User guide
Chapter 2 About Building a Final Cut Server System
13
Building a Final Cut Server System
A Final Cut Server system requires a Mac computer with Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server
installed. For detailed information about system requirements, see the Before You Install
Final Cut Server document, located on the Final Cut Server installation disc.
For the best performance, the computer used as the server should not be used for
other duties. Managing assets, particularly transcoding the assets and creating the
proxy les (low-resolution versions of the original asset), can require signicant
computer resources. You can, however, use the server computer for other tasks,
including using the Final Cut Studio applications, if needed. You just need to keep in
mind that the computer’s performance is aected by any Final Cut Server activity.
Additionally, you may nd that conguring Spotlight to avoid searching the folders
you are using as devices can improve your performance. This is especially true for the
Proxies and Edit Proxies devices, which can have a lot of activity, causing Spotlight to
spend a lot of time trying to keep up with the changes. You can use the Spotlight pane
in System Preferences to identify which folders and volumes to make private.
The media that Final Cut Server manages requires access to a large amount of storage
space. You can use the computer’s internal and external drives as well as many
supported network devices and le formats for this purpose. Larger facilities may use
an Apple Xsan storage area network (SAN) for asset and production storage.