The decision on what Video switching/mixing system to go with at TTFN has been made and we are going to build what we hope will be the Ultimate Telestream Wirecast system!
While we don’t have the Blackmagic Decklink Duo (twin SDI inputs on a single PCI card) yet we have started commissioning the new Mac Pro which will not only significantly improve the time it takes to edit and compress TTFN videos but will also act as out live video mixing system using Telestream Wirecast 4.
For input we will initially use two Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro PCI adapters each providing a single input that can be HDMI, Component, S-video or video.
To improve the overall performance of the system we will install two 4GB Kingston memory modules.
For storage we are adding a Western Digital 1TB Caviar balck drive. This is the same drive supplied by Apple in the Mac Pro as the base drive (unless you opted for SSD).
Opening the Mac Pro box revealed a single box of accessories which contained the wired keyboard, a USB extension cable for the keyboard, a power cable, two DVDs OS X install and Applications and a couple of small booklets including ‘Everything Mac’ a basic introduction to the Mac Pro. Having opened and installed many different systems over the years Apple have certainly created an outstanding packaging system that is good for the user.
Apart from packaging the only other item in the box was the Mac Pro itself. First impressions, even before removing the wrapping, were of quality (weight and feel of the handles) and that it was much bigger than expected!
The side panel is removed by lifting a lever on the back panel. revealing the power supply at the top, 4 removable 3.5″ drive holders, the PCI expansion card area (3 spare, one already used by the ATI Radeon 5870 graphics adapter), and at the bottom the processor tray.
The processor tray is help in by two latches at the bottom of the case, once opened the tray sides easily out. Depending on the Mac Pro configuration the try will have one or two processors (underneath the very large heatsinks). Each processor has a bank of four memory slots. Our system came with three 1GB memory modules per processor, a total of 6GB. We removed the first 1GB module on each processor and replaced it with a Kingston 4GB module, giving 6GB per processor, 12GB in all. We did not put the 1GB module into the spare slot as the last two slots are on a shared memory channel and this can reduce performance.
Next we unpacked the Intensity Pro cards. The large breakout cable allows you to connect analogue video sources such as component, s-video, and composite video to the card, and to output the analogue signal as well.
The two cards were easy to install after loosening the thumbwheel screws and removing the locking plate. The trickiest bit of the whole configuration was putting the locking plate back! Even so this only took a couple of minutes.
The final part of the configuration was to add the second 1TB disk drive. Having a fast drive to write video files to, especilly when recording a live show, is very important. This drive should be fast enough, but if not we will add a faster drive in one of the two spare bays, such as a Western Digital Velociraptor or even a Solid State Drive.
The hardware configuration of this system was very straightforward and the easiest system I have every configured (and I have done quote a few over the years!). The Apple Mac Pro is a quality, beautifully engineered, elegant system. The real proof will of course be in its performance!
Now to start installing software…….
