RED Rocket update...

[Imran Farouk]

A...for sure...I would much prefer carrying less weight and having something look ultimately sexy next to my macbook and last for hours longer then my macbook can then having to carry a huge bulky thing that makes noise...

Any chance on a hit on delivery dates? If its after september I might just take my RED Rocket card on its own with me to england heh

I'll be using the card for editing over the next 3 months on my macbook pro as I don't have any access to a mac pro...

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

On the second thought - the power-supply is a major issue. To keep it internal will double the thickness of the product, not to mention add to the heat issue - which is the main problem with the Magma in the first place. The good thing though is that the battery will run the box for longer then the 8-hr battery can sustain the MBP, so in theory You don't need to carry the power supply to the set. Just charge overnight and and use all day on the set of battery power...

I would like to hear more people's opinion on this:

A. Compact lightweight chassis (less then 1.5" thick with form-factor of MPB) with long lasting batterry

or

B. 3"+ thicker box with internal power-supply, lot heavier and more noisier (due to more cooling required)...

Please if You do voice Your opinion - please state why...

Thanks

Peter

A. has my vote

 

[Joseph Ward]

Any suggestions - now is the time. We are listening...:devil: Peter

Peter, any plans for future PCI-E expander for Two RedRockets or more, to be used with Epic 645 9K and Epic 617 28K or whatever else?

 

[Rocco Schult]

B, no extra parts, except a cable.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

I vote for A. unless there are any compromises made that will affect performance. I like the thought of a thin box that can sit under the MBP if it's the same form factor. If noise can be eliminated, that is great.

Anxious to see how this pans out.

 

[C_Skaff]

Why not make it modular... have the powersupply attached to one side of the box (or over/under) and have it clicked on so it lookes like one unit. If anyone wants to run of battery or put the powersupply away from the MBP just use a long cable.

Defenetly think it should be stackable under a MBP. Almost like a dockingstation.

An ultimate product would be a dockingstation that provides all the needed (an unneeded) connectors to the MBP.
Power/FW800/400USB/eSATA/ExpressCard34/DVI/LAN/etc
Then you can have that as a hub and plug all the drives and stuff into it. Easily dock the MBP on it and start working. If you need to detach the MBP from the hub to show the DoP a shot... just copy it to local storage and detach it.

maybe to much to wish for
/carl

/carl

 

[Rocco Schult]

all the docking stations [for apple] are crap.
Back in the days when Apple had multipin connectors it was an option.
Now, all (docking-)kits have just a sum of crappy, usually minor quality connectors that do their thing. there is no hard connection and if the lappy is lifted by some dumb person he cracks all ports at the same time.
bought a newertech docking kit years ago, and newertech was certainly one of the "better" manufacturers, but even that one was just a sum of sloppy plugs.
MBP are not made for that. HPs and Dells and whatnot are.

Interesting thing about another extension system I found is that it uses not only the PCI connection form the EX34 slot, but the USB too. (EX34 has both of them implemented by standard). If its about USB, eSATA and DVI out of RR, then those connections could be prepared to come out of "THAT" unit and the customer just puts his favorite cards in.

P.S: the idea with a modular PS is good. take the PS, take battery, or take both (left and right ?). Modular. Sounds familiar.

 

[N_Villers]

Please if You do voice Your opinion - please state why...

Thanks

Peter

After giving it some thought - my feeling is that conforming to a 1U form factor would be the ideal and include mounting hardware. Therefore height of 1.75", width 9.5" and depth of lets say 12". This would allow me to include it with other hardware in one protected environment. If 1U is not possible then 2U would be fine. Here is an example. Internal power supply would be great so that one power strip can connect everything. I guess there would be space in the back of a case to include an external power brick but less cables the better.

Hurray for modularity !!!!! :cheers2:

 

[Chris Parker]

i would also go for a 1U form factor.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I vote for option A. Smaller form factor with internal battery. The size and noise factor are important.

As for the other comments about 1U form factor... I say don't make it larger to accommodate filling a 1U space if you don't need to. Realistically, I don't see people rack-mounting this mobile option in most situations. If you have the luxury of an equipment rack, chances are you won't be running the RED Rocket™ off a Macbook Pro.

 

[Imran Farouk]

Jeff couldn't you use the rack mounting option for a render farm though or boosting playback and render times when you have all 4 slots in your Mac Pro filled?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I suppose it all comes down to what equipment you have and what you want to place in that rack. IMO, if I had the luxury of toting a rack around with me, I would be placing the RED Rocket™ into a dedicated system and not restricting its bandwidth by connecting via ExpressCard to an external enclosure. Plenty of other options out there besides Mac Pros / Macbook Pros, etc..

As for fitting into smaller rack options like the one Noel links to, I think leaving the Rocket enclosure small will be just fine. Incorporate a good way to attach mounting brackets or tabs to it. I don't see any reason to grow what could be thrown in a laptop bag to something that can fit more comfortably in a 1U rack mount form factor. Then again, if the enclosure could be made to also facilitate all the functionality of the upcoming Rocket Break Out Box, then that would be a whole other deal.

 

[Rocco Schult]

After giving it some thought - my feeling is that conforming to a 1U form factor would be the ideal.. If 1U is not possible then 2U would be fine. Here is an example.
..but less cables the better.

Hurray for modularity !!!!! :cheers2:

The SKB case is a pretty good idea. Had my old Magma chassis for the Wallstreet 19" mounted too as 2U high portable device with the Laptop on top.
The SKB version looks pretty grown up. Good finding.

 

[Justin Anderson]

I'm trying to visualize options A and B. Are there any examples of something like this form factor to give me an idea?

 

[N_Villers]

Realistically, I don't see people rack-mounting this mobile option in most situations. If you have the luxury of an equipment rack, chances are you won't be running the RED Rocket™™ off a Macbook Pro.

True but.... I love the idea I can do so also. Modularity is key. And standards are good to make different equipment play nice together. One 2U or 3U or whatever case can accommodate a nice balance of equipment together in one protected case that doesn't add much extra load and fits nicely in the camera truck. RR+ 4xHDD RAID rackmount, RR+matroxMX02, RR+anything. I can then connect everything together as one unit to either a tower or laptop, pc or mac it doesn't matter but depends on the type of shoot. Get multiple pci-e host extenders and shuttle the "unit" together.

The SKB case is a pretty good idea. Had my old Magma chassis for the Wallstreet 19" mounted too as 2U high portable device with the Laptop on top.
The SKB version looks pretty grown up. Good finding.

I'm designing for myself a custom unit. Should be done soon. Same idea though. I hate getting to a location and messing around with cables, HDDs and finding a table etc. I modified an old portabrace wheeled case that can hold most everything, including UPS, but I'm just not satisfied. The RR is an excuse to design it from the ground up.

I think leaving the Rocket enclosure small will be just fine. Incorporate a good way to attach mounting brackets or tabs to it. I don't see any reason to grow what could be thrown in a laptop bag to something that can fit more comfortably in a 1U rack mount form factor.

You make a valid point. Just please be sure either way to have it easily fit to a rack.

-noel

 

[Joseph Ward]

What about keeping it modular?

Would it be possible to create an expander to fit in a 1U Rack then take it out for more mobility?

And also be made to connect to multiple Red Rockets Expanders for more power?

 

[Peter Majtan]

A...for sure...I would much prefer carrying less weight and having something look ultimately sexy next to my macbook and last for hours longer then my macbook can then having to carry a huge bulky thing that makes noise...

Any chance on a hit on delivery dates? If its after september I might just take my RED Rocket™ card on its own with me to england heh

I'll be using the card for editing over the next 3 months on my macbook pro as I don't have any access to a mac pro...

The first units ready for delivery can be expected before end of September...

P.

 

[Peter Majtan]

Peter, any plans for future PCI-E expander for Two RedRockets or more, to be used with Epic 645 9K and Epic 617 28K or whatever else?

I do have a plan for multi-PCIe laptop chassis for a very different reasons - but it should work just fine for what You are suggesting - if this would indeed work that way...

P.

 

[Peter Majtan]

...Interesting thing about another extension system I found is that it uses not only the PCI connection form the EX34 slot, but the USB too. (EX34 has both of them implemented by standard)...

That is exactly what we are doing, so unless You have somehow find some info about our R&D, You have definitely hit the nail on the head. This is however for another product extremely closely linked to the "Pocket Rocket". More about this soon...

P.S: the idea with a modular PS is good. take the PS, take battery, or take both (left and right ?). Modular. Sounds familiar.

This sounds great, but maybe in the second generation. All the requests and pre-orders I have are stressing strongly that by far the most important thing is the immediate availability...

You can always wait for the second gen... I might even offer some sort of trade-in "ala EPIC-X", but don't hold me to it (yet)...

:devil: Peter

 

[Peter Majtan]

I vote for option A. Smaller form factor with internal battery. The size and noise factor are important.

As for the other comments about 1U form factor... I say don't make it larger to accommodate filling a 1U space if you don't need to. Realistically, I don't see people rack-mounting this mobile option in most situations. If you have the luxury of an equipment rack, chances are you won't be running the RED Rocket™™ off a Macbook Pro.

Also MAGMA has a rack-mounted version of the chassis, that might just work fine for what they need...

Our focus is clearly on minimum size (without compromising cooling) while fitting snugly under 17" MBP...

P.