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AMP's Final Touch System Configuration Guide

With the exciting introduction of the Final Touch software from Silicon Color, the first complete color correction and finishing tool set exclusively for Macintosh, many of you are discovering the wide array of possible configurations, ranging from simple setups to full control surfaces from multiple manufacturers. This guide is intended to give all Silicon Color resellers a quick reference guide for both the minimum recommended requirements for the base systems, as well more fully featured set-ups, including storage, monitoring, and control surfaces. Currently, there are three versions of Final Touch software, Final Touch SD, Final Touch HD, and Final Touch 2K.

The Base system requirements for all three products are the same, but the storage requirements differ and the selection of a sub-system becomes more crucial when using 4:4:4, and 2K material. Note: Final Touch HD has now been tested successfully with the Thompson Viper Camera and the Kona 2 card from AJA video capturing dual link 4:4:4 material.) The following should be regarded as a recipe for configuring a system for any of the three Final Touch offerings: Step 1: Select your Mac All three versions of Final Touch are supported on the following Apple CPUs:

Apple G5 Dual processor 2.5GHz with 4GB RAM, OR Apple G5-Dual processor 2.0GHz with 1GB RAM Either configuration will work; however, for optimal performance, the higher processing and RAM configurations are recommended. Step 2: Select a graphics card Final Touch 2K, HD, and SD require a high-end graphics card. In fact, if Final Touch does not detect the proper graphics card in your system, the application may fail to launch. The two cards approved are both from ATI and are as follows: ATI X800 XT Mac Edition 256MB: MacMall Price: $499.00

OR ATI 9800XT- This card is a our second choice for configuring a system: Mac Mall Price: $304.00

It is important to note that Final touch is written to specifically take advantage of the GPU processing in the ATI X800 card and for the time being this is the card that will offer your users optimal performance. Cards, such as the ones offered by Nvidia, will not work with Final Touch. Please only use the two recommended cards with our ultimate recommendation being the ATI X800. You should note that these cards have been somewhat difficult to obtain with ease, particularly in Asia, so you may want to have a couple in inventory, so your client is not waiting on a small component such as this. These cards can be found on online websites such as Mac Mall www.macmall.com

Step 3: Select a storage solution Final Touch 2K, HD, and SD all have specific minimum bandwidth and transfer rate requirements; therefore the selection of a storage system is very important. Data Rate Requirements: FT 2K min data rate requirement is 292MB/sec. FT HD min data rate requirement is 237MB/sec. FT SD min data rate requirement is 40MB/sec. There are many storage solutions available that will serve the needs for Final Touch systems. We have provided some of our recommendations based on our experience below: Final Touch SD Huge-Systems model number HMV-320R-800-M $2996.- List In dual-bus mode the U320R sustains data rates 220MB/sec

Final Touch SD, HD Huge Systems model number HMV-320RX-1600-DM $6387.- List In dual bus mode with a Atto UL4D data rates over 330MB/sec can be sustained.

Final Touch SD, HD, 2K Huge Systems 4GBit Media Vault 4210 Fibre Storage Model number: HMV-FCRX-1600P-DM $8038.- List Sustains throughput rates of up to 500MB/sec. This is a stand alone direct connect storage device similar to the Xraid in some ways. Like the Xraid, it is connected with dual-link fiber.

OR Facilis Terrablock. The Terrablock is a SAN solution capable of serving multiple clients with data throughput rates Ranging between 275MB/sec to 380MB/sec depending on the client configurations. 2Gbit and 4Gbit configurations range from 2TB to 9.6TB. Prices range between $9,995-$39,490.List. Higher Data Throughput rates require 4GBit connectivity. Render farms can be connected through a SAN like this, as well as multiple workstations. Asia Media Products can help you determine a proper configuration and if this is the appropriate choice for your clients.

OR Apple X-Raid, and X-San X-Raid is a 2Gbit array. A single X-Raid has a sustained throughput of about 245MB/sec. If two X-Raids are striped together across a bus, the sustained striped across a bus are required for FT2K.

X-San has similar throughput rates as it uses the X-Raid for storage with one exception. Higher throughput rates can be achieved with a custom aggregation of the ports on the switch. These are just a few of the more reliable options available. Step 4: Select a monitor. 2 x 20" or better Apple Cinema Displays

OR Any monitor with at least 1280 x 1024 resolution for the User Interface, and 1 preview output (high quality) can be used if the Cinema displays are not available. Step 5: Select a capture card Final Touch suggests using Final Cut Pro for video capture, followed by an XML export into Final Touch. The video card is also used for SDI monitoring of the corrected image. AJAs Kona 2 Video capture card and optional K-Box for use with Apples Final Cut Pro HD. The Kona 2 retails for $2490 - List. The Kona 2 has been successfully tested for dual-link capture from the Thompson Viper camera, in an integrated Final Touch HD workflow

OR Blackmagic DeckLink HD Pro can also be used for most Final Touch capture needs. $1995.00 Step 6: Select a reference display monitor Silicon Color recommends any broadcast quality monitor capable of serial digital input (SDI), and HD-SDI for Final Touch HD. Please refer to two examples: Sony BVM series HD display with HD-SDI and SDI input cards. We recommend this for color monitoring, as the CRT monitor is still the most accurate and calibratable reference source available. Sony BVM series monitors with HD-SDI and SDI input cards. These monitors connect to the system through the AJA or Black Magic video cards, but are not a required part of the system.

Step 7: Select a control surface A control surface is not required to use Final Touch, but many colorists find it much faster and easier to work on than the computer UI through a mouse only, because individual track balls can be programmed for each color and their respective shadows, highlights and midtones. Currently, there are two manufacturers control surfaces approved for use with Final Touch: JL Cooper, and Tangent. These control surfaces give the user a functional control surface with 3 back-lit track balls and control rings.

JL Coopers MCS Spectrum Control Surface. The JL Cooper Spectrum is part of the MCS 3000 line, and can be integrated with the rest of the control modules in the line in order to create a custom control surface designed for a facilities individual need. The MCS Spectrum module is the Colorist module. The Colorist module contains the color balls described above allowing the user to program each ball for color, grading, gamma, etc. The required MCS 3000 Controller module, gives the user tactile access to many of the UI functions such as switching between rooms in the program like grading, primary and secondary color, tracking, color effects, LUTs, and detailed tactile control of all playback functions such as scrubbing, specific shot jumping, shot preview, go to functions utilizing time code, etc. The combination of the two modules gives the user full tactile control over the most used functions of the UI. The recommended base system configuration for the Spectrum Control surface for use with Final Touch, is as follows: (Please note that the Ethernet Interface card is required for any Final Touch system.)
The following four part numbers and prices represent the minimum required system. MCS-Spectrum/w Colorist Control Station & Simulated Stone Wrist Rest) (Interface Card Required) $3499.00 MCS-3000w Media Command Station w/No Faders &SimStoneWrist Rest $1999.95

920394 Ethernet Interface card MCS-Joiner 3K (Option to Physically Connect 2 Units)

$ 299.95 $ 99.95

Other optional Command Station modules, and expanders are available as well, such as: MCS-3000 Command Station w/No Faders MCS-3800 Command Station w/8 Faders MCS-3400 Command Station w/4 Faders MCS-3000X 8 Fader Expander MCS-ClipShot Tactile Switch Palette OR $1749.95 $2999.95 $2499.95 $1749.95 $4999.95

Tangent CP-100, and Tangent CP-200

OR Wacom Intuos Tablet. This is optional, but can give the user added ease of use. *Note: All Final Touch systems require a 3 button Mouse. Step 8: Set up a FinalRender Server

When using Final Touch 2K, users will soon have the option of adding render nodes to their configuration. The integration of render nodes allow the user to push graded files to

another network attached computer for the purpose of rendering, leaving the primary Final Touch 2K system available to continue working. There can be many render nodes in a configuration, and the final pricing and software should be available soon. A render node can be any Macintosh computer with an AGP slot capable or utilizing the ATI 9800 Pro, or the ATI X800 XT. This means that a facility could re-purpose older Quick Silver macs or older G5s to create render nodes simply by installing one of the approved ATI video cards, and a fiber controller card to connect to a San based network, or other hi speed network. An example of a render node configuration would be as follows: 1. Final Touch 2K system configured as suggested above 2. Facilis Terrablock SAN, configured as a 4GBit system 3. 3 Apple G5-Dual processor 2.0GHz with 1GB RAM (FinalRender Clients) 4. 4 ATTO Celerity 41PS Single 4Gbit Host Adapter Card (1 card for each system including the primary system and the nodes 5. FinalRender Server software (will run on the primary Final Touch2K Client) The Primary advantages include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Very fast rendering Background process (render files are pushed to the render node clients Supports SAN solutions such as Facilis, and Apples XSAN Render Server will communicate with Shotlist Manager Apple Macintosh G5 or G4 render nodes GPU (graphics card) or CPU based rendering Currently, the FinalRender server is only planned for FinalTouch 2K. Configurations can vary. Asia Media Products can help you determine a proper configuration. Although the render farms can be set up through a NAS Gig-E network, we recommend fiber attached render clients for the best performance.

Asia Media Products will be more than happy to go over any configurations, and help you decide what options are best for your clients needs. Contact our CTO, Grady Sellards, Grady3@asiamediaproducts.com with any questions regarding configurations. Please see the following configuration examples: The following pages contain a few sample configurations: Example 1

In this example, we have configured a Finaltouch 2K system in a Apple G5 Dual processor 2.5GHz with 4GB RAM with an X800 XT connected to 2 Apple 23 Cinema Displays, ATTO Celerity 41PS Single 4Gbit Host Adapter Card, and an AJA KONA2 with optional K-Box. The KONA2 and Kbox are used for monitoring an HD down conversion of the 2K source on a color accurate BVM series Sony monitor. The Tangent CP-100, connected to the FT2K system by Ethernet, is being used as a control surface. A Facilis 4GBit Terrablock San is being utilized as storage for both the primary 2K client, and the Render Nodes. Both the FinalTouch2K client and the Render Clients are connected to the san through fiber cable connected to the ATTO Celerity 41PS Single 4Gbit Host Adapter Card. For this example, we are using Apple G5-Dual processor 1.8 GHz with 1GB RAM, and ATI X800XT cards for each of the 3 nodes.

Example 2

In this example, we have configured a Finaltouch 2K system in a Apple G5 Dual processor 2.5GHz with 4GB RAM , an X800 XT connected to 1 23, and 1 20 Cinema Displays for monitoring and the User Interface(UI). The system is using an apple XServe Raid connected by fiber to the Apple Fiber PCI Adaptor. The JL Cooper MCS Spectrum and MCS 3000 described earlier in this document is being utilized as a control surface. *Note: CRT/Video monitors are optional when configuring a FinalTouch system, but are recommended.