Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 23, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
When producing video news flashes from the event on site, the robust Fusion F2 provided fast and reliable data storage together with a high level of operating convenience and no additional power supply.
At the Canoe Slalom World Championships, Australian sports-coverage specialist Sportscene reported on the races, filmed the audience and venue, and conducted interviews with athletes and coaches. Every evening, Sportscene produced a video news flash that was published on YouTube. In addition, broadcasters received this material by satellite for transmission. Coverage of the World Championships was filmed in “commando style”. Mobile cameras shot the material in QuickTime® using SDHC memory cards. After recording, the reports were edited on site with Final Cut Pro on a 17-inch MacBook Pro.
“In the past, I had problems editing on location, particularly when storing the media. At the time, I used my MacBook’s internal drive in conjunction with a portable 1TB drive, but it could not be set up in a mirrored configuration,” says Rob Van Bommel, owner of Sportscene. “Because of this limitation, I had to keep a backup copy of the footage on my laptop, as editing on the laptop was faster than on portable drives. But this slowed down my computer - especially for important tasks such as editing or rendering. In addition, the drives were large and required an external power source, so I could not always carry them with me.”
To eliminate these problems, Sportscene acquired Sonnet’s Fusion F2 portable two-drive 1TB RAID storage system. The Fusion F2 stands for high speed, reliability and an extremely robust design. It has two eSATA ports for maximum data throughput and is designed for use with the ExpressCard/34 Tempo controller for MacBook Pro and Windows notebooks. Power is supplied via a FireWire 400 port, making the Fusion F2 ideal for mobile use. By mirroring the hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration, the portable system also protects all data. It offers an ideal capture solution for Apple ProRes HQ HD in combination with an AJA ioHD box.
“The F2 enabled me to create my daily video news flashes for the Canoe Slalom World Championships on site with extremely little equipment. Thanks to its small size, the system even fits in a backpack, which allowed me to work very flexibly during location shoots,” Van Bommel adds. “The mirrored configuration protects all of the footage, and a backup on my laptop is no longer necessary. Thanks to the eSATA interface, read and write operation speeds are considerably higher than with my MacBook’s internal drive.”
Prices
The Sonnet Fusion F2 is available at an RRP of €469 including VAT. The Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 is available at an RRP of €169 including VAT.
