INNOVATORS IN STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES

JMR ELECTRONICS ON SET WITH DINO GEORGOPOULOS FOR STEP IT UP 4EVER 3D

SilverStor™ Storage Solutions Deliver High Performance PCIe Expansion for 5K 3D Production

When Los Angeles based Digital Imaging Technician Dean “Dino” Georgopoulos was called on for STEP UP 4EVER IN 3D, the next installment of the successful STEP UP franchise, he knew he’d be working with large amounts of footage each day. He called on JMR Electronics to update his workstations with their SilverStor™ storage solutions.

“I first heard about JMR’s SilverStor™ when I was over at RED Studios during last summer’s Camp RED,” stated Georgopoulos.  “I was about to go into production for STEP UP 4EVER, shooting with multi camera 3D rigs and needed something that could handle that load. RED’s
Ted Schilowitz explained to me the capabilities of SilverStor™ and how critical they were to the success of Camp RED with their enhanced throughput and ability to allow for additional PCIe expansion. Right then I knew I had to have SilverStor™ right away.”

The filming of STEP UP 4EVER involved the use of eight RED Epic cameras mounted on three 3ality Technica TS5 handheld rigs and one side by side rig provided by OFFHOLLYWOOD. Each camera was shooting 5K, full frame stereo 3D - about 6 GB per minute, per camera. When using three, two camera rigs the total amount of footage captured is about 36 GB in a single minute. Footage is then transferred from the RED Epic to the JMR SilverStor™ storage unit that is connected to to Georgopoulos’ host workstation. “A typical transfer off one of the RED stations, which is eSATA, is basically about 10 GB per minute,” stated Georgopoulos. “In order to keep up with that I had three separate stations.”

Georgopoulos' workstations include two modified Backstage Equipment, Inc. TR-04’s with added rails, shelves and the ability to connect up to six monitors. Each Mac based station features a JMR SilverStor™ 10-Bay storage solution with 2 TB Enterprise-Class drives and dual RED Rockets. “Moving the footage from JMR’s SilverStor™ to the multiple transfer drives was pretty amazing,” Georgopoulos remarked. “With 900 MB per second sustained transfer rates, I was able to move 500 GB in approximately twelve minutes.”

JMR’s storage solutions are designed to deliver peace of mind in the most demanding data storage, imaging and video applications on or off-set. The SilverStor™ line is ready to use straight out of the box, via a direct SAS or PCIe connection to the host and offer superb ease-of-use, Enterprise-Class drives and flexible expansion options with up to three PCIe expansion slots. SilverStor™ systems deliver high performance, expandable storage in a sleek, compact package - which was exactly what Dino needed for on-set storage, processing and transfer.

“On STEP UP 4EVER, we shot between 1.2 - 1.8 TB of footage a day. The way my process works is I make four copies of that footage in a day, so I move around 6 TB of footage on any given day,” stated Georgopoulos. “With the throughput of the JMR system, I was able to keep up with that.”

Georgopoulos has also been working on a new project for National Geographic and is continuing to use his JMR SilverStor™ setup. “I couldn’t have done this job without JMR and that’s the bottom line. It would have been physically impossible. You need to have those PCIe expansion slots,”  stated Georgopoulos. “The fact that it’s the expansion chassis along with 20 TB of storage just makes it an ideal solution. I’ve already recommended JMR to other clients.”

About JMR Electronics, Inc.
JMR is a leading value provider of scalable storage systems for high performance and capacity driven applications for multiple markets including; video and post-production, military and government, education, VOD, DCC, gaming, security, medical imaging, HPC and Web 2.0. Since 1982, JMR’s reliable and innovative RAID systems are proudly made in the U.S.A., manufactured entirely from their Chatsworth, California facilities. JMR’s complete line of SilverStor™  and BlueStor™ PeSAN™ DAS, NAS and SAN solutions handle nearly every project’s need. Reliability. Innovation. Performance. This is JMR. For further information please visit www.jmr.com