Editshare field 3TB

[steve knattress] "Has anyone any experience of this piece of kit in as the name suggests "in the field" with say 3 seats?

Yes.

[steve knattress] How would having one be different to using a new thunderbolt drive, working in separate projects but sharing media, using one mbp as a server?

There's a lot of variables in that example, so it's a little hard to respond to. The EditShare will have pre-packaged ways to store & share Avid & FCP data in various ways, so that people can collaborate on the same material concurrently without trampling on one another's work. This sort of thing could be done on the Thunderbolt/MacBook setup you describe, but would involve more “hand-rolling”.

[steve knattress] What extra equipment is need to form a small avid MC and/or fcp network ( I have both on my mbp laptop together with adobe 5, depending on what system my clients want.)

For the most part, the server, the cat6 network cables, etc.

[steve knattress] Can the filed be set up for use by these 3 different systems without a re-format between each?

In that multiple clients can work with an EditShare simultaneously, yes, sure.

[steve knattress] Is anyone using one with MC6? or do I need to have a software upgrade? (to my mbp or the field itself?)"

That depends on the version it's currently running. You'll have better results if the software on the Field is running an up-to-date release of EditShare 6. If it's still running EditShare 5 or earlier, a software upgrade would be a good idea to work with current versions of Avid.

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Chris Devers
EditShare Tech Support
support ( at ) editshare • com
http://editshare.com
Twitter: @EditShare & @ESLightWorks

This is worth clarifying slightly.

It is true that the Field is an end-of-life product, and it's also true that most Field hardware was manufactured with components that could only run in 32-bit mode, which excludes support for EditShare 6. (This is a detail I had forgotten about when responding previously; sorry about the confusion there.)

However, some of the later Field models were built with 64-bit capable hardware, and so could indeed be upgraded to the EditShare 6, up to & including EditShare 6.1.3.3, the current version as of this writing with the best currently-available compatibility with recent versions of Mac OS X, Windows, Avid, Final Cut, Premiere, et cetera.

Without having your system details to hand, I'm not sure if this information does you any good or not. If we could get access to the server, or if diagnostics could be mailed to us at support at editshare dot com, we could help clarify the potential upgrade options for this server.

Hope this helps.

--
Chris Devers
EditShare Tech Support
support ( at ) editshare • com
http://editshare.com
Twitter: @EditShare & @ESLightWorks