NAB 2014: LaCie Announces Three Thunderbolt Storage Solutions For Cutting 4K

LaCie's new 8big Rack

You may have just bought a killer new Mac Pro to edit all your 4K footage, but what kind of storage do you need? LaCie now has you covered with three new solutions.

LaCie has been long known as an excellent, external storage solution for everything from basic storage of files, to video editing. We’re sure many of you were using a FireWire 400 or 800 LaCie drive in the early- to mid-2000s when laptop editing really took off. And now the company has three new products geared specifically towards 4K post production, all with blazing-fast Thunderbolt 2 technology. They include the LaCie 8big Rack, 5big RAID 5, and the 2big hard drive. Let’s take a look at each one.

LaCie 8big Rack with Thunderbolt 2

The 8big Rack is, according to LaCie, its first rackmount storage solution featuring Thunderbolt 2, and can hold up to eight 6TB drives, giving editors a jaw-dropping 48 TB of space. Even with excellent encoding, such as ProRes 4444 or REDCODE RAW, 4K footage takes up a lot of space, so 48TB is arguably a great investment, especially if you’re dealing with multiple projects and editors using different systems.

With advanced technology, hardware RAID, and Seagate’s latest hard disk drives, transfer rates via Thunderbolt 2 approach an incredible 1330MB/s. The drives are hot swappable, and can use RAID 5 or 6. There’s two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and also a four-drive solution topping out at 12 TB. The 8big Rack will be available this quarter (April - June 2014).

LaCie 5big with Thunderbolt 2 and RAID 5

The 5big drive features five drives, giving editors up to 30TB of storage for their 4K footage, and features duel-Thunderbolt 2 ports. The quiet drive features three types of heat-fighting technology, the Noctua cooling fan, heat exhausts, and a heat-dissipating casing made of aluminum.

The other advantage is hardware RAID technology, and you can select whichever type is right for you — including RAID 5 — for extra security and speed. That means the 5big can achieve transfer rates up to 1050MB/s via Seagate’s new 7200 RPM drives. Space starts at 10 TB, and like the 8big Rack, the unit will be available quarter two 2014.

LaCie 2big Dual-Bay with Thunderbolt 2 and RAID

The 2big may be the ‘baby’ of LaCie’s new 4K-driven storage solutions, but it still packs a mighty punch. It features speeds up to 420MB/s via Thunderbolt 2 (two ports) and two 7200 RPM Seagate drives, providing up to 12TB of storage. The dual-bay 2big was designed by the famous and award-winning Neil Poulton, known for his work with LaCie and lighting design companies.

You can buy the LaCie 2big this quarter, like the other two 4K storage solutions, with space starting at 6TB.

All of the new 4K storage solutions from LaCie come with a standard 3-year warranty, and you can purchase an extension, and Advanced Care Option is also available. And, as mentioned above, all three will be available in the second quarter of 2014.