Real-world star performance: Samsung
Posted on Sep 2, 2024
When it comes to a time-pressured shoot interviewing inspirational people, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 proves itself fast, safe and reliable
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It’s not always A-list celebrities who have the best stories to tell. More often than not, it’s the biggest names that get all the airtime when they are out to promote their next book, film or album. But some of the most interesting and inspiring people in the world, who have the most interesting tales, find it tougher to get the platform they deserve.
That’s why trained journalist and actor-turned-filmmaker Dominic Danson has started up his own pilot season series called Forty Minutes With. It’s about giving voice to extraordinarily talented people in a world that’s become increasingly celeb-obsessed.
With more than 20 years’ experience interviewing people from all walks of life, Danson keeps things conversational and natural, but still finds room to uncover fascinating nuggets of information. “I’m proud to be leading Forty Minutes With and cannot wait to see where this journey takes us. During my career, I’ve met some incredible people with stories begging to be told. But there’s nowhere to give them the profile they deserve. It’s time to change that,” he says.
The responsibility of taking on this challenge required hardware that’s up to the task. This is where the Samsung Portable SSD T9 came in, as a sleek, sophisticated – but most importantly reliable – storage device for shooting the series. Its curved diagonal lines and reverse carbon patterns make it a user-friendly device on the go. As host and executive producer, Danson’s mission was to take an indie approach yet create a broadcast-quality product. Production company Twelve Noon Films had to lean on all its experience to do this.
The production’s focus was on making sure there was a hyper-efficient workflow, employing a crew of just four people: host, DOP, sound recordist and BTS photographer. “Our goal was to shoot a broadcast- quality project, so we chose high-end cinema cameras for close-ups and filmed ProRes HQ for the wide shots. Paired with sharp lenses that deliver a crisp, modern look, the show meets the standards required by most networks and streaming services,” says Danson.
That’s a lot of high-quality data, so keeping it safe was vital – as was the speed to ingest and serve up huge Raw or ProRes HQ files to enable viewing of rushes as the shoots go on.
SPEED DEMON | Incredibly fast, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 can transfer a 4GB file in as quickly as two seconds
SPEED DEMON | Incredibly fast, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 can transfer a 4GB file in as quickly as two seconds
SPEED DEMON | Incredibly fast, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 can transfer a 4GB file in as quickly as two seconds
After Danson’s previous positive experience using the Samsung Portable T7 series, this time he decided to make the upgrade to the Samsung Portable SSD T9. It’s faster, holds up to 4TB of data and is secure. “I’ve had huge success with Samsung memory in the past, so I was certain that the Samsung Portable SSD T9 would be even better. And it was, giving everyone faith that it was the ideal hardware for the project,” says Danson of the portable drive, which proves compact at just 122g and 88x60x14mm.
With a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface as well as a choice of two cables – one to connect to a USB-C or Thunderbolt drive and a second for legacy USB-A devices – the portable drive is fast to connect and recognised instantly.
There were no big delays waiting for footage to be ingested thanks to the incredibly quick 2000MB/s transfer speeds, as the Samsung Portable SSD T9 is blazing fast. With Samsung’s TurboWrite technology enabling a buffer size of up to 180GB, maximum performance is maintained for longer when transferring large files or encoding/decoding video. That was crucial with the massive files from the cine camera.
Heat management is a key factor when using large video files as this can lead to performance drops or even the device failing. But there’s no such worry with the Samsung Portable SSD T9. In addition to Dynamic Thermal Guard technology, it has been built with thermal materials such as silicon and aluminium to keep things cool.
Since the hardware and firmware is developed exclusively for the Samsung Portable SSD T9, it consumes 0.67W idle power and peak power up to 7.3W when connected by USB-C. In testing, when using the portable drive on the same host device and left to idle, the battery life is extended by more than 30 minutes compared to competitors’ products.*
For extra peace of mind, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 comes with Samsung Magician software installed. This offers performance benchmarking, security functions, firmware updates, a health status check in real time, data migration, PSSD software and a card authentication tool. It’s also tested to be compatible with devices including PCs, mobiles, TVs, game consoles and cameras – all thanks to using a dedicated PCB design rather than an M.2 SSD.
All this technology is designed to give worry-free performance – that’s exactly what the Samsung Portable SSD T9 delivered on Danson’s pilot project. “Luckily, we didn’t test the portable drive’s impact capabilities, but it’s good to know it’s protected against drops up to three metres and has a five-year limited warranty,” beams Danson.
Not having to worry about hardware means Danson is free to do the job at hand – working with his interviewees to draw out amazing stories. That’s what Forty Minutes With is all about.
*Power consumption results based on Samsung internal testing, conducted under controlled conditions. Idle status defined as eight minutes without I/O operations.
More information at samsung.com/uk/memory-storage-devices.
