Threads n' granules

Sounds like a great breakfast cereal but it's part of a strategy document I'm working on. It's all about multi-platform media development. I think a lot of places get this whole multi-platform thing wrong. They think that it means develop one item for multiple platforms. I think you have to develop many different items for many different platforms. It sounds onerous but if you build them all from the same source, ye olde threads n' granules, then you are okay.

Here's part of what I'm writing...

Traditional approach to multi-platform meant adapting TV for the web i.e.—distribution of “television-type” video content through media such as the web or gallery screens. The DCL is an evolution of that original idea that goes beyond by recognizing the variety of platforms available to us, the uniqueness of these platforms, and delivering custom content to each of those platforms. The custom content is not a force fit of one format into a different format; rather it is the ground up creation of specific content for specific platforms. Blog content is different from Youtube content, which is different from exhibit content and is different from media b-roll content but they all evolve from the same source media granules and messaging threads. The outputs are multiplied but the work required to feed those outputs is not correspondingly increased because the work is done in parallel.

So far Drobo = Love

We're out of room on our xraid. Too many media files. A new promise vtrack array will cost us somewhere in the area of 16k.
I bought a little drobo with 4TB and droboshare for about $1600. The thought is we can delay our array purchase for another year if this works.

The plan is to use the drobo as an archive device on Final Cut Server. Media that we don't access all that often will get archived to the drobo. We can still search for it in FCSvr and view the proxies, it's only when we retrieve it will it take a bit longer.

I haven't tried it yet because I need IS to come up with a backup strategy in case something goes terribly wrong.

The drobo, which is fully protected storage, has got to be one of the easiest installs I've ever done of any hardware. Seriously. No tools. Just slide the drives in, install the dashboard and away it goes.

It's actually living on our network quite happily without any problems. So far I'm impressed.

We're going to run it for a bit before we formally attach it to FCSvr.