Mac mini as a server for video editing?

Question

Hi I have bit of networking experience as well as being a mac user for over 20 years. I am however at the moment stuck on finding a solution to our current workflow.
We are a small production company and have the following:
(1) 2013 iMac
(2) 2013 Macbook Pro's
(1) Belkin thunderbolt hub
(8) Firewire HD's
(2) Thunderbolt drives
(1) Thunderbolt Raid
Here is what I need to do.
We currently have a home office that has been hard wired directly to our Fiber connection. We have a DIA line and 5 static IP's. I have setup a switch in the office and running a direct connection from the fiber to it. From there each machine (including the hub) is connected. Each machine is setup with a static IP and can access the drives via the hub.
My problem is the speed of connection to the drives. Its extremely slow for anyone plugged in besides the iMac. My thinking is to purchase a Mac Mini and set it up as a server with a Pegasus Raid attached (http://www.promise.com/storage/raid_series.aspx?m=192&region=en-global&rsn1=40& rsn3=47) that can be accessed by all the machines on the network.
Is that all that I would have to do to be able to get each machine (and users from other locations who remotely login) access to the footage at a high rate of speed on transfer?
I hope I've worded this correctly and that someone can help.

Answer 1

I heavily use iTunes (190 GB), iPhoto (120 GB) and iMovie (30 GB, but want to do more when I get time).  Additionally, I store lots of old videos on circa 10 portable hard drives (1 TB each), which I access occasionally.
The family use all this content and we currently have a MacBook Pro and are considering buying a new computer - either a new MacBook Pro or an iMac. We also have iPads, iPhones etc and a Time Capsule.
[…] We want all our music and pictures in single master libraries that we can all access and update.
The "update" portion of this is where your problems will arise.  You'd be better to consider your proposed system initially in terms of content "consumption", before getting into the nitty-gritty of editing shared content.
iTunes has the Home Sharing feature built-in, which solves the content consumption issue.
I don't know anything about sharing iPhoto libraries, but this KB article looks useful.
As for iMovie, I think there are two things you want to do: share the raw data (sound effects, music, photos etc.) that are used to create iMovie content; and share the finished results.  Is that right?  I'm not sure how you'd go about doing that, but if you clarify your aims in this regard, it'll help the next person who comes along.
When it comes to updating content, such as adding new music to iTunes or iPhoto, I'd suggest you do it through the Mac mini directly.  This seems the least problematic solution.  You wouldn't necessarily need a dedicated display for the Mac mini - you could use remote desktop or VNC or what-have-you.
As for speed: doing anything across a network is always going to be slower than doing it locally.  But, it probably won't matter for content consumption (though if you're all watching different movies at the same time the drives on the server may struggle, and the wifi bandwidth might be tight).
I hope this represents a good initial response to your query.