ARRI RAW workflow in Avid Media Composer
Long-form drama and broadcast post still runs on Avid Media Composer, and the source is increasingly Alexa 35 ARRI RAW at 400 to 900 GB per hour. The traditional SAN-and-MediaFiles workflow is expensive to scale and impossible to share between cities. Sanbila keeps the ARRI RAW on Cloudflare R2, generates 1080p DNxHR LB proxies on the editor's machine, and streams the originals back through the WebDAV mount when the assistant editor conforms the AAF for online.
ARRI RAW pushes against the Avid SAN model
A feature drama shooting Alexa 35 ARRI RAW lands at three to six terabytes per shoot day. The Avid MediaFiles structure on a Nexis SAN is built to handle this, but only inside one facility. The moment an editor takes the project home or a colourist conforms in another building, the dailies have to be re-ingested or pushed over a slow line. Avid AMA-linking to the originals on a Nexis works inside the office, but the linked clip points to a SAN path that does not exist outside it. Generating DNxHR proxies on the Nexis solves the offline cut but doubles the storage footprint.
ARRI RAW on R2, DNxHR LB proxies on every editor's machine
Sanbila uploads the ARRI RAW from the ALEXA SXR card or the offload drive to Cloudflare R2. On every editor's machine, Sanbila generates a 1080p DNxHR LB proxy at .mxf, which is the codec Avid was built around. The virtual folder ships with the Avid MediaFiles structure (MXF/1) so Avid AMA-links the proxies natively. The assistant editor, the lead editor and the colourist each open Avid in their own city, see the same proxies, and cut the same project. At conform, Sanbila Smart Relink reads the AAF, switches the timeline clips to stream mode, mounts the WebDAV volume, and Avid sees the ARRI RAW originals in the same MediaFiles slot for the online finish.
ARRI RAW (.ari, .mxf) · Avid Media Composer
For ARRI RAW in Avid Media Composer, the recommended Sanbila preset is 1080p DNxHR LB in .mxf, written into the Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 structure so AMA links pick it up automatically. DNxHR LB sits around 80 GB per hour, which a long-form drama editor can keep on a 2 TB external SSD without strain. The 720p DNxHR variant covers offline cutting on a laptop in a hotel room when the editor travels with the production.
AAF conform to ARRI RAW from any city
Sanbila parses the AAF export from Avid using the CFB/OLE2 binary parser and the UTF-16LE filename streams. Smart Relink walks every clip in the AAF, switches them to stream mode, mounts the WebDAV volume, and rewrites the symlinks in the MediaFiles structure to point at the ARRI RAW originals on R2. Avid reopens the project and the AMA-linked clips resolve to the ARRI RAW at full resolution through WebDAV. The colourist conforms and grades in Avid Symphony or hands off to a Resolve roundtrip without ever copying the dailies again.
Five steps from the ALEXA card to the AAF conform
- 1
Mount the ALEXA SXR card or the offload drive. Sanbila scans, hashes every .ari or .mxf, and uploads to R2 in parallel with multipart upload above 100 MB.
- 2
Open the Sanbila virtual folder with the Avid MediaFiles structure enabled. Avid AMA-links the 1080p DNxHR LB proxies the moment you point the bin at MediaFiles/MXF/1.
- 3
Cut, fine-cut and lock in Avid Media Composer using the proxies. Multiple editors in multiple cities share the project through Sanbila Studio.
- 4
Export the AAF and run Sanbila Smart Relink. Used clips switch to stream mode, the WebDAV volume mounts, and Avid sees the ARRI RAW originals in the same MediaFiles slot.
- 5
Conform in Avid Symphony or hand the AAF to a Resolve roundtrip for the grade. The ARRI RAW streams from R2 on demand. Nothing is re-copied or re-ingested.
Sanbila by the numbers
Real specs from the live Sanbila product, not marketing claims.
Common questions about ARRI RAW in Avid Media Composer
Does Sanbila write the Avid MediaFiles/MXF/1 structure automatically?
Yes. The virtual folder ships with an avid_structure option that creates the MediaFiles/MXF/1 hierarchy expected by Avid AMA. Once the option is on, Avid finds the proxies the moment you create the bin and AMA-links them with no manual intervention.
Can the colourist hand the project back to Avid after a Resolve roundtrip?
Yes. The colourist exports the grade as an AAF reference, Sanbila Smart Relink resolves the new media references back to the Sanbila virtual folder, and Avid reopens the project with the graded media linked through the same MediaFiles slot. The original ARRI RAW stays untouched on R2.
How does Sanbila handle the .ari versus .mxf wrappers ARRI writes?
Sanbila uploads .ari and .mxf as their native wrappers. Avid AMA reads both through the standard ARRI plugin. The metadata that the SDK relies on (sensor, lens, ISO, ND) is preserved end to end because the bytes on R2 are the bytes the camera wrote.
What if an editor needs to work offline on a long flight?
The editor pre-generates the DNxHR LB proxies on their laptop SSD for the bins they expect to cut. Once generated, the proxies live locally and Avid cuts entirely offline. When connectivity returns, the timeline syncs back to Sanbila and the project remains shared with the team.
Does Sanbila preserve the ALEXA 35 LogC4 metadata for the colour pass?
Yes. The LogC4 metadata is embedded in the ARRI RAW bytes, which Sanbila stores intact on R2. When Avid AMA-links the originals through WebDAV for the conform, the LogC4 chain reads the same way it would on a Nexis SAN.
Related workflows
RED RAW (R3D) editing workflow in DaVinci Resolve
RED Komodo, V-Raptor and V-Raptor XL produce R3D files at 300 to 700 GB per hour in 6K and 8K. DaVinci Resolve handles R3D natively, but the bandwidth still bottlenecks at the disk. Sanbila keeps the originals in cloud storage and lets Resolve open lightweight proxies during the offline cut, then switches each clip back to the original through a WebDAV mount when the colorist needs the raw debayer.
ProRes 422 workflow in Premiere Pro
ProRes 422 is the codec broadcast and corporate teams pick when they need a clean intermediate without going RAW. A Sony FX6 in UHD at 25p writes around 250 GB per hour at ProRes 422 HQ. Premiere Pro reads ProRes natively on macOS and Windows, but the disk fills fast. Sanbila stores the originals on Cloudflare R2, generates a lighter proxy on your machine and lets Premiere stream the ProRes back for the final export.
Blackmagic RAW workflow in DaVinci Resolve
BRAW is the codec DaVinci Resolve grew up with. Decoding is fast, debayer is clean, and the metadata roundtrip is the most mature in the industry. The catch is the disk. A URSA Mini Pro 12K at 8:1 still writes around 250 GB per hour, and the Pocket 6K stack on a documentary shoot fills a 2 TB drive in a week. Sanbila keeps the BRAW originals on Cloudflare R2 and serves a 1080p ProRes Proxy on your machine so Resolve plays back instantly, then streams the BRAW over WebDAV when you grade.