Need help with NAS setup for live event

[kissvid]

Hello all,

I am reaching out to all of you for help with an upcoming event. This is brand new to me and seems to be a good work flow choice for what I need to do. Let me explain. I am open to hearing other suggestions as well.

I am filming a live Dance competetion. The event is held in 2 hotel ballrooms. In each room I am capturing the action using a camera hooked up via firewire to a laptop and recording with Adobe Onlocation to an external WD Passport drive via USB. I have someone at the laptop renaming the files as the event is going on. I have a helper come in every hour and switch out the WD passport then take the drive back to my sales table and transfer the files to each laptop so that customers may view the routines prior to purchasing. Right now, the transfer process at the sales table has to happen 4 separate times because I have 4 laptops. It takes quite a while to do.

What I want now is help. Someone told me about a NAS. They said I can get this device so that I can load once to the NAS and then have all 4 of my lap tops just access the files from the NAS by using a hub. Is this possible? I mean can this be done and have 4 laptops access files and still play them smoothly?? The person that told me about this was someone I met in passing. I can really use anyone's help with this. I hope I was clear in my explanation. Please help me.

Marc

[Nelson37]

Yes that can be done but performance could be an issue, particularly with two captures at the same time.

Why are the files being transferred at all? Continuous demo for sales while recording must resume? NAS should be fine for playback only, even four files at once. Recording would be a concern, though.

More USB drives might be a cheaper way to go.

You could also network the laptops and share the USB drive, you would need to test playback this way. OR, transfer once to a shared directory on the laptop's main drive, and all four could access this with a central switch, or hub. Setup a shared directory on each of the four, if space is a concern.

I'm just personally not a fan of NAS boxes.

[dragonkeeper]

It really depends on the NAS and how it is set up but yes it can be done. Currently I have a make shift NAS setup and I was able to play a movie at 1080P into 6 locations at my home. I'm using a freeNas server which i built from parts i had laying around.