Update: Our Set up

Chuck recently posted about our computing setup here in the Communications Ministry. Here's some updates including links and more technical info about what we're using. I'm taking his previous post and updating it:

We have 6 computers in an office suite separated from our main office area. They all run Windows XP Pro unless otherwise stated. They are set up as follows:

Station 1 - Video Editing Suite

Dell Precision 690 (1x Xeon 5130 2.0GHz Dual-Core , 2GB RAM, NVIDIA QuadroFX 3450, 146GB 15k-rpm boot disk, Firewire)
Adobe Production Premium CS3
2 Dell 20" Wide Screen Displays
2 KRK Rokit 5 Nearfield Monitors (w/ Auralex pads)
JVC MiniDV Tape Deck
1 standard VCR, 2 standard DVD players
Contour Designs Shuttle Pro
Adaptec U320 SCSI card
Calvary's standard Software Suite
Nero 7 Ultra Edition
HP StorageWorks LTO-3 Tape Drive (this backs up our multi-terabyte storage on the server)

Station 1 is our primary capturing/clip ingest station. However, we're currently putting together a little patching system to allow either editing suite to ingest/capture clips from tape/dvd/vcr.

Station 2 - Video Editing Suite

Dell Precision 650 (PDF) (2x P4-based Xeon 2.80GHz, 2GB RAM, Matrox Parhelia 128MB, 2x 146GB 15k-rpm disks, Firewire)
Adobe Production Premium CS3
1 Dell 20" Display
Generic Speakers
1 Contour Designs Shuttle Xpress
Calvary's standard Software Suite
Nero 7 Ultra Edition
Epson Perfection 3590 Scanner

DVD Production:

Rimage DVD Duplicator connected to a Dell Optiplex GX270 (PDF) computer. The system is networked, and all production/duplication tasks can be done from any computer on our network (with the proper Rimage software installed).

Station 3 (Communications Director) - Graphics/Video Editing

Dell Optiplex GX620 (Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB RAM, Radeon X300, 120GB boot disk, RAID-1 backup array)
Adobe Master Collection
1 Dell 20" Wide Screen Display
Wacom Cintiq LCD Tablet as Second Display
Calvary's standard Software Suite
Nero 7 Ultra Edition

Chuck uses this computer for a little bit of everything (web design, FLASH development, Photoshop/Illustrator design work, InDesign print work, video production when necessary, etc)

Station 4 (Communications Director) - Laptop

IBM T43 Laptop (Centrino 1.86GHz, 2GB RAM, Radeon X300, 60GB disk)
KVM to enable use with the Desktop computer (Station 3)
Calvary's standard Software Suite
Nero 7 Ultra Edition

Station 5 (Communications Associate) - Graphic Design

Dell Optiplex GX620 (Pentium D 2.80GHz, 2GB RAM, Radeon X300, 120GB boot disk)
Adobe Master Collection
1 Wacom Cintiq 21" Graphics Tablet Display
22" CRT Display
Epson Perfection 3590 Scanner
Calvary's standard Software Suite
Nero 7 Ultra Edition

We primarily use the Adobe Creative Suite (CS3) to do all of our Communications work.  We prefer to edit video on Premiere Pro CS3 over Avid and Final Cut because of how nicely it integrates into our work flow with our other Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver, After Effects, etc.).  We do have a copy of Avid Express DV on hand in case we ever need it, but we rarely use it.  Some freelance vendors we work with use Final Cut on their Mac workstations and we just have them give us a DV-stream or mpg to bring into our workflow.

Communications Server (located elsewhere)

HP NAS 4000s (runs Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Storage Server)
PC-Pitstop x8 DAS RAID unit (connected to the NAS 4000s)

The communications server is primarily a fileserver for the large

Station 6 - IT Specialist

IBM T43 Laptop (Centrino 1.86GHz, 2GB RAM, Radeon X300, 60GB boot disk, 100GB ultrabay disk)
DVD Burner
VMWare Workstation
Treesize Professional
Acronis True Image Workstation
GetDataBack for NTFS
WinSCP
Putty
Calvary's standard Software Suite
Nero 7 Ultra Edition
7-Zip
Multiple Network Management tools, utilities
Multiple pieces of OSS
Acer 22" widescreen display
Winsplit Revolution
KVM for connection of other computers, servers, etc. for work and maintenance

I (Shawn) spend a good amount of my time doing Network admin tasks (mostly web or remote admin based), handling helpdesk requests, and helping the staff get good processes put in place for ACS (our "Church Management" software).

Comments

[Chuck]

Thanks for the update!

[Chuck]

Thanks for the update, Shawn!