Mac Setups: The VP of Projects Office
This weeks featured Mac workstation is the awesome setup of Jody R., a VP of Projects. There’s a lot of great hardware in this office, with four Macs, a couple of iOS devices, and a ton of displays… let’s dive right in and learn a bit more!
Quick note: the screen saver shown on the various displays is this iOS 7 lock screen inspired screen saver for Mac OS X, it works great and obviously looks fantastic too
What do you use your Apple gear for?
I’m a Vice President of Projects. I use Macs and iOS devices for everything. With projects spread around Canada, I use the large displays to keep an eye on production around the country.
Tell us about the hardware in your current Mac setup
My office setup is split into three areas:
Main Work Area
- MacBook Pro 15″ with Retina Display
– 16GB of RAM, 768GB SSD - 2 – 27″ Thunderbolt Displays on a Bretford MobilePro Desk Mount Combo with 2 Lightning Cables routed through the desk
- iPhone 5S – 64GB model with a ZAGG external plugin battery and Klipsch X11i earbuds
- iPad Air – 128 GB model with a Logitech FabricSkin Keyboard Folio
– 16GB of RAM, 768GB SSD
on a 
My MacBook, iPad, and iPhone travel with me and are the main tools within my work day. I use One Note to sync my objectives, todos, and ideas across my notebook, iPad, and iPhone.
I like the screen real estate that the setup provides me, as I typically have many simultaneous tasks. The upper monitors allow me to place me current work on either monitor with reference documents and Mail open on either of the other screens. Unfortunately I cannot ignore my email and have to make it a front and centre application at all times.
I typically run a lot of programs at once, so my MacBook Pro has 16GB ram and 750GB SSD.
Project Status Setup
- 2 – Mac Mini
- Twelve South BackPack Adjustable Shelf
- 3 – 55″ TVs: No Samsungs ;-]
The 60″ TVs are used to view project data and run Filemaker. This area is to the right of my primary workstation, and it shows the current Engineering, Logistics, & Construction Status on multiple Projects.
The Mac Mini’s mainly run Filemaker Pro so are just off the shelf versions.
Project Location Viewing Area
- 2 Mac Mini
- Twelve South BackPack Adjustable Shelf
- 1 – 46″ TV
The 46″ TV is used to view project locations, it’s usually running FileMaker and Google Earth.
This screen is located to the left side of my primary workstation.
What are some of your regularly used apps for Mac or iOS?
Mac OS X
- Omnigraffle
- Office
- One Note
- Pixelmator
- Calendar
- Preview
- Adobe Pro
iOS on iPad
- Filemaker go for various programs we run
- One Note
- Word (Finally word! It was worth the wait)
- Zite
- iAnnotate – Viewing & Marking up contracts, documents, etc
iOS on iPhone
- iMessage
- Ford Remote Access (to start, lock my vehicle)
- Maps
- Passbook
- Facetime
- Contacts
- KaKao Messenger
- Air Canada App
- Trip Deck
- Cineplex App
- VelaClock
- Zite
- iTrig
- DateCalc Pro
- Deliveries
- Units
- My Measures
- Theodolite
- WB Pro
- Around Me
- Key Ring
- Scanner Pro (Trying Scan bot now)
- Starbucks App
What apps could you absolutely not do without?
On the Mac, Omnigraffle is never shutdown. Whether diagrams or flowcharts, there are always 5 to 6 windows open. Other than that, Word, Mail, and Preview are my most used. Preview’s signature function is a lifesaver for a traveller.
As for iOS, I couldn’t go without my iPhone’s apps. iMessage, Mail, and Maps are my most used, but I have 315 more that are essential in the right situation.
Do you have any tips or helpful information you want to share?
JiTouch for Mac is a workflow saviour, it greatly expands the available multi-touch gestures.
As for a life tip? Don’t let work make you use a PC :-]
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Do you have a great Mac or Apple desk setup you want to share? Answer some setup questions, take a few great pictures, and send us the details to osxdailycom@gmail.com!
What’s up with the whiners? Is it envy? I mean, did you miss the title? It’s a freaking Vice Presidents office, not your average cubicle! Of COURSE there will be a lot of hardware, Macs, screens, you name it – people get what is necessary to do their jobs.
Anyway, this is a killer office, I’d be thrilled with it. And it’s an office… big deal if there’s a wire or two laying around, it’s not trying to be a model home or something.
I have to agree with MHFixxxer.
Yes this is an amazing set up with all that mac goodness and awesome equipment, but it looks too unorganized for a VP’s office. The Mac Mini hooked to the Philips 46′ just hanging out looks awful, at least IMO.
Of course the wall is strong enough to hold 3 led 55/60 TVs… They weigh less than 50 lbs each..
You should come down and test them, the building manager advised against it.
Only 2 additional software licences.
i can assure you I’m not ‘sour grapes’ over this. to me this looks like the IT guys just gave in to some lunatics mac demands. the reality is with a mac pro, one machine could have ran all of those displays and it would have avoided maintenance on what appears to be 2-3 mac minis. This person is likely hogging expensive software licenses too (which would be avoided by one mac pro).
as for the wires, fishing hdmi and putting outlets behind the tv is really not a big deal and is done all the time.
there is a lot of great equipment here, unfortunately i think it was deployed and designed poorly and could easily be improved.
Easily improved to achieve the basic same thing and likely would have taken longer.
Sorry you don’t like it, maybe next time you can help out ;)
The walls couldn’t reliably hold 3 TVs’ weight, hence the cabinets. We thought of a new Mac Pro to drive everything, but we were a bit crunched for time to get it all running for my needs, so we went with off the shelve items to drive it all.
Lol, suck it MHfixxxer ;-)
The cables actually bother me as well though.
This setup could, and should be streamlined. The 2-3 Mac Mini’s is completely redundant. The cable mis-management makes the office look cluttered. It would make more sense to have the macbook pro retina on the desk, docked to the two displays, and then drive everything else with a Mac Pro. That cabinet on the ground should not even exist because it puts the displays far too low. all three displays should be wall mounted at the same height.
all cables should be fished through the wall.
Who are you to judge this set-up? If you read the article it stated the uses for each workstation. And I don’t personally think 5 cables showing is clutter. I think the size of the mini enables them to do this without putting holes in walls to just make everything harder to get to if there is an equipment issue. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
Nice set up. Dream workstation right there
Is that OS X 10.10? I’ve never seen that start screen on a Mac
You can download it from here!
http://bodysoulspirit.weebly.com/ios-7-screensaver-for-mac-os-x-by-bodysoulspirit.html
The screen saver is a free third party download, it is made to resemble the iOS 7 lock screen. It looks great on the Mac! https://osxdaily.com/2014/01/14/ios-screen-saver-mac-os-x/
Geezlike, Pretty envious. Here I am saving for years to buy just one top end 15″MBP