PC Systems Integrators: Doomed?

(image courtesy of  ZDNet)

Jason Perlow's article in ZDNet entitled "Post-PC era means mass extinction for personal computer OEMs" predicts demise of PC manufacturing as we know it: Dell and HP will go the way of dinosaurs unless they make dramatic changes.

More importantly for specialty systems integrators like us, the business as we know it will dry up on several fronts.  One, COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) components will be fewer to choose from due to natural migration from desktops and workstations to tablets and laptops.  Two: video editing is changing dramatically as well, migrating from specialty workstations and desktops to (a) mobile platforms including tablets and even phones, and in large scale (studio) environments, eventually to (b) client-server systems where editing can be done on any screen connected to a private cloud.  Considering the advances in web applications, web-based video editing can't be too far off; its feasibility mainly a question of available bandwidth and its costs.  Tablet and Web-based video editing will require very little integration.

Consider the takeaways:

"Give a developer or someone in the scientific/engineering field a lot of back end server power on a private cloud and a professional monitor attached to a thin client, along with technologies like Microsoft’s RemoteFX for server-side GPU rendering of virtual desktops, and the need for those big desktops could entirely disappear."

If you have any doubts, consider that computer performance acceleration always outpaced demand for it in video applications.  10 years ago, you absolutely needed an expensive workstation to work even with mildly compressed SD material.  Today, HD editing is almost child play on sub-$1K laptops, a $2K laptop will afford GPU acceleration in Premiere Pro CS6.  While editing 4K on an ultrabook is probably a pain, the day is near when it will be a reality.

The demand for desktops and workstations steadily drops.

Are PC and specialty integrators doomed?  Yes and no.  We are doomed if we don't adapt and diversify into areas where integration and engineering will still be needed.  Here are some ideas:

• Private clouds.  There are already remote access and VDI technologies at work that focus on speed and not just functionality.  Engineering such private clouds will require serious expertise for some time to come.  While no DCC vendor that I know of, expressly supports VDI, there is little doubt it's coming.
• Focus on mobile.  For every workstation configuration, offer at least one mobile one.  "Desktop replacement" mobile solutions for high resolution video editing will likely need high-speed and possibly fault-tolerant storage and external GPUs; and those are less likely to be purchased from retail than from specialty integrators, for now.
• Collaborative editing and DCC; MAM (Media Asset Management).  Environments with shared and collaborative access to media assets (think Avid Unity, EditShare, Vizrt, CatDV).

Will some content creators still require high-powered desktops and workstations with stacks of expensive GPUs inside?  Probably.  The real question is, will there be nearly as many vendors and integrators offering them in not so distant future?  As Jason points out in his article, "...to that, the answer is a resounding no."

AJA Announces Ki Pro Quad

AJA Ki Pro Quad and Canon Cinema EOS C500

AJA announced today Ki Pro Quad that accepts RAW 4K over SDI, simultaneously (or subsequently) outputting that data via Thunderbolt, and recording compressed signal to SSDs.  "A scaled or cropped output is also simultaneously available for 2K or HD monitoring via dedicated SDI and HDMI connections", says AJA.

The product will be available "later in 2012" for an MSRP of $3,995 US.

Some details are rather sketchy, probably on purpose:

• What are the compression options?  If the Ki Pro Quad is anything like Ki Pro, it will be ProRes and DNxHD.  Yes, the same ProRes that is on its deathbed following a spectacular demise of Final Cut Pro 7 last year and mass exodus of editors to Avid, Adobe and even Sony.  DNxHD could not have been timelier.  No CinemaDNG?
• Thunderbolt (TB) support is coming to Windows this month, although not on the just-released HP's flagship workstations Z820 and Z1.  For now, TB is confined to Macs (iMac, Mac Mini) and Macbooks - which is fine for KPQ, a portable device by design.  Still, with no TB yet on Mac Pros, does KPQ's inclusion of it means there will be a new Mac Pro this year with TB built-in?
• Uncompressed 4K recording?  Thunderbolt can be used to connect to a storage array.  Will KPQ be able to pipe raw uncompressed 4K video straight to a Thunderbolt (TB) array bypassing a computer?  Probably not, although you can connect a KPQ and a TB storage array to the same TB port on an MacBook simultaneously, which may make this uncompressed 4K recording possible.

(I hope you forgive my calling an already laconic "Ki Pro Quad", a "KPQ".  It just sounds good.)

Enjoy the video: spectacular cinematography, fantastic low lighting shallow DOF, giant close ups of Japanese designers and execs.  I wonder what camera it was shot on? Wow, really?

AJA Ki Pro Quad: Efficient 4K workflows. from AJA Marketing on Vimeo.

Premiere Pro CS6: what’s new and changed

See Todd Kopriva's blog for an extensive list of "what's new and changed".  Here are just a few points:

• a trimmed, lithe user interface; less waste, more customization including customizable buttons
• OpenCL support (one some systems) for GPU acceleration
• expanded multi-camera editing
• native support for new formats (such as ARRI Alexa)
• basic color grading built-in; integration with SpeedGrade
• improved dynamic-linking
• full-screen playback on primary monitor - yay!
• uninterrupted playback (while you fiddle with timeline, settings, etc.) - yay!
• new way for hardware manufacturers (AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox, etc.) to write drivers and interface with Premiere Pro; drivers for popular hardware are supposed to be ready by NAB (April 15)

There will be more; stay tuned.

Intel's 720-series SSDs

Intel's new 720-series SSDs are extremely fast, equally expensive, not yet available, and you can't stick one in a laptop. Stop reading now before it gets worse.

A prototype PCIe SSD Intel demoed in 2009

(The product will only slightly resemble the photo on the right that depicts a prototype Intel demoed in 2009.)

Speed.  Intel 720 Series "Ramsdale" SSDs are rumored to have 2.2GB/s read and 1.8GB/s write speeds. That's Gigabytes, not Gigabits - and represents about a 500% to 1000% speed improvement over current SSDs, not to mention being about 15 times faster than regular spinning disks. The device will easily play or record several uncompressed 4K video streams simultaneously and do many other things that previously required a humongous and energy hungry storage array.

Why do I need one.  The kicker isn't the raw speed or extremely low latencies - it's the compactness of it, and the relatively low buy-in.  Before this and similar devices became available, the only way to achieve such performance was a storage box with at least 24 mechanical hard drives or 8+ SSDs with a RAID controller, connected to the host computer via super-fast multi-link SAS or Fibre Channel connections.  The buy-in is usually north of $10K, often $20K for an enterprise-class solution.  Granted, you get a lot more Terabytes with those - however if it's portability and speed you are after vs. raw capacity - this device will likely be calling your name.

Where do I put it?  As there isn't yet a cable connection fast enough to accommodate such speeds - not even Thunderbolt (aka LighPeak) - the only connection offered is 8-lane PCI Express.  Thus, it won't fit inside a laptop, other than externally via a PCIe expander from Magma or JMR.

Prices.  If current SLC SSD prices of over $10 per gigabyte are any indication, a 200GB version should start at over $2000. It may however boot your PC in a scant few seconds undoubtedly motivating some gamers to spring for their wallets.

Real-world applications: ultra-hi-res (like, uncompressed 4K), multi-stream and ultra high speed field video acquisition and monitoring, enterprise data caching and yes, definitely probably some gamers.

Exciting times we live in.

No desktop drives in RAID?

WD Black Caviar

Some of the fastest and well rated large capacity desktop drives are WD Black Caviars. They also 50%-100% less expensive than their "enterprise class" RE4 series siblings. Can you use them in RAIDs? Western Digital says "no" in their spec sheet:

• "Desktop / Consumer RAID Environments - WD Caviar Black Hard Drives are tested and recommended for use in consumer-type RAID applications (RAID-0 / RAID-1).

• "Business Critical RAID Environments – WD Caviar Black Hard Drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications. For all Business Critical RAID applications, please consider WD’s Enterprise Hard Drives that are specifically designed with RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER), are tested extensively in 24x7 RAID applications, and include features like enhanced RAFF technology and thermal extended burn-in testing."

Also in their KB article:

"Western Digital manufactures desktop edition hard drives and RAID Edition hard drives. Each type of hard drive is designed to work specifically as a stand-alone drive, or in a multi-drive RAID environment."

There is more detailed information in that KB article:

"When an error is found on a desktop edition hard drive, the drive will enter into a deep recovery cycle to attempt to repair the error, recover the data from the problematic area, and then reallocate a dedicated area to replace the problematic area. This process can take up to 2 minutes depending on the severity of the issue. Most RAID controllers allow a very short amount of time for a hard drive to recover from an error. If a hard drive takes too long to complete this process, the drive will be dropped from the RAID array. Most RAID controllers allow from 7 to 15 seconds for error recovery before dropping a hard drive from an array. Western Digital does not recommend installing desktop edition hard drives in an enterprise environment (on a RAID controller).

"Western Digital RAID edition hard drives have a feature called TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) which stops the hard drive from entering into a deep recovery cycle. The hard drive will only spend 7 seconds to attempt to recover. This means that the hard drive will not be dropped from a RAID array. While TLER is designed for RAID environments, a drive with TLER enabled will work with no performance decrease when used in non-RAID environments."

In other words, WD is OK with Black Caviars for home and gaming use in RAID0 and 1, and is not OK with using them in external enclosures - even in RAID0.

Compare that to Deskstar 7K3000 desktop hard drives whose maker Hitachi says they are suitable for:

1. "Consumer and commercial computers"
2. "Video editing arrays"

...with no explicit warnings against commercial or enterprise class RAID configurations.

Bottom line, Hitachi supports their desktop drives in high performance arrays while WD doesn't.

What is your experience with using desktop drives in RAIDs?

Quick Disk Benchmark in Windows

If you need to quickly test disk performance of an individual drive in Windows Vista and 7 without downloading any 3rd party tools, use Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSAT) from an administrative command prompt, in the following format:

winsat disk -drive C:

Substitute "C:" with the drive letter you'd like to test. To run command prompt in administrative mode, click "Start", type "cmd" in the search box, wait till "cmd.exe" shows up in the results, right-click on it, click on "run as administrator":

A command prompt box will open:

Type: winsat disk -drive C:

Substitute "C:" with the drive letter you'd like to test; press "Enter".

The command will run a minute or two. Here is what the results will look like:

Highlighted are numbers that are most important: read and write transfer rates.

There might be a million of reasons why you may need to know your individual drives' transfer rates:

• copying from one drive to another takes a long time, and you'd like to know which one is especially slow
• monitoring system health
• finding out if your drives are fast enough for a specific task, e.g. capture and playback uncompressed video.

There are also other tools for testing drive speeds, from benchmark software vendors and hardware manufacturers such as BlackMagic Design and AJA. WinSAT however is already included in a standard Windows installation and may be just the right tool to quickly assess disk transfer rates.

The URL has changed to blog.dv411.com

The company that hosts our web site now allows custom DNS settings - and that means a new and better URL!

blog.dv411.com (the old one was dv411.blogspot.com, just in case you were wondering)

Let's celebrate! Order an HP Z800 workstation at 10% off from now until end of October. Just mention "the blog".