The Cloud Store Mini is a cloud-enabled NAS (network attached storage) device. It differs from other storage devices because it utilizes four 2Gb NVMe M.2 Drives running in RAID 0. The NVMe protocol could be the secret sauce, because it is best suited for sequential data reads and writes, meaning it packs the most punch when editing video at higher resolutions and moving large amounts of data.
If you have ever done anything with network storage, you know what a hassle it is. Setting up the NAS (network-attached storage) and accessing it are bad enough, but maintenance, care and feeding are equally painful. With things like Google Drive and Dropbox, file sharing should be much easier, but it isn’t. Those services are convenient, to be sure, but it’s not really feasible to upload 4K multi-cam raw footage to Drive and then download it once you get home to edit. In fact, unless you are driving cross-country that isn’t really possible. This gets exacerbated in the church world with regular seven-day deadlines, time is critical, and time wasted waiting on files is borderline criminal. Enter the Blackmagic Design Cloud Store Mini.
The Blackmagic Design Cloud Store Mini 8TB has earned the Church Production Road-test certification.
Marcel Patillo from Church of the City digs deep into how the Blackmagic Design Cloud Store Mini 8TB can help alleviate many of the pain points of video storage and help make your church's video workflow more efficient.
The Cloud Store Mini is a cloud-enabled NAS. It differs from other storage devices because it utilizes four 2Gb NVMe M.2 Drives running in RAID 0. For those not in the know, M.2 is the form factor of the drive; it looks similar to a stick of RAM. NVMe is the interface protocol, like SATA; in most cases, this is a little connector on the short side of the drive, unlike RAM, which connects on the long side. The NVMe protocol is best suited for sequential data reads and writes, meaning it packs the most punch when editing video at higher resolutions and moving large amounts of data. The RAID 0 formatting is designed for speed; the data is broken into parts and stored across multiple drives simultaneously. The risk-averse among you have already checked out because, as you suspect that means there are no redundancies and no way to restore lost or corrupted data.
The Cloud Store Mini 8TB offers professional-grade connectivity, while being small enough to move around the office or toss in a backpack to take a project home to finish.
However, the cloud portion of the device automatically uploads directly to Google Drive or Dropbox once installed. So it is possible to shoot for the day and automatically upload to one of these cloud services giving you access to those files anywhere. The value added to the Cloud Store is attaching it to Blackmagic Cloud, allowing multiple people to work collaboratively on the same DaVinci Resolve project. This is great for teams large enough to delegate work, having one user focus on color, one focus on editing, and the third dedicated to editing vertical social posts. All of them can have access to the same raw footage and timelines; they can chat in Resolve and will be notified of changes other users have made. Those people don’t have to share a network; they could be located remotely if there is a Cloud Store syncing at both locations.
Connectivity is a huge reason why the Cloud Store Mini 8TM could be a huge problem solver for your church. It can even be run off a battery.
The Cloud Store can be connected to the USB-C port or the 10G or 1G Ethernet ports. There are also two ways to power the Cloud Store: via IEC or the 12V DC power port, which could be used from a battery. There is also an HDMI port for monitoring things like status, user connections, speed graphs and a storage map. Beyond that, the Cloud Store Mini is small enough to go in a backpack, which is no small feat for a RAID 0 NAS.
For more information on the Blackmagid Design Cloud Store Mini 8T, please visit: blackmagicdesign.com.
