Samsung: Professor Green
Posted on Dec 1, 2023
For a massive chroma key shoot, DOP Adrian Weinbrecht found the Samsung Portable SSD T9 the perfect partner
Advertisement feature
Whether he’s shooting a worldwide commercial for a brand-new car or superyacht, a red-hot bit of new tech or a campaign for an international chain of hotels, Adrian Weinbrecht has a showreel packed with cinematic work to rival many a Hollywood blockbuster.
“The way modern drama is shot has bled into the commercial world. We’ve moved away from commercials as a short sizzle of a product like a car advert, much more into narrative and storytelling. People want to know the story of other people,” he begins.
But where some filmmakers focus on the art of creating stunning visuals with little interest in the technicalities, the London-based Aussie Weinbrecht has always stayed at the cutting edge of what’s possible.
“When I started out, I worked for brilliant people who had a great eye and vision, but no organisational or technical skills. I don’t buy that artists don’t have to understand the equipment and processes. That’s absurd. You can be an artist and have some mathematical awareness. One doesn’t preclude the other,” he maintains.
From the ins and outs of cameras and codecs to the latest lighting launches – right through to batteries and memory storage – Weinbrecht is always on the lookout for the next tech innovation. So it’s no surprise he jumped at the chance to be one of the first to try the speedy new Samsung Portable SSD T9 – the perfect partner for backing up huge Raw files on location from his 8K camera.
Ultimate quality was essential because the job was for an architecture client, working a massive green-screen shoot with a BAFTA-winning production company. “This was to promote the redevelopment of a site, so we were creating a space which was yet to be made. There were up to 20 actors and a similar crew size,” claims Weinbrecht. With that kind of investment, there is no room for data-wrangling errors.
FAST AND TOUGH
The Samsung Portable SSD T9 proved ideal. It is incredibly fast and comes in a 4TB capacity to handle a lot of footage. “I love the portable drive! It’s big in terms of capacity and very fast. I also really like the finish, which means you’re unlikely to drop it. The perfect combo,” says Weinbrecht. Even if it is dropped, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 is protected thanks to its aluminium body covered with a rubber outer. This not only gives a luxurious feel, but it’s tested to withstand drops up to 3m/9.8ft – as well as being evaluated to simulate shocks.
Its new USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface and TurboWrite buffer size up to 180GB ensure maximum performance for a longer time when transferring large files and encoding or decoding video.
The portable drive sports a USB-C connection, but comes with a choice of two cables, one to connect to a USB-C or Thunderbolt drive and a second for legacy USB-A devices. Using Thunderbolt ports, read and write speeds of 2000MB/s are double that of the T7 range, which Weinbrecht has used, and he certainly noticed the increase in performance.
Since hardware and firmware are developed exclusively for the Samsung Portable SSD T9, power use is optimised to be as low as possible. It consumes just 0.67W at idle and up to 7.3W at peak power when connected by the USB-C, which makes compatibility safe. In tests, when using the Samsung drive on the same host device and left to idle, battery life is extended by more than 30 minutes compared to competitor’s products.* This low power use is crucial as portable SSDs usually complete commands quickly then drop back to idle status.
This assists with heat management – an important factor when transferring large files. High temperatures can lead to performance drops or device failure, but Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard helps prevent overheating. As well as low power consumption, the Samsung Portable SSD T9 is built with silicon and aluminium to keep things cool even in intense sessions.
To keep the portable drive at its optimum level, it comes pre-installed with Samsung Magician software. This has performance benchmarking, security functions, firmware updates and a health status check in real time. The newest version 8.0 offers data migration, PSSD software and a card authentication tool.
To make certain that the Samsung Portable SSD T9 is compatible with the most popular products, this rapid and lightweight portable drive has been verified in 64 devices including PCs, mobile phones, TVs, games consoles and cameras without having any issues. This is largely because it is developed as a dedicated PCB design rather than a more common M.2 SSD.
All these factors mean that a filmmaker can trust their work is safe in the portable drive, allowing them to get on with shooting and being creative. “I like directing and shooting – and I just love lighting and composition. Any time light is involved, I still get excited by what it does to a scene,” concludes Weinbrecht. “And with the Samsung Portable SSD T9, I never have to worry about the safety of the files I’m shooting.”
*The power consumption results are based on Samsung internal testing, conducted under controlled conditions. Idle status is defined as eight minutes without I/O operations.
samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/portable-ssd
