This Might Replace Your Entire Storage Setup

0:00 We just finished filming our short film and everything

0:03 that we just shot is on this card.

0:06 Now, if something were to happen to this card, we'd be in trouble.

0:09 Now, typically on larger productions,

0:11 we have someone called DIT who's in charge of wrangling all the data,

0:15 whether it's from video, audio, or even BTS.

0:18 Now, on my productions, I would say 90% of the times,

0:21 I just don't have that luxury and I have to do it myself,

0:24 which means I have to bring a bunch of hard drives, card readers,

0:28 and even computers to be able to download all of that data.

0:31 And again, it can get messy.

0:33 So, over the past few months, I've been testing something interesting.

0:36 This is the Unify Drive UP6.

0:39 It's basically a portable NAS server for filmmakers.

0:42 And the idea is that it can replace your hard drives,

0:46 your card readers, and even part of your DIT workflow all in one box.

0:51 Now, for full transparency, Unify Drive did send this out for me to test out.

0:55 However, everything you're about to see is based

0:57 on my experience using it on a real productions.

1:01 Now, there's two standout features that really impressed me.

1:04 Uh the first one being is the fact that you

1:06 can actually just pull the card out of your camera,

1:08 create like an auto backup with this, just pop it in there,

1:11 and it begins to backup.

1:12 Now, before we get into all of that, let's

1:14 talk about what this thing can actually do.

1:16 Now, the UP6 is a portable NAS.

1:19 For those of you that don't know, NAS stands for network attached storage,

1:23 which basically means that this is a storage

1:25 server where multiple devices can have access to it.

1:29 And typically, you find NAS servers in an office,

1:32 in a studio, attached to a network.

1:35 The difference is this one is portable.

1:37 You can take this on the go.

1:38 You can take this on your shoots.

1:40 You can take this basically anywhere,

1:42 and the beauty of it is that there's a little tiny computer inside.

1:46 Now, inside, there's an Intel Core Ultra processor,

1:49 which can support up to 96 gigs of RAM.

1:53 You also have six NVMe SSD slots, which can support up to 8 TB,

1:58 so a total of 48 TB of storage,

2:01 which is honestly kind of insane for something this small.

2:03 And because it is using NVMe storage,

2:06 it's actually designed to be fast enough so

2:08 that you can edit directly from the unit.

2:11 So, you can kind of think of it like a portable server for your footage.

2:16 Now, physically, this thing feels pretty solid,

2:18 and I like that it does have these little rubber edges on each side,

2:22 which means that if you were to accidentally drop it, it should help protect it.

2:26 It also means that you could probably just toss this in your backpack,

2:29 and it should be fine.

2:30 However, it does come with a carrying case,

2:33 which does have room for all of your power cables,

2:35 your HDMI cables, and other little accessories

2:38 and knick-knacks that you want to throw in there.

2:40 Now, in terms of IO, you have a CFexpress Type B.

2:45 You also have an SD card slot.

2:47 You have two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

2:50 And then on the backside, you have a USB-C.

2:53 You have USB-A.

2:55 You have an HDMI port, a 10 gigabit Ethernet port,

2:59 and then you have your DC barrel for power.

3:02 Now, the main way that I've been using the UP6 is when we're finished filming,

3:05 I'll take the card out of my camera.

3:07 I'll pop it in here, and then you'll hear this little sound,

3:10 and it'll prompt me to backup.

3:12 Because this has a touchscreen, all I have to do is just tap on backup,

3:16 and it will automatically start to backup.

3:18 And the great thing about it is I no

3:20 longer have to bring a CFexpress Type B reader.

3:23 I don't have to bring an SD card reader.

3:25 I don't have to bring cables.

3:26 I don't have to bring hard drives.

3:27 Now, because it does have a touchscreen, I can start my backups,

3:30 I can monitor the transfers,

3:32 and I can even verify that everything transferred correctly.

3:36 So, technically, I don't even need to bring a laptop,

3:39 and I can do it all with just one device.

3:42 Now, as you guys have seen, this does have a 6-in touch display,

3:46 and you can monitor the health drive.

3:48 You can transfer files.

3:50 There's a lot of things that you can do here.

3:52 It'd be a whole different video if I went through every single setting,

3:55 but something that really impressed me is the fact that you

3:58 can preview the files that you just backed up on this drive.

4:02 So, for example here, if I go to my files, I can select the NVMe,

4:07 and then here, we did something with the Nikon Z R.

4:09 So, if I go here to plug backup, I just navigate through the directory,

4:13 and I'm just going to pick a random file here,

4:15 whichever one looks cool, maybe this one here.

4:17 And you can see here, it starts to play back what we just filmed.

4:21 And if I tap here, I can go into landscape.

4:25 So, check that out.

4:27 I am now previewing what we just shot, which is pretty freaking wild.

4:32 Now, this does have an HDMI port, and I have my Video Village monitor here,

4:36 so I can technically plug this to my Video Village,

4:39 and let's say, "Hey, did we get that shot?

4:41 Can we go back and look at the card?" I can literally just show

4:44 them on this drive using the HDMI cable or just directly from the unit.

4:49 Another way that I've been using the UP6 is editing directly from it.

4:53 So, I have my MacBook here connected via

4:56 Thunderbolt 4 on one of the front ports.

4:59 And what's cool is when you have it

5:00 connected like that, it actually even charges the laptop,

5:03 so you don't need external power for it.

5:06 But, I'll show you the speeds.

5:08 Check this out.

5:09 I have Blackmagic app connected here,

5:11 and I'm getting roughly 900 MB write and about 900 MB read.

5:17 Very consistent via Thunderbolt 4.

5:19 Now, keep in mind, this is based on my RAID configuration.

5:23 If I had more drives and I configured it differently, I would be getting 2,500,

5:28 3,000 plus read speeds, but this is plenty of of of speed uh to be able to edit.

5:34 And just to give you an idea, most people have these Samsung T5 drives.

5:39 So, if I was to change the target drive here,

5:42 and let's say I go to Samsung T5, go ahead and hit open, and then run this test,

5:49 you'll notice that I'm going to be getting anywhere between 3

5:52 to 400 MB read and 3 to 400 MB write speed.

5:58 So, editing from the UP6 is at least twice as fast than editing from a T5 drive.

6:05 So, you're definitely getting SSD plus speeds whenever you're utilizing

6:10 this via Thunderbolt 4 or even using the 10 gigabit E connection.

6:15 Another standout feature with the UP6, if you haven't noticed,

6:18 is the fact that this has a built-in UPS battery.

6:22 And what that means is if I were to disconnect the power,

6:25 Unify Drive claims that this will hold up to 2 hours of battery life,

6:30 and this is excellent for protection.

6:32 Especially right now,

6:33 I am literally powering this whole DIT station with a DJI power bank.

6:38 So, with this power bank, if it were to die, I still have an additional 2 hours,

6:43 which is plenty of time for me to figure out what I want to do next.

6:47 Because the last thing you want to do is be on set,

6:49 you're transferring something, and then the battery cuts off.

6:52 Ooh, that means trouble.

6:54 Another reason I like that this has a built-in battery is,

6:56 let's say if I'm filming in a remote location, I can charge this overnight,

7:01 and then I know that 2 hours is plenty of time for me

7:04 to backup all of my footage that I shot for the day.

7:08 Speaking of filming outdoors,

7:09 let's say you're in an area that has zero internet access.

7:13 This has an AP mode, which stands for access point.

7:16 So, you're basically creating a local area network where now

7:20 the director or people on set can now access the server.

7:24 So, let's say you're on your phone,

7:26 and you want to preview something that was just backed up.

7:28 You can go in there, download it to your phone, and preview those files.

7:32 People that are shooting BTS can also transfer files to the server.

7:36 It's actually extremely useful,

7:38 and it basically turns into a portable media server.

7:41 Now, the UP6 has some pretty advanced AI features.

7:44 Oh, no, he said AI.

7:46 Look, guys, I know AI gets a bad rap,

7:48 but some of the things that you can do with this are actually pretty cool.

7:51 Now, I don't think anybody's going to be buying this for its AI features,

7:55 but I do find them pretty useful.

7:57 So, whenever you do a backup, you can actually search for things.

8:00 So, let's say for example, I have a photographer,

8:02 which actually does happen, where I'm on set and I say,

8:05 "Hey, I'm reviewing a bunch of products." With the advanced AI features,

8:08 I can actually search for, let's say,

8:10 the person with the red hat or the car that I wanted to be filmed or shot,

8:14 and I can actually just find those items and then put them in a separate folder.

8:18 So, being able to find these things quickly without me having

8:22 to look it through all of the photos or video files, I think it's pretty useful.

8:27 And there's also other stuff that you can do with it,

8:28 but I'm not going to go into too much into that.

8:31 So, after using the UP6 drive on several of my shoots,

8:34 I'm going to let you know what I liked about it and what I didn't like about it.

8:37 First of all, I think this is

8:38 a very interesting device for filmmakers because it

8:41 combines a lot of the tools that we are already using into one portable device.

8:47 Things like card readers, external storage, and NAS systems, backup protection,

8:51 and power redundancy, which is all packed into one unit.

8:55 Now, I understand that this is not for everyone.

8:57 First of all, it's very expensive.

9:00 The unit itself with no hard drives is $1,600.

9:04 And as you know, as of filming this video,

9:07 NVMe or just drives in general, storage is very expensive.

9:11 So, depending on how much you want,

9:12 you can go anywhere from 3,000 up to 10,000 dollars.

9:16 It can get pretty expensive.

9:17 Second, there is a learning curve.

9:20 If you've never set up a NAS server before,

9:22 the initial process can be a bit technical.

9:26 But once everything is configured and set up,

9:28 it actually [music] works pretty smoothly.

9:31 So, who does this actually make sense for?

9:33 Well, I think this is well-suited for film crews, DITs, commercial productions,

9:39 travel filmmakers who are utilizing a ton of footage,

9:42 basically anyone who needs reliable backups on location.

9:47 Now, I don't think this is going to be

9:49 something that most YouTubers are going to want,

9:51 but for productions where footage is literally irreplaceable,

9:56 something like this makes total sense.

9:58 I think what makes the UP6 interesting is that it offers

10:01 a lot of professional production tools into this small portable device.

10:05 Kind of like a little mini DIT station in a backpack.

10:08 And although I don't think it's going to replace every workflow,

10:12 I do find it to be one

10:13 of the more interesting portable solutions for filmmakers.

10:17 But I want to know your thoughts.

10:18 Will you use something like this on your productions?

10:21 Let me know in the comments section down below.

10:24 My name is Armando.

10:25 Thanks again for watching, and you will catch me in the next one.

10:28 Adios.