What you need to Edit 4K from Home or Remote

We're all working from home now. People like me who work in post production are all wondering how they can do it. As much as we'd love an all-in-one system for this, there isn't. 

So... what tools are esntial to edit from home? What kind of hard drives do you need? I/O devices? That's where this article comes in. 

Hard Drives & Storage

Internal drives are a lie! They certainly make things look easier when working from one location, but what if you need to move around? You need flexibility. We need to be able to unplug a drive and then plug it into a laptop or another device from work. That and you need to think of redundancy. 

The solution is RAID your drive. 

G-Technology is amazing at this. If one drive fails, plug in another one to rebuild it and save your data. Some of their drives go up to 80TB like the G-Speed Shuttle XL Thunderbolt 3! With this if you put it to a RAID 5, you get 70tb of storage space & redundancy. 

You can see more of the G-Speed shuttle family here!

GPU & Graphics Cards

Most editors use Macs... which shackle you hard especially when it coems to editing with 4K. I've heard from people using MacBook Pro trashcan that the GPU can easily over heat, and I've experienced this myself. A lot of that is due to its bad design. 

With a Windows device, upgrading a GPU is easy. Just unplug it, then plug in your updated version. It's why I switched over a while ago. 

But there is such a thing as eGPU's now available. Razer is really well known in the gamin community. They reccomend a Razer Core X Chroma. Kevin P. McAuliffe from Pro Video Coalition used this. 

"The trick here is that if you have a Thunderbolt 3 connection, everything is plug and play and you’re good to go.  I’m trying to do this with a 2013 MacPro that only has Thunderbolt 2.  There were a few hoops I had to jump through to get things working right, but when I did, my CPU was super happy with my new eGPU," he said. 

Once installed, it's just a matter pf choosing what graphics card you want to use. You'll need something powerful. Kevin reached out to AMD (since he uses Macs) and got a hold of the AMD Radeon Pro WX9100 card. You'll be spending money upgrading your computer, and this is one area you CANNOT overlook or under spend. You'll regret doing so in the long run. Spend the money on a good graphics card.

I/O Devices

These are used to both display or capture footage. There is Avid Hardware for Avid users like the DNxIV or the more powerful DNxIQ. These are what we recommend the most. And if you don't think you need one, you might as well not be a serious editor. You never know when you'll need to record a screen or other device. These will save you a lot of the hassle. 

 Monitors

If you're doing any basic color grading, you need a good monitor. I reccomend using a BenQ EL2780U which will blow you away. It's a 28 inch 4K monitor with HDR. It also has 2 HDMI ports and one DP input. Of course it was made for gaming, which can work great for video editors who aren't looking to spend a bunch of money on a monitor. This is perfect for you also utilizing many different color spaces other than REC709. 

Scopes

Scopes are so important for editors. But there aren't just hardware options available. There is also software. 

I recommend Scopebox from Divergent Media. 

This software works wonderfully with programs like Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro X, Adobe After Effects, Davinci Resolve, and more.  

What Else?

So you got the basics? What's next? As a colorist, I am often frustrated by having to just use my mouse and keyboard. So I invested in a Tangent Wave 2. It automatically sets up for Davinci Resolve (which is what i use to color). But this isn't an entry level color board. There's also the Ripple which I recommend more for beginners just getting into coloring. 

With all of these, you're ready to edit! Remember, you want to create as an editor. Make yourself future proof by doing this. These are my recommendations to get you started and squared away! Happy editing!

Read the original article here!