances in technology keep moving the post world exponen- tially closer, faster and more connect- ed than ever. And Blackmagic Design continues to take tremendous leaps to meet that demand. In that vein, the ability to expedite the sharing and storage of media is critical to the success of all facets of post produc- tion. Blackmagic Cloud Store is a solu- tion to that end. From capturing critical images on-set (Blackmagic Cloud Pod) to integrating that media for the various art- ists, regardless of their location, the Cloud Store touches all parts of the process. I was given the opportunity to work with a 20TB Cloud Store. Blackmagic de- signed it to be able to assist remote col- laboration by providing the full or proxy resolution media that is linked to the separately-shared projects with multiple users in the same facility or anywhere in the world. Projects and timelines now link to those critical images and integrate into the Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve ecosphere seamlessly. Setup I have a Mac Pro running Ventura 13.4 OS. At my home suite, I switched to the DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel, which took a short time to acclimate my muscle memory from many years on the DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panels. DaVinci Resolve 18.1.3 runs and feeds the output through the DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G to my LG 65-inch C2 monitor. All media is kept on the Pegasus 32TB RAID. As a colorist, I've been lucky enough to have worked on the DaVinci color sys- tems from the beginning. From no Power Windows on the Classic, to almost infinite possibilities with DaVinci Resolve, it's a crazy evolution. Today, I primarily work from my suite at home. When the ability to do this affordably came around, I jumped at the opportunity. My suite is simple, powerful and most importantly, reliable! That was the test for the Cloud Store — simple integration and performance. From a col- orist standpoint, the expectation is to be an invisible support device that excels. Connecting Connecting the Cloud Store to my system was simple enough. There's an easy-to- use app available on Blackmagic's site. The app is easily visible with the Ethernet (SMB) connection. A simple browse of the available network will display the Cloud Store's location, and with a click, it is now mounted and available for storage with DaVinci Resolve or other applications. Cabling is straightforward. On the back are six Ethernet connections, two 1G ports and four 10G ports. There's an HDMI port and two USB-C ports, one for ingest and one for backup. You'll need to supply all the cabling, including the pow- er cord. Connect Ethernet and power, and launch the app. The Cloud Store is now visible and ready for media. Downloaded media can be moved through any of the Ethernet connections. Ingesting media can be from portable drives via the USB-C "ingest" port. Plug it in and the drive's media immediate- ly starts moving onto the Cloud Store. When moving just over a Terabyte of material, it was noticeably slower to the Cloud Store than it was to my normal setup with Pegasus. In comparison, the Ethernet path was very fast with similar file sizes. Afterwards, the performance was great. With such low heat and noise, you hardly know it's in the room. Testing The Blackmagic Disk Speed Test was run on each output. On my system, the 10Gbps ports repeatedly hit 975MB/sec +/-, and the 1Gbps ports were a rough equivalent of those 10Gbps numbers. Some Ethernet protocols can restrict speeds, however, the performance was not hindered with playing or rendering big files. The HDMI output of the graphic dis- play showed tons of room for other users without any drop off in performance. I used the Cloud Store on UHD ProRes 4444 linear timelines and some clip- based timelines with 4K ProRes 4444 media. Both were 10-bit. I also had a proj- ect with 16-bit Red Dragon 6K media. All of them played back cleanly with quick locking at play speed. The Cloud Store also handled playback from a project using the Blackmagic Cloud. The Blackmagic Cloud's performance is more dependent on your internet speeds than on the Cloud Store. All in all, the proj- ect reacted like a local project would. The setup application in Cloud Store has a system control panel that also allows you to configure autosync rou- tines. The ability to share local media with external collaborators via Google Drive or Dropbox adds another layer to Cloud Store. As an artist, I can effective- ly collaborate with my team across the country, or beyond. The best bet for en- suring the sync function's performance is a USB connection. To respect my client's materials, I did not share their media for this aspect of Cloud Store. I've been on Resolve since 2010 and have witnessed its progress for over a decade, including the handling of media. Getting consistent SAN playback has sometimes been the issue. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had perfect playback until the client was sitting with me? On DaVinci Resolve's color page, node structures can get very intense, challenging your GPU's performance. This means you need staunch support on the media side when it counts. The Cloud Store gives that support. BLACKMAGIC DESIGN'S CLOUD STORE BY DAN JUDY COACHDANJUDY @GMAIL.COM A RELIABLE SOLUTION FOR REMOTE COLLABORATION A VITAL STATS MANUFACTURER: Blackmagic Design PRODUCT: Cloud Store PRICE: $7,595 (20TB). Also available: 8TB ($2,355) and 80TB ($22,995) configurations WEBSITE: www.blackmagicdesign.com