USB 3.0 External workflow for higher ed lab environment?

[Douglas_Flanagan]

Seeking media management and workflow advice.  I'm now teaching (at a new job/campus) media production with Adobe after years of Avid.  I've gone from a dedicated, self contained server system-that I more or less managed-to a campus wide Adobe license situation, where students edit on HP all in one systems which are ALSO used by other students in open computer lab rooms.  So no dedicated server system.  My current approach is to have the students purchase an external USB 3.0 drive, at least 7200rpm, and I have them import their media using the ingest/copy method.  We shoot mostly prosumer AVCHD. 

My goal is to have them be able to have everything they need to edit on their external drive.  They could be editing on any one of several dozen standalone workstations, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this.  After a trial and error semester last fall, my idea is to have them make just one master project and then have a dedicated bin for particular edits.

So far I have not had them transcode to an intermediary editing codec upon import, but I am open to that option.  FWIW so far, the HPs seem to handle editing AVCHD well enough.  We're not doing terribly complex edits.

So if I have them get a decent enough external drive, have them ingest/copy, and set the project (and all other options) to that same drive, is that a solid approach?  The issue is that I don't want them to save anything to the local workstation drive, as they are "open to the public" and get cleaned out by our IT department on a regular basis.  This workflow also at least creates a copy of their footage on the edit drive (possibly not ideal, I know) and it keeps their SD card(s) and raw footage "safe" unless they lose the card (such stories!).

I also collect their drives and grade/review projects at home using my own copy of PP.

What am I missing?  I tried this workflow last semester, but I often wound up with media offline issues.  I think I can trace most of those back to user issues (SD card staying in the system, student uses media browser to edit w/o actually importing, etc.) but I wonder if I have a hole in the workflow. 

Coming from a dedicated Avid/Editshare system, I'm trying to wrap my head around how I can best work in my new environment.

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.  I've almost cured the 23 years of Avid muscle memory

[Warren Heaton]

On the USB3 drive, create a folder called Template Project.  Inside that folder, create at least the following three folders: Media, PR Project Files, Exports.

For each project, duplicate the Template Project folder and rename Template Porject Copy to reflect the current project name.

When starting a new project file in Premiere Pro, set all of the Scratch Disk Settings to “Same as Project” and save the .prproj file to the corresponding PR Project Files folder created earlier.

Before importing any source footage, make sure it’s in the corresponding Media folder created earlier.

Everything will be on the USB3 drive and you’re good to move around as needed.

Or course, make sure you’re using the same version of Premiere Pro an each host workstation as to not accidentally  update the Premiere Pro project file.

-Warren

Oh, almost forgot!  If working cross-platform is required, make sure that the USB3 drive is formatted as ExFAT.  If you go with NTFS, then the Mac side will need Paragon installed for cross-plaform.  If you go with HFS+, then the Windows side will need MacOpener installed for cross-platform.  Hopefully your lab already has Paragon and/or MacOpener as you never know how student drives will be formatted.

[Douglas_Flanagan]

Makes sense I think. Do you think they should copy SD card contents to the USB drive first, and then open PP and import from there?  Or should that not matter?  I would assume that since I'm having them ingest/copy from an SD card, then having them import straight from the SD card is fine?

I think a big issue I had previously is that they just impatiently clicked through the settings when making a project, resulting in media management issues later on. Their projects opened fine so long as they were on the workstation they started on, but they couldn't understand why there were media offline issues on another PC. Lots of project consolidation needed.

Understood on the ExFat mac issue. Staying on PC.

[Warren Heaton]

***Copying an SD Card

There are a handful of things things to consider when it comes to how or even if you copy source footage from a camera's memory card (be it SD, P2, SxS, XQD, AXS, SR and so forth) and with most things in video post production, they're informed by what you need for your edited master.

Is the camera native source footage going to be used in the Timeline or is it going to be transcoded to a mezzanine CODEC for editing?

Is the footage on the memory card just for the current project or does it contain a footage for multiple projects?

If the footage on the SD card is for just the current project, I prefer copying the entire SD card; however, if it contains a footage for more than one project, I prefer to use the Media Browser in Adobe Media Encoder to select the clips needed, add them to the AME Queue, and then set the "Media" folder for the current project as the destination for the transcoded media (and I usually transcode to Apple ProRes422 LT or Apple ProRes 422 HQ, but any mezzanine CODEC will work).  Of course, don't wipe the SD card until all of the transcoded footage has been checked.  If the project is quick turnaround for social media, I don't worry too much about archiving the camera original footage.  If it's anything else, (documentary, informercial, commercial, television, cable, scripted of any sort, training video, or whatever), I treat the camera original footage like it's gold.

Premiere Pro, of course, has options for handling footage on a memory card in the Ingest tab of the Project Settings window.

***Using USB3

As a freelancer, I've completed more projects than I can count on external drives (from back in the days of SCSI to FireWire to USB3 to Thunderbolt - USB2 was always too slow, even even during the heyday of DV-NTSC).  If I could wave a magic wand and make high capacity, high bandwidth storage available on every workstation or laptop, I would.  (Better yet, if I could make SAN storage available to everyone editing video everywhere, I would.)  As with internal storage, as long as the sustained data transfer rate of the storage media exceeds the data rate fo the edit settings, you're good to go.  There's also making sure that you don't leave important files behind when moving from workstation A to workstation B, but that's something that's relatively easy to learn.

I'd have the lab users opt for USB3 mobile SSD drives first (or the newer, high bandwidth USB3 Flash drives - just be certain that the read and write speeds are what's needed for the edit settings).  If the project is 1080p, standard USB3 drives will work.  If the project is 2160p or larger and the chosen storage media, whatever it is, isn't fast enough for the native or transcoded media then Premiere Pro's Proxy workflow can be used.  (Side note:  The main thing that I would change about PR's Proxy workflow is being able to start with the proxy files for a more traditional offline/online workflow instead of the high resolution files, but that may never happen.  As Adobe Sensei gets more integrated into Adobe applications, it would also be great to have artificial intelligence comparing proxy clips to high resolution clips should they ever need relinking.)

If the workstations support it and the lab users can afford it, I'd pick Thunderbolt (1, 2 or 3) over USB3.

Desktop drives and RAIDs can also be used, but if a mobile drive works for the project it is much easier to carry around.

Most importantly, I strongly encourage students purchase whichever type of external storage they choose in pairs: one is the primary storage and the other is the backup storage.  Then use a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac) or EaseUS (Windows) to schedule cloning the primary drive to the backup drive on a regular basis (I've always gone with nightly).

Fonts and 3rd party plug-ins are also something to be thinking about, but this has less to do with USB3 mobile drives and more to do with lab users being on different computers at different times.  On the font side, fortunately Adobe made all of Adobe Fonts (formerly TypeKit) available to Creative Cloud users.  I'm not sure I'd set a rule about only using fonts from that library, but it certainly minimizes down time due to missing fonts.

[Douglas_Flanagan]

All good points.  So far I'm not having them transcode, but I'm not ruling it out, either.  I'm having them export in the same format as the sequence (I think) which is similar to Avid's "Same as Source" exporting option(s).  So far I'm teaching just intro courses, so we barely scratch the surface of export options for different end user channels. 

We're all PC so I don't need to worry about Mac compatibility, unless I have a student with a Mac that wants to edit with that.  Ran into the ExFat issue a few times last semester, so now I know to scope that issue out early.

Good info on the font library, thanks!  It has been an adjustment for me coming from Avid, which usually treats text as another asset, once it is created.

[excited_Genie16B8]

The ideal scene is to use only internal drives.  You're in a situation that prevents the ideal scene.  There will be issues.

[Douglas_Flanagan]

Jim_Simon yep, don't I know it.  I hope to eventually get a dedicated server environment going, but for now, this is the environment I have to try to work with.  Agreed that it is less than ideal!

[Christian.Z]

Hello Douglas,

Very interesting discussion going on here

In my humble opinion, the first thing that students need to learn about editing, is developing a solid workflow.
Copying the contents and learning how to archive and backup is really essential.

1- I would definitely copy everything from the Cards to the External, and that would be the only time they will ever need the cards in post. Double and triple check that everything has been copied correctly.

2- Organize on the Drive before opening Premiere: Folder structure and filenames. Learn how to have a solid renaming structure for both files and project files. Usually I rely on sequences for different versions, and different versions of the project files are for backup and whenever a milestone is achieved.

3- If for any reason (USB 3.0 connection included) they face stability and/or performance issues, Enter Proxies!

When they learn how to properly organize themselves and how to fail-proof their editing experience, then comes the learning of actual editing

[pets]

thanks, i understand all your answers.

i am also working with an external usb3.0 drive in the moment, how can i see if the drive's speed is catching up with ppcc? the playback is stuttering because of some .mp4 footage i guess (decoding?)

i thought of moving the project to my internal ssd (1200 mb/s), and remove all unused clips /assets before with a script. i imported round 100 clips and only used 15 in the main sequence

we usually work with 4k raw footage from canon, and i was exporting a project in 2k now. (4k to better zoom in and out and have more options with effects and heavy lumetri color grading)

thanks