ARRI footage proxy workflow

ARRI cameras give you two heavy paths. ARRIRAW from an Alexa 35 or Mini LF records uncompressed or lightly compressed frames, often as an MXF/ARRIRAW file or an .ari sequence off a Codex drive, and a feature easily passes 10 TB. ProRes 4444 or 4444 XQ recorded in camera is lighter but still large, and both carry LogC3 or LogC4 that a colourist will want to grade from the original. Nobody wants a 20 TB SAN under the edit desk, and streaming full ProRes 4444 live over a normal connection is not realistic either.

The edit does not need the heavy original. It needs a light editorial proxy, and the ARRIRAW or ProRes 4444 only at the DI, where the finish and grade happen on the real footage.

Sanbila keeps the ARRIRAW or ProRes 4444 intact in the cloud with an automatic backup copy, never transcoded, so the LogC data and metadata survive untouched for the DI. The editorial proxy is encoded on the Sanbila cloud, ProRes Proxy for a Resolve or FCP cut or DNxHR LB for Avid, at the resolution you pick, and only that proxy sits on the SSD.

You cut on the proxy, and at the finish Smart Relink reads the conform (Premiere XML, FCPXML, EDL or Avid AAF) and streams back only the ARRIRAW or ProRes 4444 clips that made the cut, over a local mount. The colourist grades the real footage in DaVinci Resolve with its ARRI settings and the right LogC profile, not a flattened proxy. A feature that runs past 10 TB lives in the cloud, and the Enterprise plan holds 25 TB, so the post house never buys a SAN just to hold rushes it streams a fraction of.