How much storage do I need for a 1-day 4K video shoot?

For an 8-hour shoot with 1 camera recording 4K ProRes 422 (~150 Mbps), you generate approximately `540 GB` of raw footage. With a standard 3-2-1 backup strategy (3 copies), you need `~1.6 TB` of storage.

What is the 3-2-1 backup rule for media production?

The 3-2-1 rule dictates keeping 3 total copies of all media footage across 2 different storage media types (e.g., RAID NAS and LTO tape), with 1 copy stored in a secure offsite or cloud location.

How does RAID configuration affect usable storage capacity?

In RAID 0 you get 100% capacity (no parity); in RAID 1 you get 50% capacity (mirroring); in RAID 5 you lose 1 drive's capacity to parity; in RAID 6 you lose 2 drives' capacity to dual parity protection.

How much storage does Blackmagic RAW (BRAW) or REDCODE RAW use?

At typical 8:1 compression, 4K BRAW / REDCODE RAW consumes approximately `45 MB/s to 60 MB/s` (~160 GB to 216 GB per shooting hour).

How fast does my editing drive need to be for multi-cam 4K editing?

For 3-camera 4K ProRes 422 multi-cam editing, your storage drive or SSD array must sustain continuous read speeds of at least `3 × 60 MB/s = 180 MB/s` (NVMe SSD or 4-bay Thunderbolt RAID recommended).

Media Calculators Cluster

Media Storage & Bitrate Requirement Calculator

Calculate production storage capacities, shooting hours, multi-cam recording, and backup redundancy.

TL;DR: Media Storage & Bitrate Calculator estimates on-set storage and post-production NAS hard drive requirements (GB/TB) based on shooting hours, camera codecs, multi-cam setups, and 3-2-1 backup copies.

Total Shooting Time (hours)

Camera Codec / Quality Preset

How Do You Calculate Video Production Storage Requirements for a Shoot?

Total Production Storage (GB) = [Shooting Hours × 3,600 s × Data Rate (Mbps) / 8,000] × Number of Cameras × Backup Multiplier. For example, a 10-hour 2-camera shoot recording ProRes 422 at 147 Mbps with a 2x backup (working drive + on-set clone) requires: [10 × 3,600 × 147 / 8,000] × 2 × 2 = 661.5 × 4 = 2,646 GB (~2.65 TB).

How to Use the Media Storage & Bitrate Calculator

Our Media Storage & Bitrate Calculator performs high-precision mathematical operations directly in your browser with zero latency and complete client-side privacy.

Select camera recording codec (ProRes 422/HQ/RAW, REDCODE RAW, Blackmagic RAW, Sony XAVC, Canon Cinema RAW Light, H.264/H.265).
Enter estimated total shooting hours per shoot day and number of shooting days.
Enter the number of simultaneous active cameras.
Select backup redundancy strategy (1x Raw only, 2x Dual Clone, 3x 3-2-1 Standard Archive).
Review the total required storage in Terabytes (TB) and recommended hard drive RAID capacities.

100% Client-Side Privacy Guarantee

All calculations run locally inside your browser using JavaScript and client math engines. Your numbers, dates, values, and financial records are never transmitted to or stored on external servers.

Frequently Asked Questions

: For an 8-hour shoot with 1 camera recording 4K ProRes 422 (~150 Mbps), you generate approximately `540 GB` of raw footage. With a standard 3-2-1 backup strategy (3 copies), you need `~1.6 TB` of storage.
: The 3-2-1 rule dictates keeping 3 total copies of all media footage across 2 different storage media types (e.g., RAID NAS and LTO tape), with 1 copy stored in a secure offsite or cloud location.
: In RAID 0 you get 100% capacity (no parity); in RAID 1 you get 50% capacity (mirroring); in RAID 5 you lose 1 drive's capacity to parity; in RAID 6 you lose 2 drives' capacity to dual parity protection.
: At typical 8:1 compression, 4K BRAW / REDCODE RAW consumes approximately `45 MB/s to 60 MB/s` (~160 GB to 216 GB per shooting hour).
: For 3-camera 4K ProRes 422 multi-cam editing, your storage drive or SSD array must sustain continuous read speeds of at least `3 × 60 MB/s = 180 MB/s` (NVMe SSD or 4-bay Thunderbolt RAID recommended).

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NexLove.org. (2026). Media Storage & Bitrate Calculator [Software]. https://nexlove.org/tools/media-storage-calculator.html

“Media Storage & Bitrate Calculator.” NexLove.org, 2026, nexlove.org/tools/media-storage-calculator.html.

NexLove.org (2026) Media Storage & Bitrate Calculator. Available at: https://nexlove.org/tools/media-storage-calculator.html (Accessed: 2026).

@misc{nexlove_media_storage_calculator,
  title = {Media Storage & Bitrate Calculator},
  author = {{NexLove.org}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://nexlove.org/tools/media-storage-calculator.html}
}

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