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Best Practices for Fast Media Transfer

You lit the lights, rolled the cameras, and rendered your final product, taking the time to carefully craft and refine your media. We don’t want to stand in the way of letting that media shine in your attraction, so we wrote this app note to help you save time transferring that media to a BinloopX to get you up and running as quickly as possible.

Note

The two types of media you will need to transfer are video and audio. However, this article focuses mainly on transferring video files to a BX-4KU as video files are much larger, but all methods and best practices discussed in this article also apply to transferring audio to a BX-16A.

There are three main considerations we will discuss here:

  1. BX-CON1 Network Port vs. BX-4KU Media Port
  2. WinScript vs. dedicated FTP client
  3. Physical access to BX-4KU

Lastly, the steps to execute all methods described in this document can be found here.

BX-CON1 Network Port vs. BX-4KU Media Port

The BX-CON1 has a Network port and the BX-4KU (and the BX-16A) have a Media port. Either of these ports can be used to transfer media files over the network to the BX-4KU using either WinScript Live or a dedicated FTP client.

In either case, using the BX-4KU Media port will always be faster than using the BX-CON1 Network port, but will require an extra physical ethernet connection made to the Media port. In addition, you will need to configure an IP address in WinScript Live for your BX-4KU for you to connect to.

Note

If you are using WinScript Live to transfer your media, the program will automatically detect if the BX-4KU Media port is connected to the network, and will use it if so.

Takeaway #1: Always use the Media port on the BX-4KU if possible. This could be as simple as networking just your BX-4KU and your laptop, or building a network to accommodate a connection to each BX-4KU to which you will want to transfer media.

WinScript Live vs. Dedicated FTP Client

When transferring files over the network, you can either use WinScript Live, or a dedicated FTP client, such as FileZilla.

Because the video file format (DPX) used on the BX-4KU is a series of image files, we can leverage a method of file transfer that plenty of FTP clients, like FileZilla, use that allow concurrent tranfers of files. This means we can transfer several indiviual DPX files at once.

FileZilla, for instance, allows up to 10 concurrent transfers, meaning you can send up to 10 DPX files at once. Generally more transfers is better, but the fastest overall speed will depend on your network. For instance, according to our testing, 8 concurrent transfers proved to the be fastest overall transfer speed (faster even than 9 or 10).

To change these settings in FileZilla, go to Edit > Settings > Transfers > Concurrent transfers > Maximum Simultaneous transfers. This is set to 2 by default.

Figure 1 FileZilla Multiple Concurrent Transfer Setting

Takeaway #2: Use an FTP client which supports concurrent transfers, and use as many as your network will support. We suggest 8 concurrent transfers according to our data, but you might want to experiment for the correct number for your network implementation.

Transferring Directly to SSD

Although not as convenient as transferring media over a network connection, directly accessing the BX-4KU's removable U.2 NVMe solid state drive (SSD) is by far the fastest way to load media. However, this does come at the cost of convenience. You will have to remove cabling from the BX-4KU, pull the BX-4KU out of the BinloopX chassis, remove the SSD, load the media, then reinstall everything. While this can save a lot of time, it does require the most effort and introduces a few risks that you will have to accept when going this route (physically handling the BX-4KU and the SSD safely, troubleshooting any issues with reinstalling the SSD, module and cabling, etc.)

To do this, you will need:

  1. physical access to remove the SSD from the BX-4KU
  2. a way to interface the SSD to your computer (like our U2AUSB adapter accessory or any compatible adapter)
  3. a USB 3.2 or higher port on your PC (the faster the port, the better!)

Takeaway #3: If you can physically access your BX-4KU and remove the SSD from it, you can save a lot of time by transferring your files directly to the SSD. However, this does incur some inconvenience and some level of risk.

Data

That's a lot of words, so we did a few experiments in our office to compile the cold, hard facts. We took a 5 second uncompressed video file, and used all the methods discussed here to transfer the media to a BX-4KU housed in a BinloopX.

The specifics of the video file are:

  • Length: 5 s
  • FPS: 60 fps
  • Total file size: 9.72 GB
  • Each DPX File: 32.408 MB
  • Number of DPX files: 300 (60 frames per second, 5 seconds total)
  • Resolution: 3840 x 2160
  • Color depth: 10 bit

Here are our findings:

Method Port Relative Speed Complexity
WinScript Live BX-CON1 Network 1 X (Baseline) Easy
WinScript Live BX-4KU Media ~6 X Medium
FTP, 2 xfers BX-CON1 Network ~4 X Easy
FTP, 8 xfers BX-CON1 Network ~5 X Easy
FTP, 2 xfers BX-4KU Media ~11 X Medium
FTP, 8 xfers BX-4KU Media ~14 X Medium
SSD N/A ~176 X Hard

Conclusion

These are our final recommendations on the fastest way to transfer media to a BinloopX:

  • We recommend using a dedicated FTP software, like FileZilla, to transfer media using the Media port on your BX-4KU, using 8 concurrent transfers
  • Then, if you aren't networked and must use the CON1 Network port, use FileZilla with 8 concurrent transfers
  • If you can physically access your BX-4KU and remove the drive from it, you can save a lot of time by directly accessing the SSD, but only do so knowing the risks and inconvenience incurred
  • Lastly, use WinScript Live over the CON1 Network port, start the transfer, and go take a nap (you deserve it!)