Known Bottlenecks

Assuming a high-efficiency and problem-free capture environment (latest version of CO running with no issues, with no previous versions on the machine and all preferences optimized; Mac Pro 8 Core 2.66GHz with 16 GB RAM and 4x2TB internal striped RAID with lots of empty space), what does the professional community and Phase One developers believe to be the most common bottlenecks to high-volume shooting? In other words, assuming that there are no actual errors or fixable problems with our current set up, what are the remaining factors that would produce slowdowns, like delays in rendering or spinning Mac pinwheels?

Is it the limitation of the camera buffer (in this case, a tethered Canon 5d Mark II)? The inefficiency of the USB cord?

Consider this an attempt to reach the true ideal: zero waiting time. We're very close, and I'm very happy with CO. My question, as a professional, is how else we might bring about that truly 100% efficient work environment.

All comments and observations welcome!

Thanks.

rap_digital

July 07, 2010 09:24

I find hair and makeup to be the greatest bottleneck on set. 😄
With computers you are only as fast as the slowest part so there are always going to be bottlenecks.

As a digital tech i was recently asked to consult on the workflow of a major retailer and while I was able to write some scripts that would help cut turn around times the one thing that took 70% of the time it takes to get a image from digital capture to ready for print was client approval.

But that's not really what you are talking about. I recently installed a ssd into one of my capture towers as a shoot to drive and the speed up has been subtle but there (I've not bothered to try measure it) I'd probably see another speed up by having a ssd as the boot drive aswell, but I'm waiting on the new towers to be released ❗️ .

The assumption that your system is optimized is a big one! That raid-0 volume is that also the boot volume? And the preferences are you really utilizing the full power of keyboard shortcuts? And how many images are you allowing to go into one folder? The list goes on. On this consulting gig I had recently it was really interesting to be able to sit back and watch one of the techs that I trained do their thing and be able to see where the inefficiencies really lay and the only way to really narrow them down and speed them up is to observe and then create a complete workflow. I'm no expert but it was great to be able to step away and see the whole process as a set of problems to fix.

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