Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
CPU
Internal
160 GB
disk
1 GB
of
RAM
To be added later
LaCie
1 TB
Bigger
Disk
Internal
160 GB
disk
LaCie
500 GB
Big Disk
Firewire
Interface
Figure 29-14
Small compression system for a single user.
As far as processing power is concerned, a G5 would be nice, but this user can
accomplish what is needed with a late-model G4 that would be priced competitively now
that it has been discontinued. Fitted with 1 GB of memory and a couple of 160 GB inter-
nal drives, it should provide fast-enough local storage and sufficient memory to run the
compression jobs in a reasonable time.
An alternative would be a Windows workstation running at about 2 GHz and simi-
larly equipped with memory and disk space. That same workstation could easily run Linux
if it were preferred.
29.21.2
Small Workgroup Sharing Some Storage—Medium Cost
This system is a little more complex because it has to serve the needs of a team. These folks
are cranking out a 30-minute animated film every 2 weeks and they need to run some
automated processes on it. Those processes are identical and include some up-sampling
and compression.
The input material is a raw render-output file. The program is 30 minutes long and
the raster size is designed to broadcast as one of the low-spec HDTV resolutions, so it is
rendered at 1080
720 progressive at 25 fps. There is no editing necessary, but the file must
be up-sampled to 1920
×
1080 at 25 fps. Then a 30-fps pulldown master must be made,
and finally NTSC and PAL SDTV versions must be down-sampled from the original.
The up- and down-sampling and frame-rate changes can be accomplished with Adobe
After Effects.
The files then need to be compressed for DVD (region 1 and region 2) and also a low-
bit-rate comp must be made for demos on a laptop.
Our input file will be 100 GB to start with. Table 29-3 lists the output files that must
be created for just one episode.
That compression workstation will require a workspace of 1 TB per episode being
processed. A FireWire drive is a good alternative to use. Attach it to the render station and
move it to the compression system when you need to.
Because these folks are cranking out these episodes every fortnight or even week and
they plan to make 26 or 52 of them, there is a good case for building a huge RAID-based
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