Remote Voice Over Workflows using FCP - thoughts?

Question

I am going to try and keep this as simple as possible.
I am Producer and host for an Australian Drag Racing Show that we air nationally...
We record these shows in Full 1080 HD using modern XFILE systems (EVS) using the Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) codec.
Our ENG/EFP team use XDCAM (full 1080i HD).
We edit these shows using FCP 7 amongst a few suites.
I also do some offline content on my 17inch i7 MBP using FCP too.
My question is thus:
The Post Production Team are based in Sydney on the east coast, whilst I am based in Western Australia - this is like being in LA in comparison to New York!
I want to reduce my travel commitment by air, as in the past I have travelled weekly to commentate these shows (40+ shows a year!)
I have - as does the production house - a reasonably good ADSL Internet connection.
I do a lot of Producing and program checks using iChat Theatre within FCP 7. It is quite good.
What I want to get to though is a way in being able to more often commentate these shows remotely from home, without the need for me to physically having to be across country on every occasion - for my sanity's sake.
My co-commentator also lives near me, however our editors are all based across country, together in Sydney.
I see the following options as being the way to do this:
OPTION 1.
When we ingest (log and transfer) the vision, I will always be in Sydney at that time. There are usually several shows generated from this vision.
I copy the Quicktime MOV files that are for use in the shows to my external (eSATA) HD.
Editors in Sydney cut the racing components of our show. They then email me the FCP project file.
(I have FCP, the required Audio and Mics)
Then, I open this FCP Project File and re-link and re-render as required once I receive this and we commentate the shows using the VO utility within Final Cut.
I then do an Audio export only and send the editors the updated FCP Project file, for them to receive and re-link the vision as required, sound mix and print.
OPTION 2.
The Editors cut the shows, then export either within FCP or Compressor a reduced quality file size to send via FTP or sendspace.
I then import this vision locally into FCP, render the vision and commentate it accordingly and just send back the audio.
SO:
What would you all suggest as the easiest and best way to do this. We do have tight work timeframes in terms of getting content to air.
I think Option1 is by far the best, and what I am not sure about is if I did Option2 - what settings for export and I want to avoid bogging down the editors on handling cumbersome vision exports anyway?
Thoughts?
Dean...

Answer 1

I would probably go with option 2, myself - I usually export my cuts and run the movie thru compressor with the H.264 LAN or H.264 800KBPS presets. These are found under Apple/Other Workflows/Web/Streaming/Quicktime 7/
These take up roughly 10MB per minute and 5MB per minute respectively.
While I have used Option 1 (duplicate media, transferring a project file), this can get problematic when the editors have generated media - like effects, color correction, etc...
my 2¢
Patrick