How well would this work?

[Gnarwhal]

I've been working remote for my job since July, I'm a video editor for a global TV network and if editors work remote we use TeamViewer to control our editing workstation in the office. Surprisingly there are no drawbacks or issues with this setup and I'm able to do my job just as well as if I were in my editing suite.

That being said, my goal is to move my family back to my home state on the opposite coast from my job if they'll let me continue working remote from there. Among other things I'm thinking about is that there are pockets of my town where AT&T's 5gig fiber internet is available. If we're able to get a place in one of those areas that's what I'd like to do. I know my office upgraded the internet to at least gigabit infrastructure. It has me wondering whether I could realistically build a new editing rig and use it as a workstation in my home rather than using TeamViewer to use my office workstation.

Our workflow involves editing multiple sequences per day on Avid Media Composer with dozens of raw footage clips contained on a media server that we access through Avid's "Production Management" window. We also deliver several completed video files ranging from 1-8GB in size to the control room server. Since AT&T's fiber is symmetrical, that means I'd have probably ~4,700mbit/sec upload speeds. That'd obviously meet a bottleneck in the office where AFAIK they have around 900mbit max download speed but that could still mean a 200MB/sec transfer to the server right? Assuming no significant bottlenecks in transit.

I'm just curious if it'd even be feasible to set things up this way or if I'd be better off continuing with TeamViewer.

 

[Wookiee]

You're relying on a heap of variables. For one, that's the maximum offered speed that it can get on a perfect day. You're still going to be limited by your home router (which likely won't hit consistent 5Gbps throughput without buying a really expensive one), your computer (which is probably limited to 1 Gbps), and then whatever else is happening at the other end.

You'd also have to talk your company into installing a VPN for access to the system (which may or may not be an issue in itself).

At the end of the day, this is something you could try, but you're not going to get anywhere near the speed you do physically being on the same network. If TeamViewer is working well enough, I don't really see your advantage to not using it; benefit of faster internet is that there'll probably be a little less latency with TV if anything.

And then there's the other issues:
- What happens if your internet or computer dies during an important delivery and everything is on your home computer?
- What happens if your computer gets infected and is accessing file shares on the network?
- How does doing it this way benefit your employer from a cost-benefit perspective?

 

[Gnarwhal]

You're relying on a heap of variables. For one, that's the maximum offered speed that it can get on a perfect day. You're still going to be limited by your home router (which likely won't hit consistent 5Gbps throughput without buying a really expensive one), your computer (which is probably limited to 1 Gbps), and then whatever else is happening at the other end.

You'd also have to talk your company into installing a VPN for access to the system (which may or may not be an issue in itself).

At the end of the day, this is something you could try, but you're not going to get anywhere near the speed you do physically being on the same network. If TeamViewer is working well enough, I don't really see your advantage to not using it; benefit of faster internet is that there'll probably be a little less latency with TV if anything.

And then there's the other issues:
- What happens if your internet or computer dies during an important delivery and everything is on your home computer?
- What happens if your computer gets infected and is accessing file shares on the network?
- How does doing it this way benefit your employer from a cost-benefit perspective?

Good thoughts to bring up. So I'd be limited to 1Gb even if I had a 10Gb card running Cat6e or Cat7 network cabling through a 5gbe switch?

My thinking is I would build my own personal rig according to the specs required for one of our editing rigs in the office (but better). Then, if they're ok with the proposal, it would be treated as another edit bay (right now there are six editing rigs in the office used by various editors, mine would be #7). So if there was some kind of hardware or network failure on my end whatever I was working on would still be sourced on the network drives (projects, media, settings, etc are all stored on the servers) and I could launch TeamViewer from another device and login to an edit bay at the office and complete my work.

The potential for infection may be the biggest concern, though I wouldn't really be using it for personal computing like web browsing. I'd use it for my own film projects but that's it.

I suppose from a cost-benefit perspective it could benefit them because I'm buying my own rig, which I'd like to do anyway, and then if I'm not taking up one in the office that's one more available for a freelancer or another editor they felt like bringing on staff.

 

[Wookiee]

Good thoughts to bring up. So I'd be limited to 1Gb even if I had a 10Gb card running Cat6e or Cat7 network cabling through a 5gbe switch?

If you get a 10Gb card; theoretically. You'd have to ensure your router is actually capable of pushing that through on all the switch ports.

My thinking is I would build my own personal rig according to the specs required for one of our editing rigs in the office (but better). Then, if they're ok with the proposal, it would be treated as another edit bay (right now there are six editing rigs in the office used by various editors, mine would be #7). So if there was some kind of hardware or network failure on my end whatever I was working on would still be sourced on the network drives (projects, media, settings, etc are all stored on the servers) and I could launch TeamViewer from another device and login to an edit bay at the office and complete my work.

The potential for infection may be the biggest concern, though I wouldn't really be using it for personal computing like web browsing. I'd use it for my own film projects but that's it.

You'd have to ensure your network is also segregated for one, so your other devices aren't talking to your workstation. Any company with sane IT management would also want your computer enrolled specifically into their antivirus and MDM (which will likely also mean you'll have to get a Pro version of Windows, not Home).

You would probably also need some sort of packet-shaping/traffic-control so that someone/multiple people in your house deciding to watch Netflix doesn't impact your throughput.

Just thinking about this too, I know in Australia ISP network bandwidth only has to legally meet a bare minimum regardless of what speed you're paying for. So I could pay for 100Mbps, but as long as the network is only pushing like 15Mbps I have no recourse as that's the maximum they can supply me and are under no real obligation to try to make any improvements as long as it meets the minimum.

In this thinking, you tend to have less standing as a residential customer than a business customer because your ISP can take their time to address issues and just say "screw you, that's why".

Again, not to say these are issues you'll definitely face, just more thinking in terms of issues I have to deal with in regard to our multiple business connections (including a rather expensive one that never worked properly at one of our sites and we were paying a ridiculous amount for).

I suppose from a cost-benefit perspective it could benefit them because I'm buying my own rig, which I'd like to do anyway, and then if I'm not taking up one in the office that's one more available for a freelancer or another editor they felt like bringing on staff.

That's definitely something you'd have to suss out. Also you'd have to consider how the software is licensed and if that's affected by your situation, whether or not they can allow you to work interstate (I think there can be some issues with payroll and taxes among other things?). And now that I'm also thinking from that perspective: the speeds between your home and site internet could drastically decline depending on how many servers it hops through to get there, if it's going interstate.

 

[Gnarwhal]

You'd have to ensure your network is also segregated for one, so your other devices aren't talking to your workstation. Any company with sane IT management would also want your computer enrolled specifically into their antivirus and MDM (which will likely also mean you'll have to get a Pro version of Windows, not Home).

You would probably also need some sort of packet-shaping/traffic-control so that someone/multiple people in your house deciding to watch Netflix doesn't impact your throughput.

Just thinking about this too, I know in Australia ISP network bandwidth only has to legally meet a bare minimum regardless of what speed you're paying for. So I could pay for 100Mbps, but as long as the network is only pushing like 15Mbps I have no recourse as that's the maximum they can supply me and are under no real obligation to try to make any improvements as long as it meets the minimum.

In this thinking, you tend to have less standing as a residential customer than a business customer because your ISP can take their time to address issues and just say "screw you, that's why".

Again, not to say these are issues you'll definitely face, just more thinking in terms of issues I have to deal with in regard to our multiple business connections (including a rather expensive one that never worked properly at one of our sites and we were paying a ridiculous amount for).

I appreciate you raising all these questions, I have no idea but they could end up being problems here in the U.S. too. I figured since longterm I'd like to build my own high-end editing rig for my own film projects then maybe I could kill two birds with one stone. I'm a Mac guy mainly but I wouldn't mind a Puget Systems or DIgital Storm build either.

That's definitely something you'd have to suss out. Also you'd have to consider how the software is licensed and if that's affected by your situation, whether or not they can allow you to work interstate (I think there can be some issues with payroll and taxes among other things?). And now that I'm also thinking from that perspective: the speeds between your home and site internet could drastically decline depending on how many servers it hops through to get there, if it's going interstate.

Actually the interstate work thing is already a go, I've been doing that since September it's just a question of moving a lot further away. You're righ though, that's one thing I'm curious about, how much would a 5Gb symmetrical fiber connection degrade in a speed transfer between California and Washington DC? That's a question I'd love to see answered.