ScreenCastsOnline Studio Revamp
Monday, June 25, 2012 at 1:42PM ;)
If you follow my twitter account, you may already know I've had a busy weekend.
I've been using my 11" MacBook Air as my main production machine for quite a while now, recently acquiring a 27" Thunderbolt display to go with it. The 27" Thunderbolt display was a game changer in conjunction with the 11" MBA - the responsiveness of the machine, the clarity of the display not to mention the convenience of the ports built into the display - all accessible via a single Thunderbolt connector.
I still used my 2008 Mac Pro for encoding and storage as despite the 11" MBA being a little powerhouse, the Mac Pro still outperformed it on encoding. I also use a Mac mini as a dedicated development machine for Xcode and publishing the SCOtutor Apps.
Consequently, I had a triple monitor setup - 1 x 15" for the Mac mini, 1 x 15" for the Mac Pro and the 27" for the MacBook Air.
The only thing is, the two 15" monitors were not used. I've started to use Remote Desktop and it works like a dream. I can view the desktops of both machines in high resolution on my 27" monitor. So both monitors were superfluous.
The only three issues I had with the MacBook Air were:
- Lack of Memory - the MBA maxed out at 4GB
- Lack of Screen Real Estate - for video editing on the go, the 11" screen didn't really hack it
- Lack of Grunt - It's a super responsive machine, but for really processor intensive tasks, it could use a touch more horsepower
The solution to all three issues was the introduction of the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display - ordered! I placed an order for the following configuration - 2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM, 512GB Flash Storage
At the same time, I started to think about a revamp to the studio.
The two 15" monitors had to go, but I decided to replace them with a second 27" Thunderbolt display. The new MacBook Pro can drive two monitors at full resolution via Thunderbolt plus a third display via HDMI. I can continue to use Remote Desktop to the other machines with plenty of screen real estate.
Usually with a laptop and 2 x 27" displays, you'd tend to use the laptop in clamshell mode and just used the external displays. With having the Retina Display, I didn't want to do this and thought of a way to utilise the 15" display also (See photo). I'm not sure if this is the way to go but I'll use it in this configuration for the next week or so.
I also wanted to tidy up and move some of the more noisier components into a rack. This would both give me a quieter environment and give me lots more under desk storage. So a new rack was ordered and duly installed. This now contains:
- 24 port Gigabit Ethernet Switch (no more daisy chained switches around the office)
- DBX 226XL Limiter/Compressor
- 2 x Mac Mini - Xcode machine & Media Server
- 1 x 4 bay Drobo
- 1 x 8 bay DroboPro - I didn't bother with the rack-mount kit - £150!!!
The Drobos are starting to show their age and are the noisiest bits of kit in the room. I think they will be the next things to go when I start looking at Thunderbolt rack mounted storage.
So most of the new equipment is in place and I now need to spend a couple of days tidying up the inevitable boxes of cables and detritus that seem to accumulate when you take on a job like this.
Oh and by the way, the MacBook Pro outperforms my 2008 8 core Xeon Mac Pro in encoding. I'll do some tests later in the week and post some comparisons.
If you want to see the flurry of activity over the past two days, checkout the embedded YouTube video below (looks like the 1st version won't work on Mobile devices such as iPad as I've included some music YouTube identified as copyright - use the second version for iPad/iPhone)
Desktop Version
iPad/iPhone Version
Reader Comments (8)
Fab setup Don! Nice to see a new rack in there too, looking good.
Amazing to hear the MBPwRD out performs the Mac Pro which was such a monster only a few years ago.
M.
You are a lucky man. It looks great. Hope it helps in the production of your Screencasts. - Matt
You can really move when you want to. ;) Fantastic overhaul it probably feels like a brand new office. Great job!
Don
could you give us the name of the arms that your using?
also the name of the switch and the rack? is the rack really noise prof?
thanks so much
e
Never knew you could move that fast Don!
By the way, what's the music that plays in the last 30 seconds or so of the video?
The music is "Canon in D" by Composers Gone Wild.
The stand is a Triple Boa from Monitors in Motion.
Turns out the rack isn't as silent as I'd hoped but I think that may be down to the way I've installed it.
Don
where you able to fix the Rack and could you let us know what company make that.
thanks
e
Not had chance to fix the rack yet!
It was from http://www.toughrack.co.uk/