Sportscene Relies on Sonnet Fusion F2 RAID

Sonnet Technologies, Inc. announced that its Fusion F2 portable 2-drive RAID storage system was utilized by Sportscene, a media production service, for coverage of the 2009 International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Slalom World Championships in the Spanish Pyrenees.

For the on-location production of event video news flashes, the rugged Fusion F2 provided Sportscene fast and reliable data storage, with the convenience of operation without the need for external AC power.

At the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, Sportscene filmed the races, audience, and venue, in addition to interviewing athletes and coaches. At the end of each day, a video news flash was produced, which was uploaded on YouTube and made available to broadcasters globally via satellite transmission. The event was shot in ‘commando style,’ with a roving camera that shoots in native QuickTime and uses SDHC memory cards. Afterwards, footage was edited on location in Final Cut Pro using a 17-inch MacBook Pro.

"In the past, I’ve experienced numerous challenges when editing in the field, especially when storing media. I had previously used the internal hard drive on my MacBook in conjunction with 1TB portable drives, which couldn’t be set up in a mirrored configuration," said Rob Van Bommel, owner of Sportscene. "Because of this limitation, I always had to keep a backup of the footage on my laptop since it was faster than working with the portable drives, which slowed the laptop down in key tasks such as editing and rendering. Furthermore, the portable drives were large and required external AC power bricks, so I frequently couldn’t take them with me in the field."

To address these issues, Sportscene purchased Sonnet’s Fusion F2 portable 2-drive 1TB RAID storage system. The Fusion F2 is a rugged, compact device measuring about six inches on each side with a 3⁄4-inch profile. It features two eSATA data connections and is designed for use with the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 adapter for the MacBook Pro and Windows notebooks. Although the unit communicates via eSATA, it draws power from a FireWire 400 port for truly portable operation. To protect priceless field footage, Fusion F2’s drives can be configured in RAID 1 mirrored mode, and still can capture Apple ProRes HQ HD fed from an AJA Io HD.

"For this event, the F2 enabled me to create my daily video news flashes on location with a minimum amount of equipment. The product’s small size enables it to fit easily in a backpack, making it great for travel and provides flexibility in the field," added Bommel. "Configuring its drives in mirror mode allowed me to protect my footage and eliminate the need to back up on the laptop, and because of its eSATA interface, read and write transfer speeds are much faster than the internal drive on my MacBook."

The Fusion F2 (part # FUS-F2-1000M7) is available at a suggested price of U.S. $549. The Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 (part # TSATAII-PRO-E34) has a suggested retail price of U.S. $199.95.