Sprinter Van

[David Twelves]

Well as luck would have it I found a place just down the road that did the E-Track install on a couple of grip trucks and sprinters here in town, so it goes in Wed morning.

We carry around some shipping blankets for our E-Tracks, even tied down your stuff can wobble a bit and get scratched, so we layer the blankets on. Also cuts down on the noise (especially when going over bumpy roads with stuff jittering around).

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

4K Ninjas Road Grader

4K Ninjas Road Grader

There are some pics on my website: alacritymedia.com of the Road Grader. We will have the unit on display at HD Expo in Burbank Nov. 4th & 5th.

As you suggested in the thread opener I also divided up the space with the rear portion dedicated to gear stowage, the center section has two cushy seats with one facing a Scratch workstation and the other facing a MacPro tower. There are 2 keyboards, 2 mice and a JL Cooper Spectrum control surface for grading. There are 3 monitors: 30" Apple Cinema Display for the Scratch menus, an eCinema DCM-23 23" color reference monitor and a 24" HP DreamColor for the MacPro tower.

I actually prepped the walls and floor with a sound/vibration deadening paint designed for ship's hulls, then insulated with what is essentially foil faced bubble wrap, then glued gray carpet onto a pressboard product marketed locally as Masonite.

The shelving and other interior structure rides on birch plywood supported by steel Uni-strut. Some is painted, some is carpeted and some is wrapped in a vinyl material that matches the seats. I put in a ramp designed for handicapped access that opens out the back for moving carts and gear in and out.

I put in 4 deep cycle marine batteries in a cage under the floor that drives an 1800 watt Xantrex Sine wave inverter. There is a power access hatch for 30 amp service (RV style) and another hatch for BNC (SDI) patch and audio. There is also a roof mounted air conditioner and a strong roof mounted fan to exhaust heat. Duvetine on rods and grip clips provide interior blackout for viewing footage.

Reach out if I can be of any assistance, I am based in Southern California.

Cheers - #19

 

[David Twelves]

There are some pics on my website: alacritymedia.com of the Road Grader. We will have the unit on display at HD Expo in Burbank Nov. 4th & 5th.

As you suggested in the thread opener I also divided up the space with the rear portion dedicated to gear stowage, the center section has two cushy seats with one facing a Scratch workstation and the other facing a MacPro tower. There are 2 keyboards, 2 mice and a JL Cooper Spectrum control surface for grading. There are 3 monitors: 30" Apple Cinema Display for the Scratch menus, an eCinema DCM-23 23" color reference monitor and a 24" HP DreamColor for the MacPro tower.

I actually prepped the walls and floor with a sound/vibration deadening paint designed for ship's hulls, then insulated with what is essentially foil faced bubble wrap, then glued gray carpet onto a pressboard product marketed locally as Masonite.

The shelving and other interior structure rides on birch plywood supported by steel Uni-strut. Some is painted, some is carpeted and some is wrapped in a vinyl material that matches the seats. I put in a ramp designed for handicapped access that opens out the back for moving carts and gear in and out.

I put in 4 deep cycle marine batteries in a cage under the floor that drives an 1800 watt Xantrex Sine wave inverter. There is a power access hatch for 30 amp service (RV style) and another hatch for BNC (SDI) patch and audio. There is also a roof mounted air conditioner and a strong roof mounted fan to exhaust heat. Duvetine on rods and grip clips provide interior blackout for viewing footage.

Reach out if I can be of any assistance, I am based in Southern California.

Cheers - #19

Wow, that's the coolest thing I've seen all day! Reminds me of the hacker van from "Sneakers" :thumbsup:

Off topic - how do you like the eCinema LCD?

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Wow, that's the coolest thing I've seen all day! Reminds me of the hacker van from "Sneakers" :thumbsup:

Off topic - how do you like the eCinema LCD?

While the eCinema is far from perfect, in particular the blacks could be better, it is very consistent and reveals subtleties in color and density very well. One big plus is that it looks like a TV picture rather than a computer display so what you see during grading is truer to what the viewer is likely to see after distribution (I will avoid the whole MPEG-2 in the distribution chain issue as that is a constant across all professional monitoring vs end user viewing experience discussions).

CineTal, eCinema and just a hair below that the TV Logic monitors are all solid (and expensive) choices with the ubiquitous Panny 17s a full rung below them (greenish bias and no actual pixel for pixel rendition dooms them IMHO). The HP DreamColor with rec 709 emulation and an HD-SDI to HDMI converter is an excellent budget option with good blacks and the best off axis viewing cone of any LCD I have ever seen by a mile (it uses a terrific In-Plane-Switching tech that must be seen to be believed). YMMV.

Cheers - #19

 

[Ryan S]

Blair, you'll have to forgive me if this is a ridiculous question, as I've never seen a van with a grading/editing suite set up inside it before (in person, anyway). Do you power down the Mac Pro while you're driving, or could you/do you leave it on? I ask because it seems like it would be great to let the Mac render or log/transfer while you're in transit, but I have to wonder how it would tolerate the occasional pothole or dirt road.

 

[ericyoung]

I think that would be a recipe for trashed disks and lost footage.

 

[Ryan S]

I think that would be a recipe for trashed disks and lost footage.

As would I, but I have no idea if Blair or others have worked out a solution. Shock absorption? SSDs? As I said, it might be a ridiculous question, but I'm curious...

 

[Dane Brehm]

This is my next purchased.....

http://www.fordvehicles.com/transitconnect/

Not the best in the power end of things but a affordable work/live vehicle....

 

[Paul Kalbach]

Here's my new (old, 1995, 260,000 miles!) camera truck. I flew to Chicago last week to pick it up and drove it back home to Oakland, shooting some stock footage on the way. Runs good! I just got back last night, so I haven't had a chance to start outfitting it yet; but it's pretty much ready-made as is...

 

[Mark Phelan]

That's a great truck Paul. Where did you find it?

 

[Alexis Vanier]

Last year I stumbled upon a slightly older ambulance sold by a private hospital and thought it would make for a great small camera/grip truck. Best of fun and luck outfitting it to your liking! It's pretty much ready-made indeed! (But, best of luck with the gas as well

 

[David Twelves]

This is my next purchased.....

http://www.fordvehicles.com/transitconnect/

Not the best in the power end of things but a affordable work/live vehicle....

Funny, I was just thinking about a Transit as a micro-rover today! I live next to a Ford dealership and they got in half a dozen of them today. I was checking them out on my way out today...they look surprisingly spacious for such a small vehicle! Personally I want a Honda Element next...ugly as all get out, but they have waterproof seats & rubberized floors...drool....

 

[David Twelves]

Here's my new (old, 1995, 260,000 miles!) camera truck. I flew to Chicago last week to pick it up and drove it back home to Oakland, shooting some stock footage on the way. Runs good! I just got back last night, so I haven't had a chance to start outfitting it yet; but it's pretty much ready-made as is...

Wow, it's even got a place for you to take a nap! :001_tongue:

 

[K Brown]

A photographers version (thanks Chase)

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2008/06/chase-jarvis-shorts-pimped-photography.html

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Rolling down the road...

Rolling down the road...

As would I, but I have no idea if Blair or others have worked out a solution. Shock absorption? SSDs? As I said, it might be a ridiculous question, but I'm curious...

I think it would be viable with SSDs but until the cost/capacity equation gets better I can't see the ROI. With standard spinning media I think the risk is too high unless you have an extreme stabilization solution which, AFAIK, would be cost prohibitive.

One thing I have done, after making at least one back up, is to log/view footage using the proxies read directly off the Red Drives on a laptop. I haven't tested it, but I also would feel comfortable using FCP on a laptop to edit proxies in transit.

When designing the Road Grader I looked at shock mounted 2.5" laptop style drives in a RAID configuration to enable editing while driving but at the time (2 years ago) the cost per gig was silly. Now, if I had a long form project, like a traveling doco or feature with a decent budget then I would look at what's available now.

Cheers - #19

 

[Paul Kalbach]

That's a great truck Paul. Where did you find it?

eBay!

 

[David W. Jones]

Step one completed! E-Track install overkill.

 

[David W. Jones]

I had always wanted one of those Paul, they are pretty bad-ass.
Alright, someone here has got to have a retro converted ambulance... Who ya gonna call?

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Hey Guys, The Steadi Red is certainly eye catching, I wouldn't mind one of these for myself. Shouldn't be too hard to find it though with all the advertising on the side. Did it occur to anyone else that it may just encourage the wrong sort of interest?
Mike C

Good point. I decided to put the 4K Ninjas name and logo on my rig as the term 4K means nothing to people outside the biz. The words film, video, digital, etc were intentionally avoided. I also chose a unit with no windows and installed the rear view camera first thing.

While there are a number of very cool options for a vehicle, the Sprinter is hard to beat. Made by Mercedes, gets 23mpg, parts are easy to obtain, etc. Biggest downside is the cost, second biggest is that it rarely fits into parking structures. YMMV :001_tt1:

Cheers - #19

 

[David W. Jones]

Not a whole lot of parking decks with 9 foot clearance.