The Power of Catalyst, Macbook Pro, and Mtron

[SourceChild]

I just finished a job where I ran a three screen show off of one laptop. The client was amazed, the content creators were amazed, and I was amazed (even though I knew theoretically it would work). The client hired me because I claimed I could hop on an airplane and with one carryon, perform and entire three projector show.

The content creator is a friend of mine and said he had a show where he was literally going to be running everything off of DVDs and MX50 switchers. The problem he said was that having everything mix right or start right wouldn't work. We changed the content a bit and made pieces that were three screens wide instead of three one screen wide pieces. Rendered everything out as 2400x600 AIC 30FPS.

I showed up with my 2nd Gen Macbook Pro, Triple Head 2 Go, and one Firewire box with a 64Gb Mtron disk. Litterally, that was it. I plugged in three DB-15 to 5-Wire BNC converters directly into the Triple Head and then a 5-Wire which ran straight to the projectors. No preview monitors, nothing else.

I used the laptop display to run the local Preset control and the Cue control with Catalyst. I was even running a Parallels Desktop Virtual Machine with XP so I could read my notes from MS OneNote at the same time. I was also jamming out to Hybrid on iTunes. All of this was on the same machine. In a few hours, I had built all eighty something of the cues and they ran fine. Even running iTiunes and Parallels XP, I was still running Catalyst like a champ. Was able to run two full layers of 2400x800 simultaneously and had no frame loss.

Everything worked perfect.

Of course I'm not stupid, I also had an 8-Core Mac Pro with the whole show backed up, hot, and ready for show time in case of problems. I also shut off iTunes and Parallels as well as blue tooth, wifi, yahoo messenger, iChat, Mail, and who knows what else at show time. The point is, I didn't have to. It worked and ran like a champ. I had no problems. The client was blown away, and so was I.

It may not sound like much in theory but this was monumental proof that a properly programmed and configured Catalyst system really does save time, money, and provide unparalleled enhancements beyond what any traditional video company would ever be able to offer.

[Spam Butterfly]

Our corporate project managers are beginning to discover the joy of Catalyst.
So much easier than a load of Digibeta decks/Grass Valley Turbos and a vision mixer. And you can show the client what they are going to get before rehearsals start, and make any changes as necessary. AIC is also better quality than the long-GOP MPEG-2 that turbos use and the ingest time is considerably shorter.

Hugh

[SourceChild]

Our corporate project managers are beginning to discover the joy of Catalyst.
So much easier than a load of Digibeta decks/Grass Valley Turbos and a vision mixer. And you can show the client what they are going to get before rehearsals start, and make any changes as necessary. AIC is also better quality than the long-GOP MPEG-2 that turbos use and the ingest time is considerably shorter.

Hugh

Unlike everything else, with 4 HD-SDI inputs, Catalyst is a full blown switcher now and something beyond what most show switchers could ever hope to do.

I've even been thinking up ways to develop value added application interfaces for Catalyst that include switching hardware so that potential users could have a virtually unlimited switcher.

It's easy. Four inputs means an upstream key, a down stream key, and two layers in the middle for live/preview. Not to mention the other 12 layers of simultaneous video playback and the ability to display on six screens with the use of two Triple Head 2 Go boxes.

It's a super HD switcher and if we were to add a 16x16 matrix HD-SDI switcher with serial control from the serial within Catalyst then we're unstoppable.

[Mick Murray]

My company recently supplied lighting equipment for an outdoor festival in Ireland. A highly popular act headlined one of the days. They used two macbook pros with partitioned ssd drives to run catalyst, one as a back up and one as the main, the macbooks ran catalyst off one output directly to a stealth screen, the stealth screen is a major part of the show. These guys proved that the macbook pro is a reliable option with enough power to run a major show, and its something you can take in hand luggage

[SourceChild]

My company recently supplied lighting equipment for an outdoor festival in Ireland. A highly popular act headlined one of the days. They used two macbook pros with partitioned ssd drives to run catalyst, one as a back up and one as the main, the macbooks ran catalyst off one output directly to a stealth screen, the stealth screen is a major part of the show. These guys proved that the macbook pro is a reliable option with enough power to run a major show, and its something you can take in hand luggage

90% of my personal Catalyst projects are hopping on a plane with a Macbook Pro. I have actually been tempted to put an SSD inside the Macbook. Obviously not enough storage for my main Macbook but when every Catalyst show I do is with a laptop bag, the cost for shipping is gone.

[Mick Murray]

Would an external ssd with e-sata be fast enough?

[SourceChild]

I started by using a FireWire 800 external enclosure.
Then I started using an eSATA. The eSATA is probably a better choice.
I want to put the SSD inside to eliminate the liability of extra devices that might possibly fail.
There should be enhanced performance in doing this but the problem would be in loosing capacity for other application.

[samsc]

My company recently supplied lighting equipment for an outdoor festival in Ireland. A highly popular act headlined one of the days. They used two macbook pros with partitioned ssd drives to run catalyst, one as a back up and one as the main, the macbooks ran catalyst off one output directly to a stealth screen, the stealth screen is a major part of the show. These guys proved that the macbook pro is a reliable option with enough power to run a major show, and its something you can take in hand luggage

matthew doesnt do many layers- and he tried quite a few configurations.
the limit on laptops is the graphics card, and internal buses.

most big shows require a lot more stuff than any laptop can do.

[samsc]

I started by using a FireWire 800 external enclosure. Gets about 6 layers SD.
When I started using an eSATA, I got about 9 layers SD.

For HD, 3 layers on the FW and 4 layers on the eSATA.

I have a feeling that if I installed the SSD inside I might get closer to 6 layers HD and 12 Layers SD.

on a laptop?

[SourceChild]

on a laptop?

Something to note is that I run my Macbook at 1024x768 and shut the lid so that only the external video port is running. This removes a load from the GPU.