NAS for video streaming and personal data storage

[Enquiries]

I am a surgeon in the US, and a big part of my job is teaching residents. I built a fairly elaborate 6k video rig for capturing high quality surgical videos for teaching. I plan to record dozens of videos, ranging from 1 to 10 hours each (at my bitrate, 8 hours is ~1TB). I need to store both unedited footage and edited/cropped/downsized footage, with the latter being relatively small files. I would like to have those smaller (4k) videos available for residents to stream on an app like Plex or Jellyfin. While I will have informed consent from patients for public display, and there will be no identifying information in the videos, I would naturally want storage and access to be as secure as possible. I am thinking of the QNAP TS-473a with an added GTX 1650 GPU, or the TVS-h474? My computer is a MacBook M2 Pro. I don’t need to edit from the NAS, so I don’t think I need 10GbE? Thank you!

[ed]

Thank you for reaching out with such a detailed inquiry! Given your needs for high-capacity, secure storage and video streaming, both the QNAP TS-473A and the TVS-h474 are excellent options. Here's my breakdown of each choice along with some additional considerations:

QNAP TS-473A with GTX 1650 GPU
Pros:
Excellent balance of performance and price.
Capable of supporting Plex or Jellyfin for streaming, especially with added GPU for hardware-accelerated transcoding.
Four drive bays with support for up to 64TB total storage (expandable with an enclosure), which fits your storage needs for the next few years.
The AMD Ryzen V1500B CPU offers good multitasking performance, which is useful for both storage management and video streaming.
Can upgrade RAM if needed for future-proofing.
Cons:
Lacks some of the extra features and more powerful CPUs found in higher-end models like the TVS-h474.
QNAP TVS-h474
Pros:
More powerful Intel-based processor, offering Quick Sync Video for efficient media transcoding without needing a separate GPU, which can simplify your setup.
ZFS file system (via QuTS Hero) provides built-in data integrity checks, making it a great choice for long-term, secure storage of sensitive data like surgical videos.
Integrated M.2 NVMe slots allow for SSD caching, improving performance in media access.
Future-proofed with upgrade paths for RAM and drives.
Cons:
More expensive than the TS-473A, but offers better redundancy and data integrity features.
Security Considerations
For secure access, especially given the sensitive nature of surgical videos:

Encryption: Both QNAP models support AES 256-bit encryption to keep your data secure.
VPN: Implementing a VPN for external access will help ensure only authorized personnel (such as residents) can stream or download videos.
Plex/Jellyfin: Both can be configured securely, allowing for restricted access to the content. Jellyfin is a good open-source alternative with more control over data privacy.
Why GPU (GTX 1650) for TS-473A?
Adding a GPU like the GTX 1650 will greatly improve the performance of video transcoding, especially for streaming 4K content. Without it, the CPU may struggle with high-bitrate 4K streams if the video requires transcoding on the fly.
Do You Need 10GbE?
Given that you won’t be editing from the NAS directly, 10GbE isn’t necessary for now. However, keep an eye on future needs, especially as your collection grows. Most high-definition video streaming over LAN can handle well with 1GbE.

Storage Expansion
TS-473A and TVS-h474 both support storage expansion via QNAP’s TR-004 enclosures or other compatible solutions, so you can expand beyond the built-in bays as your storage needs grow.
Drive Recommendations
For your storage, I'd recommend Seagate IronWolf Pro or WD Red Pro drives (8-12TB each). They are optimized for NAS environments with high endurance and reliability.
RAID 5 or RAID 6 is ideal for redundancy, ensuring that you don’t lose data in case of a drive failure. If you opt for ZFS on the TVS-h474, you could also consider RAID-Z2, which provides similar redundancy to RAID 6.