Recommended NAS for Deluxe eCinema transfers?

[Bryan Poole]

heylo!

I'm new here. Hi! I am a projectionist at a small arthouse theater in Athens, GA. We have 3 screens with 3 Barco projectors/servers that are all connected via a LAN. We have been getting DCP's mailed to us, but are looking to switch to Deluxe's eCinema to download and ingest them instead.

Do y'all have any suggestions for a mid-range NAS that would be suitable for us?

4 or 8TB seems ok to start with.

thanks!
BP

[James Gardiner]

I would get a small server, Dell, or build your own server, and run cinema-catcher-app on it. It can download content from FTP sources automatically and then act as a long term ingest source for all your projectors. Plus has some other features too. i.e. AutoKDM, and player KDM check.

[Marin Zorica]

I always install synology rs819, rs822 or so. They are 1U rack up ti 4 hdd bay with raid off course. Last one i just did is around 45GB, because they have all other content on it besides dcp. Plus you have 2 to 4 ethernet ports so i always config one for internal network with projectors/server, other for controll, 3rd internet etc.... You can have under synology Station also to set up direct download, but don't know how is going to work with you're deluxe or so. Often my client line to have them download manualy, so they just clock on link when they receive it via email and download to nas from either pc they have in range with nas. Mostly manager do it or so, so when operator comes all content is waiting on nas to be ingested to server.

[Ryan Gallagher]

SXSW is a fan of SimpleDCP for their festival distribution, and they use QNAP brand NAS that get disbursed to all the venues,

[Ryan Gallagher]

For specific models, this year it was the 1U 4 drive NAS unit:
https://www.cdw.com/product/qnap-ts-...device/7106137

Previous years were a desktop model similar to:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...nas_intel.html

[Gordon McLeod]

I understood that one had to use a qnap nas that they supplied with their firmware on it

[Ryan Gallagher]

I understood that one had to use a qnap nas that they supplied with their firmware on it

Perhaps, I was not citing it as SimpleDCP compatible, just that it is a brand/model they trust.

[Armand Daiguillon]

heylo!

I'm new here. Hi! I am a projectionist at a small arthouse theater in Athens, GA. We have 3 screens with 3 Barco projectors/servers that are all connected via a LAN. We have been getting DCP's mailed to us, but are looking to switch to Deluxe's eCinema to download and ingest them instead.

Do y'all have any suggestions for a mid-range NAS that would be suitable for us?

4 or 8TB seems ok to start with.

thanks!
BP

Personally I would go a different route - buy any regular computer (with at least 5TB storage) and use it as a TMS (I like GDC's TMS software) it will ingest everything from your deluxe server and send and program the projectors. Regardless of what some may say, any computer will do for a TMS, you don't need one with RAID (its better, but not needed) with content on all the projectors, you have sufficient redundancy/backup. Getting a TMS will be a better overall solution for your operation. Good luck !

[Scott Norwood]

I can't speak to it in a cinema context, but Synology's products have impressed me in the past as being well-designed and reliable.

[Jim Cassedy]

The corporate IT guys have been installing Synology NAS's in almost all the venues that
my theater chain is part of, although I don't know the model number offhand. At first they
were going to actually send somebody out to put it in, but to save time, and probably
travel expenses, they had me do the physical installation of mounting it in the racks and
and getting it connected to our network(s). (One port connects to the theater management
network switch, and the other 3 ports went to the media network switch) Once I did that,
the IT guys did all the rest of the configuration and integration into our TMS remotely.
It's been in place for about 6 months and hasn't given any problems. "It just works".

[Ryan Gallagher]

Wish we had something (anything), the number of failed signiant DLs that have failed cause someone bumped a laptop usb cable, or just the sheer time saving of downloading direct to a network share, and moving to projector via ftp would be huge.

but as a small non-profit most of their IT infrastructure is cloud based, if I had a synolgy I’d have the largest file server in the business. Not dealing with internet distribution 95% of the time, and being non-film events 70% of the year, means this stuff is not on anyone’s budget radar.

[Ed Gordon]

I can't speak to it in a cinema context, but Synology's products have impressed me in the past as being well-designed and reliable.

Same here Scott. I have be using Synology NAS for years now. I have never had a problem with them. As Jim said above, "It just works".

[Miguel Moreno]

I would get a small server, Dell, or build your own server, and run cinema-catcher-app on it. It can download content from FTP sources automatically and then act as a long term ingest source for all your projectors. Plus has some other features too. i.e. AutoKDM, and player KDM check.

how can i get the cinema-catcher-app?

[James Gardiner]

If you google cinema-cacher-app

https://github.com/jamiegau/cinema-catcher-app

should be at the top of the results.
It goes through how to install the tool.