Upgrading to AJA io HD/FCPS 2 Right Before P2 Project - Help!!

Question

I'm starting a project today that was shot entirely on P2 in HD. It was originally supposed to be xferred to digibeta and then I would ingest for offline at DV quality like I normally do (most of what I cut is still shot on 35 and 16mm film). We found out yesterday that they had shot 4 times the amount of footage that was discussed, therefore causing budget problems for conversion and also the amount of time needed to xfer that many hours of footage. Also, the project is going to be finished SD and mostly for internet use anyway.
I've previously done one job shot on P2 that I completed unsupervised, therefore it wasn't much problem that I wasn't able to output my video on both my broadcast monitor and my client plasma monitor. Normally, I work supervised and this job will be with several clients behind my back. So, I quickly bought an AJA io HD box and the upgrade to FCP Studio 2 and it's due in this morning. I currently use an AJA ioLD SDI to firewire that's hooked into my MacBook Pro and use FCP version 5.1. I plan on switching out the AJA boxes and upgrading the software and I wanted to see if there's anything I need to look out for beforehand. I have no time to waste as I need to start cutting immediately. I usually never upgrade anything without a few days grace incase there's problems.
Here's my questions:
1. They gave me the first day's dailies on a WD external FW drive. I usually cut on a SATA CalDigit RAID. Since it's the backup to the P2, could I possibly cut directly off the WD drive? Since they shot so much footage, I'm not sure how much room I'm going to have on my RAID unless I do some quick cleaning.
2. It was shot on an HD Panasonic HDX3000 Camera. I should be able to view it real time on my broadcast HD monitors with the new AJA io HD box, correct?
3. Is there any major changes to the user interface in FCP 6? I'm hoping it's pretty similar to version 5 as far as the workflow. I don't want to get stuck in the middle of the edit and can't find buttons, etc...
4. I viewed Shane's QT tutorial on the P2 workflow for version 5 on the only P2 project I worked on, but is importing P2 footage for version 6 easier or different??
5. Any other important "must know" info with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Eddie

Answer 1

The AJA I/O HD connects to your computer via FW800. This means that your firewire bus is now occupied. So if you want to connect a drive to the computer, you need either an Express34 adapter for FW or for eSATA. I highly recommend eSATA.
Now...they shot with the HPX3000...this might very well mean that they shot using the AVCIntra codec and NOT DVCPRO HD. Contact the DP to verify what format they shot. So this format, while you use the same Log and Transfer interace, will require more space and fast drives. FCP does not work with AVCIntra natively, it needs to convert it to ProRes 422. This codec is about 2-4 times larger than DVCPRO HD. And the conversion process requires and Intel Mac, and will take a while. Especially if you are doing this on your laptop. Bottom line, you will need more drives. I recommend a large eSATA Raid.
You will be able to use the I/O HD to monitor this footage.
Yes, the interface has changed. Look at this new tutorial, P2 Workflow with FCP 6. While this is still for DVCPRO HD, this is the same interface for AVCIntra. You just need to make sure to click on the sprocket menu to choose PRORES 422 (NOT HQ) as the format to convert to.
Shane