This application brief covers the impact of 4K video technology on storage networks.

1. APPLICATION BRIEF
Movie and TV Industry Migration to 4K
A Killer App for Gen 5 Fibre Channel SANs
For the last several years, production and post-production professionals in the movie and TV industry have
captured, edited and projected video in 2K resolution (2048 pixels wide by 1080 pixels vertical). The industry
is now migrating to faster frame rates and higher resolution 4K video (4096 pixels wide by 2160 pixels
vertical). This doubling of the horizontal resolution and vertical resolution, quadruples the amount of digital
data created. The result for post-production sound and video editors is their ability to perform real-time
editing is bottlenecked by the Fibre Channel SAN infrastructure deployed to support 2K video. Real time
editing of a single stream of uncompressed 4K video requires more than 8Gb/s of SAN bandwidth — making
4K video editing a killer app for Gen 5 Fibre Channel SANs with 16Gb/s bandwidth..
4K Quadruples The Amount of Digital Data
An upgrade to 16Gb Fibre Channel is required to support real-time editing of 4K video. Click on the YouTube button above
to hear about the transition from 2K to 4K.
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2. APPLICATION BRIEF
Shooting in 4K Generates Massive Amounts of Data
Before editing 4K sound and video, the data has to be created with a 4K camera which generates massive
amounts of data. For example, Sony F65 digital cameras are capable of shooting in true 4K resolution. Given
that a typical feature film includes 50-150 hours of footage, that 150 hours in 4K RAW 3D 10-bit 4K format,
requires 273 terabytes of primary storage. If three copies are made, which is the practice at the Chapman
University Film School, 820 terabytes of tape storage is required for backup.
Acquiring Digital Data with a Sony F65 Camera
Sony F65 Camera
Linear Image
10-bit
12-bit
4K RAW (4096 x 2160), 24fps
16-bit
Bitrate
253.125 MB/s
912 GB/hr
303.75 MB/s
1.09TB/hr
405 MB/s
1.46TB/hr
The Sony F65 camera shooting 4K RAW video can generate up to 1.46 terabytes of data every hour. If a crew is shooting 12 hour per day, over
17 terabytes of data storage is needed every day!
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3. APPLICATION BRIEF
Moving 4K Data From Camera to Storage
The source of digital data can be 35mm film cameras or digital cameras. With film cameras, the film must be
scanned to convert the images to a digital format. The transition to 4K has the effect of quadrupling the
amount of time it takes to scan a 35mm film.
The data inside the camera is stored on a Flash memory card. The memory cards are inserted into a Digital
Image Transfer (DIT) stations where the data can be routed to primary storage on SAN. At Chapman
University, the link from the transfer stations was 1GbE. However Ethernet server adapters inside the
transfer stations were recently upgraded to 10GbE adapters which resulted in a 4x increase in throughput
from the transfer station.
Chapman University Film & Digital Camera Data Flows
Upgrading the Digital Image Transfer stations from 1GbE server adapters to 10GbE server adapters increased throughput by 4x. For the crew
on set, this is a critical improvement to daily productivity and helps ensure there are no disruptions to the creative process. Click on the
YouTube button to watch the Chapman CTO talk about DIT.
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4. APPLICATION BRIEF
Moving 4K Data From Storage to Theatre
Once the video data is moved onto a SAN, it’s available for editing. Editing uncompressed data is the most
efficient post-production process. Alternatively, the data can be compressed for off-line editing, and them un
-compressed later to create the final video. However, this adds time and cost to the process.
At Chapman University, each link on their 4Gb Fibre Channel SAN can support real-time editing of 2K video
which requires 2.2Gb of bandwidth. However. Real-time color and sound editing of uncompressed 4K video
requires an upgrade to 16Gb Fibre Channel to support a quadrupling of throughput.
The Need for Gen 5 Fibre Channel Exists When Streaming Data for Real-Time 4K Editing
The SAN at Chapman University must be upgraded from 4Gb to 16Gb Fibre Channel in order to support real-time color and sound editing of
uncompressed 4K video data. Click on the YouTube button to watch a Chapman post-production engineer talk about 4K and SANs.
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5. APPLICATION BRIEF
Use this Heat Map to Match Video Format with SAN Speed Requirement
There are many different video formats. This heat map matches video formats to the SAN needed to support real-time editing or
playback.
MB/s
<100 MB/s
<200MB/s
<400MB/s
<600MB/s
<1,000MB/s
>1,000MB/s
Gb/s
<.8Gb/s
<1.6Gb/s
<3.2Gb/s
<4.8Gb/s
<8.0Gb/s
>8.0Gb/s
FC SAN
4Gb FC
4Gb FC
4Gb FC
8Gb SAN
8Gb FC
16Gb FC
Frame
Rate
YUV 4:2:2
8bit/
16bpp
YUV 4:2:2
10bit/
24bpp
YUV 4:2:2
16bit/
32bpp
RGB
4:4:4
8bit/
24bpp
RGB
4:4:4
16bit/
48bpp
RGB 4:4:4
32bit/
96bpp
Width
Height
Aspect
Ratio
SD 576i/25
720
576
4:3 / 16:9
25 (50i)
21
31
41
31
62
124
SD 480i/30
720
480
4:3 / 16:9
30 (60i)
21
31
41
31
62
124
HD 720p/24
1280
720
16:9
24
44
66
88
66
133
265
HD 1080p/24
1920
1080
16:9
24
100
149
199
149
299
597
HD 1080i/30
1920
1080
16:9
30 (60i)
124
187
249
187
373
746
Academy 2K
1828
1332
1.37:1
24
117
175
234
175
351
701
Digital Cinema 2K
2048
858
2.39:1
24
84
127
169
127
253
506
Digital Cinema 2K
1998
1080
1.85:1
24
104
155
207
155
311
621
Digital Cinema 4K
4096
1714
2.39:1
24
337
505
674
505
1011
2022
HD 2160p/24
3840
2160
16:9
24
398
597
796
597
1194
2389
Digital Cinema 4K
3996
2160
1.85:1
24
414
621
829
621
1243
2486
Academy 4K
3656
2664
1.37:1
24
468
701
935
701
1403
2805
Full Aperture 4K
4096
3112
1.32:1
24
612
918
1224
918
1836
3671
IMAX Digital
5616
4096
1.37:1
24
1104
1656
2208
1656
3312
6625
HD 4320p/24
7680
4320
16:9
24
1593
2389
3185
2389
4778
9555
Red Epic 617
28000
9334
3:1
24
12545
18817
25090
18817
37635
75269
Format
Document # APP2013020 v1
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6. APPLICATION BRIEF
Recent Tips from a Chapman University Post Production Engineer
The following are a few of the lessons Chapman University wants to share about their SAN experience:
 Upgrade PCI cards in digital cameras to 10GbE to get data off Flash cards and onto the SAN faster.
 If your SAN is at 4Gb, skip 8Gb and go right to 16Gb. You’ll need the bandwidth for 4K video editing.
 Build in the bandwidth needed for real-time editing. Otherwise you will spend time rebuilding video that was
compressed and edited offline. Pay me now or pay me later.
Related Links
To learn more about the companies, technologies, and products mentioned in this report, visit the following
web pages:
Chapman University Doge College of Media Arts
YouTube: Managing Digital Media
YouTube: SAN Support for 4K Video
YouTube: IT for Film Making
YouTube: 10GbE for Digital Image Transfer
QLogic 2600 Series 16Gb Fibre Channel Adapters
QLogic 8300 Series 10GbE / 16Gb FC Converged Network Adapters
IT Brand Pulse
About the Author
Frank Berry is founder and senior analyst for IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source of
data and analysis about IT infrastructure, including servers, storage and networking.
As former vice president of product marketing and corporate marketing for QLogic,
and vice president of worldwide marketing for the automated tape library (ATL)
division of Quantum, Mr. Berry has over 30 years experience in the development
and marketing of IT infrastructure.
Document # APP2013020 v1
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