LaCie Rugged portable drives have been thriving in places where only the strongest survive: the film sets and photo shoots of the world’s most influential creative professionals. Why? LaCie Rugged products, the most trusted way to collect and transport field data, are why
These drives are lightweight, durable, and ready to handle any situation. They’re ideal for transporting data from set to studio and back to clients. They are IP67-rated and have extreme water resistance to drops, rain, dust and crush. It’s this durability that keeps filmmakers and photographers returning for Rugged drives.
Since 2005, over 6,000,000 Ruggeds have been released into the wild.
How has Rugged changed over the years since its conception? Let’s review the award-winning LaCie Rugged history.
Rugged’s designer was determined to make Rugged a timeless classic
The Rugged drive is a strong steel box that’s been wrapped in an orange rubber sleeve. It quickly became a favourite among creative professionals who need fast, high-capacity storage that can withstand the elements.
“The Rugged” was an instant classic,” says Neil Poulton (Paris-based designer), who created the design of many LaCie exterior storage products, including Rugged. “But where are we going now? It’s more interesting than where were we before.”
Poulton describes the meticulous process of designing the drive. This involved many revisions and overcoming early difficulties with durability testing. He said that the bumper failed to achieve the Shore rating (hardness rating) after undergoing more than a million hardness tests.
The drive passed all of these tests eventually. Today Rugged is more sturdy than ever. He can survive drops from higher heights than ever before and get run over by an 1 ton car, and in some cases even a 2 ton car.
Rugged shuttle drives are chosen by creative storytellers for their durability.
Poulton said that he was inspired by the “Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle” which is a tank-like vehicle featured on the 1960s British scifi TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons.
Design improvements starting from the beginning and continuing today
LaCie’s Rugged family has seen many improvements and expansions over the years. The first Rugged was 80GB in capacity. Today, the Rugged RAID Shuttle version has an impressive 8TB capacity. That’s an increase of 9,900%! LaCie‘s also expanded the types of Ruggeds available to solve a wide variety of needs, producing everything from mini versions to larger high-capacity versions, SSD models and backup-on-set-solutions (BOSS).
Rugged has seen a lot of improvements over the years. These include adding Thunderbolt connectivity in 2012 and adding two internal drives in RAID to increase speed and storage capacity for 2015 models. Also, we have introduced breakout capabilities that allow creatives to back up their files from SD cards and USB devices. They can also monitor file transfer progress, battery life, and view the status screen on the drive. It is possible even to access files from the drive from a smartphone.
Since its inception, Rugged drives have been used by adventure photographers Andy Best, Zak Noyle and videographers like Sara Dietschy. They are also used by music producers like Paul Moak from Nashville, TV shows like Portlandia, to store and ship video footage from the field to their editing rooms. The durable drive works equally well in Hollywood production studios, as well as in the hot, dry and wet extremes of every wild location.