Stephen Brock
Well-known member
Hey everyone,
My production house has assigned me the task of building a mobile DIT station for our feature documentary. So i've settled on building it around an SKB Studio Flyer 4U.
Right now we have a bunch of G-Tech Drive's we've been using we're afraid that if we mount those inside of the rack it could be problematic while traveling. I'd really like to ensure that there are no compromises due to vibration and shock since this case will spend a lot of time being, rolling on various surfaces and riding in the back of a cargo van.
I've heard of the Sonnet F3 is a good choice especially since it has built in drive isolation and it's already rack-mount-ready. Are there any other options that I should consider? Money is tight, but of course this is still a high priority.
UPDATE:
Okay here's the final product in all it's (version 1.0) glory!! Thanks so much for everyone's advice. It really helped me bring it together in a financially balanced way...
What we needed:
We are shooting a feature-length documentary all across the country over the course of 12 months. It's a small 4 to 7 member production crew. We are often only in a location for a few hours. Climate varies greatly. We are often ingesting and reviewing dailies out of the back of a van, in a hotel room, or in a interviewee's living room. We are also on a small budget but we still need it done right the first time so we can rely on it.
What I learned:
Most DIT Stations are either "mobile stations"--completely self-contained, usually within a pelican case; or a "DIT cart"--housed inside a rolling cart system, often housing entire MacPro desktop rigs along with RAIDS, multiple mointors, etc... DIT Carts offer alot of power and versatility and are most often seen on scripted shoots with 'proper' budgets and crew. DIT "mobile stations" are much easier to transport and faster to setup, but are often not appropriate for any color grading on-set and lack the ability to house large RAID solutions.
What I did differently:
So considering our needs, I was leaning towards a "mobile station". But most commercially available stations are out of our price range ($5k-$10k), though it's a fair price considering the elegant design, weather-proof materials, etc. Then there's DIY, which accomplishes much of the same but with less sexy appeal.
The problem that remains, regardless of price, was modularity. I really hate being locked into a design. If I ever want to swap out a hard drive, replace the laptop, upgrade the card reader, replace an interface chasis, etc--I'm often stuck re-designing the whole case. In my mind, there is such a thing as 'too custom'. By using a rackmount system, we are able to purchase rackmount products and zip-tie-mount most misc. accessesories. This gives a very open shell to work out of while still keeping everything very secure and reliable. The two areas we suffer: 1) Not 100% weather-proof; 2) A little more added bulk and weight. But we are never out in the jungle or mountain climbing with this thing. For us it's mostly from van --> to hotel --> back to van.
What did it cost?
Here's the price breakdown...
SKB 4U Flyer Case = $210
Power distrobuter = $65
Rack shelf = $30
Thunderbolt cables = $60
Sonnet F3(6TB) = $700 (we plan on getting a 2nd additional)
Sonnet Rack Kit = $90
Sonnet TB Chasis = $600
PCIe bus ext. card = $200*
PCIe eSata card = $150
Dedicated MBP power adapter = $50
Sonnet CF4 Card Reader = $500*
Total: $2,655 (not including MBP)
*We already owned the marked items
-------------------
So yea, it's not perfect and there's already a few minor modifications I want to make in the near future. But so far I'm fairly pleased considering the cash we put into it. I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions. It's a fairly simple approach that can be easily duplicated without the need for much jimmy-rigging or workbench modifications/hacks. Hopefully this helps others with their needs. Setup time is awesome--wheel it inside, pop open the lid, run the power cord, turn on the MBP and press the hard drive power button. Done!
One thing I did not include in the price breakdown is our Tier 2 backups. We have a handful of 1TB Seagate 2.5" drives and the portable thunderbolt dock(daisy chained through the Sonnet Chasis) sitting on top of our card reader. This way we can just plug in each drive(via direct SATA port), duplicate our data, and then mail the redundant drive off to home base. Pretty neat, I think.
So...thoughts?
My production house has assigned me the task of building a mobile DIT station for our feature documentary. So i've settled on building it around an SKB Studio Flyer 4U.
Right now we have a bunch of G-Tech Drive's we've been using we're afraid that if we mount those inside of the rack it could be problematic while traveling. I'd really like to ensure that there are no compromises due to vibration and shock since this case will spend a lot of time being, rolling on various surfaces and riding in the back of a cargo van.
I've heard of the Sonnet F3 is a good choice especially since it has built in drive isolation and it's already rack-mount-ready. Are there any other options that I should consider? Money is tight, but of course this is still a high priority.
UPDATE:
Okay here's the final product in all it's (version 1.0) glory!! Thanks so much for everyone's advice. It really helped me bring it together in a financially balanced way...
What we needed:
We are shooting a feature-length documentary all across the country over the course of 12 months. It's a small 4 to 7 member production crew. We are often only in a location for a few hours. Climate varies greatly. We are often ingesting and reviewing dailies out of the back of a van, in a hotel room, or in a interviewee's living room. We are also on a small budget but we still need it done right the first time so we can rely on it.
What I learned:
Most DIT Stations are either "mobile stations"--completely self-contained, usually within a pelican case; or a "DIT cart"--housed inside a rolling cart system, often housing entire MacPro desktop rigs along with RAIDS, multiple mointors, etc... DIT Carts offer alot of power and versatility and are most often seen on scripted shoots with 'proper' budgets and crew. DIT "mobile stations" are much easier to transport and faster to setup, but are often not appropriate for any color grading on-set and lack the ability to house large RAID solutions.
What I did differently:
So considering our needs, I was leaning towards a "mobile station". But most commercially available stations are out of our price range ($5k-$10k), though it's a fair price considering the elegant design, weather-proof materials, etc. Then there's DIY, which accomplishes much of the same but with less sexy appeal.
The problem that remains, regardless of price, was modularity. I really hate being locked into a design. If I ever want to swap out a hard drive, replace the laptop, upgrade the card reader, replace an interface chasis, etc--I'm often stuck re-designing the whole case. In my mind, there is such a thing as 'too custom'. By using a rackmount system, we are able to purchase rackmount products and zip-tie-mount most misc. accessesories. This gives a very open shell to work out of while still keeping everything very secure and reliable. The two areas we suffer: 1) Not 100% weather-proof; 2) A little more added bulk and weight. But we are never out in the jungle or mountain climbing with this thing. For us it's mostly from van --> to hotel --> back to van. What did it cost?
Here's the price breakdown...
SKB 4U Flyer Case = $210
Power distrobuter = $65
Rack shelf = $30
Thunderbolt cables = $60
Sonnet F3(6TB) = $700 (we plan on getting a 2nd additional)
Sonnet Rack Kit = $90
Sonnet TB Chasis = $600
PCIe bus ext. card = $200*
PCIe eSata card = $150
Dedicated MBP power adapter = $50
Sonnet CF4 Card Reader = $500*
Total: $2,655 (not including MBP)
*We already owned the marked items
-------------------
So yea, it's not perfect and there's already a few minor modifications I want to make in the near future. But so far I'm fairly pleased considering the cash we put into it. I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions. It's a fairly simple approach that can be easily duplicated without the need for much jimmy-rigging or workbench modifications/hacks. Hopefully this helps others with their needs. Setup time is awesome--wheel it inside, pop open the lid, run the power cord, turn on the MBP and press the hard drive power button. Done!
One thing I did not include in the price breakdown is our Tier 2 backups. We have a handful of 1TB Seagate 2.5" drives and the portable thunderbolt dock(daisy chained through the Sonnet Chasis) sitting on top of our card reader. This way we can just plug in each drive(via direct SATA port), duplicate our data, and then mail the redundant drive off to home base. Pretty neat, I think.
So...thoughts?
