Mac Setups: Mac Mini & MacBook Pro Video Editing Workstation… in a Tent
Chris W sent in this very unique Mac setup of a portable video editing station inside of a tent! Why would someone edit video in a tent? Here’s what Chris says about the workstation:
Here is a setup that I was using a couple of weeks ago while covering a local motor sport event. Keep in mind, this was setup in a tent in the middle of nowhere.
On the left is my MacMini with 20″ Samsung LED screen, and on the right is my 15″ Macbook Pro. The computers were kept busy 24 hours a day for the 3 days of the event with the Macbook Pro converting the video files, then importing them into final cut pro. At night I also had a video extender running to a projector 50m away so the competitors could see footage from the days racing. The Mac Mini was importing photos, and processing video files during its idle times. Both computers were also backing up any files to the external HDD’s in the middle. The photo was taken just after everything was wired and the switch was flicked, I should have gotten one with everything fired up and working, but theres always next year hey.
I am fairly certain the “middle of nowhere” he is referring to is somewhere in Australia, but could be wrong. This reminds me a little bit of the MacBook Air motorcycle setup from the American southwest desert, you’ve gotta love people putting their portable gear to use.
Great setup Chris, thanks for sending this in!
[…] and great hardware, but some of my favorites are these untraditional workstations, ranging from tents in Australia, to boats in Germany, or motorcycles in the middle of the American southwest. Keep ‘em […]
Hi Guys,
The video projector was being run in the competitors evening entertainment area. As it was a fair distance away I has an active VGA over cat5 extender. That way i could run the video cables from the MBP to the extender, then the cat5 cable to the projector where the other part of the extender was.
The tent is a nice setup, 3 rooms and about 20 square meters. Takes a few hours to get setup and operational, so I don’t normally take the whole setup unless I am covering a multi day event.
Cheers, I am guessing you mean the black strip with a whole lot of things coming out the top?? That was a 10 port USB dock with single SD card readers plugged into the right hand side (there are 5 in the pic) then there are a couple of USB thumb drives (for transferring data files between me and the admin team), then there are a few multi card readers plugged in for ability to run CF cards.
Having 7 card readers plugged in through one USB port is slow, but the advantage is I can put the cards in, set it to transfer, go out and keep shooting on other cards (or sleep if its night), and i don’t need to worry about waiting around to change cards.
Glad you like the setup. It worked extremely well and saved a lot of processing time when I got home.
-Chris
Hi!
Nice setup! What is that thing in front of the Magic Trackpad, near the flash light?
Dave
I would like a tent office
Interesting, I’d love to see the video projector aspect of this as well.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I prefer these unique setups to the casual desk shots, and I also enjoy reading about what other people are doing with their Macs.