Specifications

Pro Tools Unity ISIS Guide36
Performance Characteristics
You should experience no functional difference
between working with Pro Tools or
Media Station|PT attached to an ISIS system or
working with Pro Tools attached to local stor-
age. However, due to the architectural differ-
ences between ISIS and local storage, some sub-
tle differences may be noticeable.
User Interface and Graphics
The Pro Tools workstation is tasked in a com-
pletely different manner when Pro Tools is re-
cording or playing from ISIS storage. For this
reason, the update speed of the display and the
responsiveness of the Pro Tools user interface
might differ somewhat when compared to using
local storage. When using ISIS storage, the Pro
Tools workstation might periodically be inter-
rupted by sporadic bursts of communication
with the System Director. This can cause the dis-
play to not refresh smoothly. These periodic,
brief interruptions in display updating are most
prevalent during long recording sessions or
while playing back large sessions. These inter-
ruptions do not necessarily indicate that a prob-
lem exists and do not affect audio playback. Ex-
cept for these interruptions or when tasks are in
progress, display and user interface performance
should be comparable to using local storage. For
example:
• Counters, meters, scrolling, and other ani-
mated user interface elements are visually
smooth in operation.
• Faders and panners move smoothly when au-
tomated.
• Mouse control of faders and panners is imme-
diate and responsive. This includes TDM plu-
gins. RTAS and AudioSuite plug-ins, because
of their host-based implementation, might
provide less-than-smooth operation under
certain circumstances.
• Scrubbing and auditioning (in the Regions
List and Import Audio dialog) is immediate
when you press the mouse button.
• Editing during playback is smooth. Mouse
control of editing tools is immediate and re-
sponsive.
Opening Files
Pro Tools periodically opens and closes files (for
example, to buffer them for playback). When us-
ing ISIS storage, the file open process is some-
what slower than with local storage. This is most
noticeable when first opening an existing ses-
sion. It can also result in sluggish Pro Tools per-
formance with very large sessions.
At this time, the editor is qualified with the
capability of using 2 streams of video and
up to 8 tracks of audio. This level of func-
tionality allows for better scalability of the
ISIS environment while still allowing an ad-
equate degree of client performance and
functionality. Attempting to increase the
clients stream playback may result in unex-
pected results for the client but should not
impact the ISIS system.
DNxHD might result in skipped video
frames during a heavy system load. To pre-
vent this, you should use 2 streams of video
and 4 tracks of audio.