NAS
Also known as: network attached storage, media server
A storage box on the local network where finished and archived footage lives, shared between machines instead of attached to one.
Updated
What it means
A NAS is disks plus a network port. Several machines reach the same footage, and the disks are arranged so that one of them failing does not take the data with it.
Its role is archive rather than editing. An External drive is what a timeline runs from; a NAS is where sessions go once the edit has been delivered and the drive needs clearing.
Redundancy is the actual reason to have one. Two copies of a card is a habit that gets forgotten; a NAS makes the second copy automatic instead. Habits fail and schedules do not.
How it works in practice
Network speed decides what is possible. A gigabit connection plays one stream comfortably and struggles with several, so Proxy editing over the network is the realistic pattern. The originals stay where they are.
Folder structure matters more here than on a local disk. Sessions by date, originals separated from exports, because a shared archive gets searched by other people and by a future self.
Cloud backup is the off-site layer rather than a replacement. A NAS in the same building as the cameras shares their risk of fire and theft, so one more copy belongs elsewhere.
What to watch out for
Redundancy is not backup. Mirrored disks survive a drive failure and not a deletion, a corrupted write or a stolen box. One failure mode is covered and the others are not.
Editing directly from it is tempting and slow. A timeline reading 4K over a network stutters, and the symptom looks like an application problem rather than a File transfer time one.
It also encourages keeping everything. Abundant space removes the reason to delete, and a Footage backlog grows faster when nothing ever has to be thrown away to make room.
How RawClip handles it
Archived footage can be uploaded from a network store as easily as from a local disk, since the upload reads files rather than playing them. The delivered result is small, so keeping it beside the originals does not change the storage picture in any meaningful way.