Cloud Pod for digital nomad

Do you have questions about Desktop Video, Converters, Routers and Monitoring?
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BrucePPV

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Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostFri Apr 29, 2022 5:32 pm

Two things:
1. I love new tech (bright, shiny things)
2. I'm a digital nomad (I'm on a laptop since carrying around a desktop setup isn't really practical)

When I first saw the new Cloud options, I got excited at the possibility of really being able to work with clients in real time. But then I started thinking about it and have a couple of questions before I spend at least $400 (I'm also considering the Cloud Mini since it has 8TB of storage built in but with my budget right now the Pod is my best option).

The Pod has an ethernet port, but my laptop has only a Thunderbolt 4 port. Would I still be able to connect the Pod?

At the moment I'm in TX. If I want to collaborate with a client in CA, would Cloud Pod allow me to do this (in real time)?

Thanks
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Peter Chamberlain

Blackmagic Design

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostThu May 05, 2022 2:35 am

moved to post forum
DaVinci Resolve Product Manager
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Trevor Asquerthian

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostThu May 05, 2022 5:58 am

Hopefully someone with direct cloud pod experience will chime in but in the meantime...

You're going to need a hub or converter to get to the 10Gbe. (Pretty sure the usb c connectors are only for external SSDs ATM?) Qnap offer usb c to 5GBe that might be useful.

But the cloud pod media collaboration is via Dropbox, so you could do that with your client without needing the pod (or use Google Drive etc or use LucidLink or SyncThing etc...).

The project collaboration, aiui, is seperate to the pod. And looks very interesting. But does require both you and your client edit with Resolve.
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greghacke

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostTue May 10, 2022 7:29 pm

I got the Cloud Pod today and have attached a few TB of storage. Overall, it's what I expected - clean interfaces, quick setup, and data syncing.

My only lurch is I don't use the Dropbox > Apps folder for my work. Sounds silly right? Thing is, the only option I have when connecting to Dropbox as far as mount points on there are within the Apps folder.

It's weird. Nothing I can't get over - I just don't want to move 1+TB of files.

Greg
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kinvermark

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostWed May 11, 2022 2:38 am

@greghacke,

Rough estimate of read/write speed?

10gbe network, but 5gbe USB interfaces, so..... maybe 400-500 MB/s?
Windows 10 laptop. Intel i7-10750H, 32GB RAM, Nvidia 4070 ti Super eGPU, SSD disks. Resolve Studio (latest)
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Filippo Rossi

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostFri May 13, 2022 9:49 am

kinvermark wrote:@greghacke,

Rough estimate of read/write speed?

10gbe network, but 5gbe USB interfaces, so..... maybe 400-500 MB/s?


I think that's a speed cap you'll encounter anyway. The USB-C 3.0 used in the cloud pod has a maximum transfer speed of around 540 MB/s, so from a file copy standpoint a 10G ethernet port isn't really adding much. I don't know if it's the same for the read speed and I'll leave it to people more knowledgeable than me, but for the write speed you're bounded to the limitations of the usb protocol built in the pod.
Filippo Rossi
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shenrods

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostSun May 15, 2022 1:03 pm

I have the cloud pod and did work through a couple of minor issues that seem to be common and annoying but easily overcome.
First - during set-up, we have the issue of the software update required and gives you a message it is not configured for update via ethernet. Simple fix - run a USB c cable (for me from a Mac Studio Max) to the pod and it updates. Then you go to cloud pod settings and change it to allow it to use both ethernet and USB.

Second - I have an issue since I do not have 10GBE in my studio and was running basically a 1GBE network. The connection between the Mac Studio and the Pod kept dropping - have the same issue with the Atem Mini Pro Iso - the simple fix is to go into the ethernet settings on the Mac Studio (unhook the ethernet cable when you do it or it does not let you change) and change from automatic to manual configuration and set it up as 1000mbe. That solves the disconnect problem.

Now - I did get a free Dropbox account since I did not have one - but that was a pain since I normally use Sync.com. No real need to use Dropbox and that client was sent to the trash and you can set up the folders you want to sync with your cloud storage using the sync client. Not a big issue. Blackmagic says they will be developing interfaces for Google drive and others - remember this is Beta.

My impression of the Cloud Pod - it basically becomes a poor man's NAS - pure and simple. If you have a NAS and I do, and it has USB ports on the back you can use them to hook up SSD drives and other external storage. The advantage of the cloud Pod is it is small and you can have it in your workspace and is quiet. I have two small portable drives Samsung T7 for ongoing projects and a WD 5GB for my stock images and footage library that is used on multiple projects. It is a quick set up and I can see it from any computer on my network - so - hence it is in one way a poor man's NAS in a way - :) But it does give you a place to have your Davinci Resolve work for network access and sync it with both the cloud storage and the project folder on Blackmagic Cloud. So it is also an organizing tool if you choose to look at it that way. The important thing for me is the collaboration tools from Blackmagic - that is what gives it real power.
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Roger Singh

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostWed May 18, 2022 3:47 am

I like the idea of the cloud pods for location/remote editors/directors that are not familiar running a self hosted system. As you said, the cloud pods is an easy and low cost way to make a little mini NAS.

I just don't understand why go the Dropbox route and not something like Syncthing that is direct peer to peer. My guess is ultimately with Dropbox, you don't have to worry about opening ports. It's understandable, since a lot of people don't know or don't have access to change it.

A way to solve this is by implementing something Ike Zerotier into the pods. To me, it works better than wireguard for creating project based VPN, and no worries about opening ports. Then using a service like syncthing works perfect.

It would have been great if they created a controller software that runs in a container for people with a NAS already. It feels too much to set up a separate cloud store NAS just to sync with people with cloud pods.

But thinking out loud as I type this, I suppose you can just install rclone browser container on a NAS and sync with the Dropbox account that way, which then syncs with the cloud pods.
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kaz911

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Re: Cloud Pod for digital nomad

PostWed Jun 08, 2022 5:51 am

I was interested in the "Cloud" products until I realised BM is using DropBox.

I could understand BM using DropBox 5 years ago. But today?

There are much better options BM could have implemented. There are so many sync options, including opensource, and of all of them DropBox are one of the worst and slowest - and shared folders consume data allowance from EACH users "availability" - not only the "master" sharing the data.

So my suggestion: At least implement Rsync or similar as a minimum. So a product that might be slightly less easy to setup but at least does not tie one in with DropBox.

So I do hope BM will find better ways to sync - at least if they want me as a customer for their cloud products.

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