Archiving services?

[Michael "Dorkman" Scott]

Hey folks,

I seem to remember someone offering this in the early days, but is there anyone out there who is offering LTO-3 archiving for RED footage? You give them the dailies and they archive to tape for you so that you've got a safe copy no matter what happens. The folks I remember offering that would make two copies and store them at two locations, as I recall.

At this point, after the RED and accessories, I'm not quite in a place to afford an $18,000 LTO deck, and although that's at the top of my "to buy" list next, in the meantime I'll need a safe long-term archival solution for the footage I'll be creating.

So my two questions are:

1) Is anyone doing this?
2) On the West Coast?

[Matthew Rogers]

Uhhh, LTO-3 decks aren't that costly. In fact, I believe even the higher end ethernet LTO-3 decks are only around $6,000. Myself, I am getting a external mini-sas drive that will connect to my rocketraid card. Total cost, just at $2,000.

Matthew

[Michael "Dorkman" Scott]

Really? I was quite misinformed, then.

Still, it'd be nice to have an option in the early couple months.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Yeah, what macville said... In fact, many online vendors have LTO-3 kits (including interface card for Win/Lin PC) for under $1600.

LTO-3A is the expensive one, but you don't have to go that route. I've seen reports of LTO-3A units (the desktop unit with ethernet interface) quoted for as low as $6100, but have yet to get anyone to actually quote me less than $7000. $13K will get you the new SuperLoader 3A which is the rack-mount 3A ethernet model that has 12 tape slots and barcode system.

I keep stalling on buying my new tape setup, because I'm still waiting on my camera. But I'm building a small cube PC that will be an on-set, offload, DIT station and it will also have an LTO-3 drive in it for use on set or in studio as a tape backup system too. Once I actually build and test, I'll post details.

But I would seriously look into doing the LTO-3 thing yourself. It will cost you a lot less in the long run vs. sending out media for archival.

[Greg Huson]

Hey folks,

I seem to remember someone offering this in the early days, but is there anyone out there who is offering LTO-3 archiving for RED footage? You give them the dailies and they archive to tape for you so that you've got a safe copy no matter what happens. The folks I remember offering that would make two copies and store them at two locations, as I recall.

At this point, after the RED and accessories, I'm not quite in a place to afford an $18,000 LTO deck, and although that's at the top of my "to buy" list next, in the meantime I'll need a safe long-term archival solution for the footage I'll be creating.

So my two questions are:

1) Is anyone doing this?
2) On the West Coast?

This is a service we can offer.

To be entirely honest, we've sort of been waiting for the need to develop, although we think there will be substantial call for it. Currently we archive everything to bare hard drives, but that's not necessarily a good long-term storage medium.

Not to be too obvious, but it would certainly help with the business plan... what would you: 1. EXPECT to pay for this and 2. be WILLING to pay for this.

Initially, of course, RED has a huge 'do it yourself' sense to it with the whole rebellion thing, but the more this camera gets used for money-making projects the more support services that will be in demand. Don't get me wrong- I'm a do-it-yourselfer, too, and I'm not against that in any way, but I'm also a do-it-for-you-as-my-business-guy, too.

Figuring out exactly what services people will actually need, and the places we can 'add value' (and make a living,) versus what services they prefer to do themselves, is tricky part. We've been doing pretty good [that is, not loosing money] supporting work-at-home and tiny-shop editors with www.digitalservicestation.com, and I'm personally very into the whole culture and concept of RED, so specifically what services people, like you, need are of keen interest to me.

Feel free to email me directly if you want to talk about this out of the public forum, but we think there's a legitimate need here and are already offering services like prepping dailies for Avid, 'mid-term' archiving, etc. Of course, public forum is good, too.

Man, I gotta learn to make my posts shorter.