Comparing Velocity to others
by Jason Goldammer
on
Aug 11, 2009 at 9:27:14 pm
Where is the realtime processing power in the software-only version of VelocityESX? What are its limits?
If you look at my current systems, Velocity 8.X and VelocityQ 9.X, the power of realtime is within the video card, not the Intel or AMD chip. Each system allows for (roughly) 4 and 8 layers of video (respectively), all in real time.
I can't imagine that a software-only version has that power. (But I'm not an expert.) Wouldn't it be like editing with Premiere or Final Cut, which require a heavy dependance on your MOBO?
Please send your thoughts and experiences. Thank you.
Re: Comparing Velocity to others by Chris Blair on Aug 13, 2009 at 1:39:27 am
As I said in an earlier post, I don't believe VelocityESX is available to legacy Velocity users as a software only solution. I could be wrong on that, but my understanding is it's a software only component that's designed to work with the Harris Nexio/Velocity craft editing solutions. Harris makes money on these setups with the Nexio SAN, which is a fibre channel based drive array that facilitates a shared storage environment with the Velocity editing stations. Most of the implementations come with Velocity editing seats, which are also software based, so the ESX version is designed to complement the setup by allowing field use on a laptop and actually uses proxy editing in the field (to speed workflow). Once back at the station, the footage is loaded onto the SAN and the proxy files are replaced by the hi-rez stuff dumped onto the SAN.
That said, the software only implementations of Velocity are pretty powerful. I have acquaintances at an NBC affiliate in Lexington that use the Nexio/Velocity combo and they're able to edit HD (compressed of course) with multiple channels across the SAN. Keep in mind a fibre channel SAN can pump out 300-800MB/sec sustained depending on the setup and drive array. It can also do quite a few real-time effects all in software.
There is another product that is being dubbed "Velocity reborn." It's called IVSedits and has been written by an Italian software company called IVS. It's a real, shipping product and there are dozens of people using it for real work. One guy on the DPSedits forum on Yahoo was the visual effects supervisor for the new movie G.I. Joe. And he prefers it to his Avid Media Composer and Final Cut.
IVSedits still has a few bugs and there are a few functions that currently aren't enabled, but users on the Yahoo forum have said it's pretty much exactly like editing with Velocity, with basically the same user interface, along with some nice GUI enhancements.
As for it's power, they also say it's pretty much like editing on a VelocityQ if you're doing SD, or a VelocityHD if you're working in compressed HD, with multiple real-time video channels, effects and graphic tracks.
It's also able to use many different formats directly on the timeline and is optimized to import and export a bunch of formats that Velocity just plain didn't like.
IVSedits doesn't use the Velocity hardware (Quattrus or Altitude), but it will use Blackmagic Decklink and Intensity cards (providing SDI and analog I/O and real-time NTSC monitoring, as well as some of the BlueFish cards and possibly one other). It will read and write Velocity timelines and galleries so all your old projects can be imported and edited, or new projects exported and opened on Velocity.
Of course to get this power, you can't just load the software on your 5 year old Velocity PC. You need the latest motherboards, chips, CPUs and graphic cards, which can do amazing things. They sell turnkey solutions at very attractive prices, way less than turnkey Final Cut systems and 3 times less than comparable Avid systems.
Anyway...I could be wrong about VelocityESX but I've asked multiple times in emails to Harris about it and their now defunct NXG (or something with a similar name) and they've never given me a straight answer about buying it as a Velocity replacement.
IVSedits website is a bit of a mess, (IVSedits.com) but the product is real, the programmers are very smart and very accessible, and they seem committed to continuing the product. They've been working on the software for at least 2 years so I doubt they'd throw in the towel now that they have a shipping product, and they've been coming out with updates and bug fixes at a regular intervals...much more often than Harris ever did.
Hope that answers some of your questions.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
www.videomi.com
Re: Comparing Velocity to others by Jason Goldammer on Aug 13, 2009 at 5:19:26 pm
Chris, Thanks for the info. It helped.
Also, regarding the comment that "VelocityESX not being available to buyers for the software-only version", is not true. I doubt my Harris sales representative would give me a price quote for the equipment and software if it wasn't possible. Why would any business turn down the opportunity to make money on a sale? Sure, it's going to cost me a lot of money to get started. I'll have to get the Media Gateway, the SAN array, GigE switches, and some other misc. stuff, but's it's definitely possible.
Re: Comparing Velocity to others by Chris Blair on Aug 14, 2009 at 2:13:05 am
What I meant was that many Velocity users have asked about purchasing ONLY the newer Velocity software for installation and use on legacy Velocity systems (that were previsously bundled with hardware like the Reality, Quatturs and Altitude cards). They've been told that VelocityESX either won't work with older Velocity hardware (doesn't take advantage of the hardware's acceleration or I/O functions and doesn't directly export .dps/.dva files), or that it's not an option to buy as software only.
But certainly you can buy Harris' newer hardware/software bundles that include the Nexio SAN and Velocity. I just don't know of anyone that has bought or uses VelocityESX as an upgrade to the Velocity, VelocityQ or VelocityHD platforms. In fact, there's an entirely separate software upgrade (Velocity10) that was released in December 2008 for legacy Velocity systems. It was provided free and is still available for download. Word is Harris is even working on one last update for some bug fixes in that software version.
Price wise, the Velocity/Nexio SAN bundles are REALLY expensive, with most bundles starting upwards of $50,000 (at least that's where they were a year ago).
If you can afford it, go for it. But the only facilities I'm aware of that have taken the plunge are broadcast facilities that need multiple editing seats and the ability to do proxy editing in the field and quickly reassemble projects from the SAN after media in ingested into it.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
www.videomi.com
