Shared storage for small creative teams.
The media needs one home that every editor can reach, at a speed that keeps playback smooth, with a copy somewhere else. We size it from your footage, set it up and write down how it works.
Quick answer
Shared storage for a small creative team is usually a NAS on a wired network, sized from your codecs, hours of footage and active projects, then backed up to a second place. We choose the hardware, set up folders and permissions, wire the network and test playback with your editing app.
Why small teams outgrow their drives.
- 01
Two people need the same clip
External drives move between machines. As soon as two editors, or an editor and a colorist, need the same media at once, copying files starts and versions drift.
- 02
The network is the bottleneck
Gigabit Ethernet tops out around 125 MB/s in theory, and a little less in practice, shared by everyone on the link. A few streams of high bitrate footage can use it up. Faster links such as 10GbE exist for this reason.
- 03
RAID is not a backup
Redundant drives keep a NAS running when one disk fails. They do not protect against deletion, a corrupt project, theft or a power surge that takes the whole box. A separate copy does.
- 04
Capacity was a guess
Buying whatever fits the budget leads to a full volume in the middle of a project. Capacity comes from arithmetic on your formats, and the working is simple.
- 05
Permissions grew by accident
Everyone is an administrator, folders are named after whoever made them and nobody remembers why. It works until a freelancer joins or a client asks who can see their footage.
Sizing, with the working shown
Storage per hour of footage.
Apple publishes approximate target data rates for ProRes at 1920x1080 and 29.97 fps. Divide by eight for megabytes per second, multiply by 3,600 for gigabytes per hour. Actual files vary with image content, frame size and frame rate, so use this as a starting point and not a quote.
ProRes 422 HQ
About 220 Mbps
220 divided by 8 is about 27.5 MB/s, which is about 99 GB for each hour of one stream.
- Common high quality editing codec
- Four hours is about 400 GB
ProRes 422
About 147 Mbps
About 18.4 MB/s, which is about 66 GB for each hour of one stream.
- A step down in size
- Four hours is about 265 GB
ProRes 422 LT
About 102 Mbps
About 12.8 MB/s, which is about 46 GB for each hour of one stream.
- Lighter files for long recordings
ProRes 422 Proxy
About 45 Mbps
About 5.6 MB/s, which is about 20 GB for each hour of one stream.
- What a proxy workflow moves around
The options
NAS, direct-attached drives or cloud.
Each one suits a different team. Many studios use a NAS as the main store and cloud storage as the off site copy.
NAS on a wired network
The usual answer for 2 to 25 peopleTools: Synology, QNAP and similar
A box of drives on the network that everyone mounts like a folder. It is one place for media and projects, with permissions per person and per folder.
Advantages
- Several people use the same media at once
- Permissions and snapshots built in
- Can serve remote editors through secure access
Considerations
- Needs a proper wired network, often with 10GbE for heavier work
- Needs updates and a person to watch alerts
- Not a backup on its own
Direct-attached drives and enclosures
One editor, one machineTools: Thunderbolt and USB drives
Fast and simple for one person. It becomes a courier problem when a second person needs the media.
Advantages
- Fast for the machine it is attached to
- No network needed
- Low cost
Considerations
- Shared by moving it
- Easy to lose or drop
- No central permissions or alerts
Cloud storage
For teams with no officeTools: Cloud file storage and sync services
Media lives with a provider and each editor reaches it from anywhere. It suits remote teams, and the limits are bandwidth at each end and the monthly cost as capacity grows.
Advantages
- Reachable from anywhere
- No hardware to maintain
- Easy to add capacity
Considerations
- Playback depends on each editor's connection
- Recurring cost grows with the data
- Restoring a large amount takes time
What we set up
Shared storage, start to finish.
A sizing note
A one-page working from your cameras, codecs and active projects, with growth built in, so you can see why we recommended the size.
The NAS and the network behind it
Hardware chosen for your workload, a wired network with the right switch, and settings tested for your editing app.
Folders and permissions
A layout that matches how you work, named accounts and access by project, so adding or removing a person is one step.
Alerts and a backup plan
Drive health alerts that reach a named person, and a second and off site copy so a NAS failure is an inconvenience.
Before you hire anyone
What to ask any IT provider.
Ask us the same questions. A good answer is specific and can be checked.
How did you arrive at this capacity?
They show the arithmetic from your footage. If the answer is a product tier with no working, ask again.
Will you test with our editing app and our files?
Yes, ideally a real project on the real network, with the result written down.
Which brand do you recommend, and why?
A reason based on your workload, and willingness to say when something outside their usual list suits you better.
What is the plan when a disk fails?
A hot spare or a stocked replacement, an alert to a named person and a written replacement procedure.
Where is the second copy?
On different storage in a different place, not on the same shelf.
Questions people ask
Do we need 10GbE?
Not always. A few editors working with lighter files may be fine on gigabit. Several simultaneous streams of high bitrate footage push you toward 10GbE. We test before recommending a switch.
Synology or QNAP?
Both are common in small studios, and each has strengths. We recommend based on your workload, the software features you need and your budget, and we will say so if something else suits you better.
Is a NAS the same as a backup?
No. A NAS keeps working when a disk fails, but it can still lose files to deletion, corruption or theft. Keep a separate copy elsewhere. Our backups page covers it.
Can we start small and grow?
Yes. We size for today with room to add, and tell you what the first expansion step would be.
Do you support the NAS afterward?
We can handle monitoring, updates and capacity planning, or hand it to your IT person with written documentation.
Plug us in. Tell us what your studio runs on.
Tell us what you see on screen. A person on our production consulting team reads it and replies, usually with the first thing to check.
Keep reading
How a small studio moves from loose drives to a NAS in stages, without losing a project.
The 3-2-1 rule for footage and projects, off site copies, immutability and restore tests.
QNAP, Synology, EditShare and TrueNAS shared storage for editorial teams.
Per-client access, shared storage, remote review and backups for a small post house.
Choosing the right NAS for a post-production environment is more nuanced than specs alone. We break down the top options for small and mid-size studios in Los Angeles.
A practical comparison of Thunderbolt and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity for creative studio workflows, covering bandwidth, distance, cost, and real-world use cases for each.
Ten signs that portable drives are holding your edit team back, what shared storage fixes, and when a single fast drive with backups is still the right answer.
Editing from a NAS over Wi-Fi leads to stutter and disconnects. Learn what Wi-Fi is good for, what to use instead, and how to move an editor onto a wired link.
Describe your studio and we will take it from there.
A real person on our team reads every request and replies within one business day.