For professional sports photographers, the ability to capture continuous shots relies heavily on the speed of their camera's continuous shooting mode. However, insufficient storage capacity can pose a significant challenge when it comes to storing and organizing these materials. Chen Di, the president of the Sports Photography Branch of the Shanghai Art Photography Association, has encountered this issue. Let's take a look at his solution.
Chen Di has shot over a hundred major sporting events in the past 15 years. When covering sports events, he extensively uses high-speed continuous shooting with his camera. As the demand for photo storage increases, his 4TB hard drives often fill up quickly. Therefore, recently he has switched to using a NAS storage solution.
Chen Di's NAS storage solution comprises a setup featuring four 20TB Toshiba N300 NAS hard drives and a Synology DS923+ with 4 drive bays. This NAS system is configured with a RAID 5 disk array, theoretically offering close to 60TB of storage capacity. It perfectly meets Chen Di's needs for storing high-speed burst photos. Beyond the rapid read/write speeds of the hard drives, it even allows for instant uploading of captured materials via mobile devices to the NAS, facilitating quick backups and file archiving. This setup not only frees up space on memory cards for the next shoot but also streamlines the process of sorting and finding artworks. It's safe to say that it achieves a balance among performance, large capacity, and secure storage.
Setting up a NAS system on the Synology DS923+ is relatively straightforward. Begin by removing the Toshiba N300 mechanical hard drive and securely placing it in the hard drive tray of the DS923+. Insert the tray into the NAS unit. Next, on your PC, navigate to the Synology website and download an application called Synology Assistant. Once the software detects the Synology DS923+ device, simply double-click on it with the left mouse button. This action will prompt your web browser to open the installation interface for the Synology NAS. Follow the on-screen instructions provided by Synology to complete the installation process step by step.
Chen Di finds the Synology 923+ paired with Toshiba N300 hard drives for NAS systems to be highly efficient and convenient for photo management. The system supports automatic importing and intelligent recognition and categorization of photos from storage cards. All sports event photo materials can be intuitively displayed on the NAS system. Moreover, he unexpectedly discovered that photos from his phone can also be wirelessly backed up to the NAS, thus reducing storage pressure on his phone significantly. When he wants to view photos, he simply clicks on the Synology Photo app installed on his phone. As long as there is internet access, he can quickly find the photos he wants anytime, anywhere.
Additionally, Chen Di was deeply impressed by the low noise performance of the Toshiba N300 NAS mechanical hard drive. This drive operates without noticeable noise or vibration, allowing him to maintain focus during photo editing and selection. Even with simultaneous uploading and downloading of photo materials, the Toshiba N300 hard drive demonstrates excellent read and write performance. This is thanks to its built-in rotational vibration sensor, which automatically detects and compensates for transient vibrations, thus providing consistent performance in multi-drive NAS systems.
After acquiring this NAS system, Chen Di has completely resolved the storage and organization issues regarding footage for sporting events. He looks forward to capturing more exciting moments from events in 2024 and beyond, efficiently storing them in this NAS system.
