So, it's official. You can build your own resolution independent, real-time Redcode ready, DPX dominator digital intermediate system out of a off the shelf Mac Pro!

I'm going to introduce what this system consists of, and what it's theoretical capabilities are, and attempt to find some support to actually build a test machine.

First, why would one want to do this?

The answer is a. every film maker should really have a FCP suite of thier own, and b. the software itself does most of the work, and the hardware peripherals necessary to get media in and out of the system, and provide the real-time Redcode RAW support are relatively cheap.

Second, how much does it cost?

I don't know yet. I have yet to add up the bill, I only know what goes in the shopping basket.

Third, will it really work?

I can't say 100%, the combination of cards I am suggesting might have compatibility issues and changes might have to take place.

The QuadroFX card is powerful, but maybe un-necessary and the Nvidia GT120 or Radeon HD 4870 would probably work fine in it's place, they are both x16 lane PCIe cards.

The Red Rocket card is a x8 PCIe card, not sure yet if I'm going to run into motherboard slot problems.

The Blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme is a x4 PCIe card.

It should be fine, with the graphics card installed there is one open x16 slot which can accomodate the Red Rocket, and two open x4 slots, which can be occupied by the Blackmagic card and a fibre channel networking card. A question still remains about physical space.

The configuration:

Dual-quad Nehalem Mac Pro
16GB RAM
Nvidia QuadroFX 4800 (PCIe x16)
Red Rocket (PCIe x8) with breakout box
Blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme (PICe x4)
4Gb Fibre channel card

Final Cut Studio 3
Red Final Cut Studio plugin
Gluetools

Storage:

I like having a RAID internally. I have a dual-quad Xeon PC in a nice solid chassis that gives me 10 drive bays. I have 2 system drives and 8 media drives in a RAID 5 configuration that give me sufficient throughput for a single stream of uncompressed 2K DPX playback. This makes the system box weigh a ton, but it's all there. The Mac chassis won't work this way, and unfortunately storage will have to be external.

I'd like to explore what cost effective storage options are out there, but that is another discussion. For now, a 4Gb Fibre Channel card will let me plug into the SAN, and there's my storage. I can pull HD DPX's real time across from the server, and that's what I need for testing purposes.

Monitoring:

We have plenty of monitoring options and I/O out of this box. Here it is.

GRAPHICS:

2 x Dual Link DVI Stereo

RED ROCKET (Output Only):

4 x HDMI
4 x Dual Link HD-SDI

DECKLINK HD EXTREME:

1 x Dual Link HD-SDI Input
1 x Dual Link HD-SDI Output
Component SD/HD YUV/S-Video/Composite
1 x HDMI Input
1 x HDMI Output

AUDIO I/O (DECKLINK):

2 x AES
2 X Analogue
16 X SDI
2 X HDMI

So we are even ready for full 4K monitoring to a Sony SXRD 4K Projector via the 4 x Dual Link HD-SDI outputs from the Red Rocket card. In reality, though we'll probably run a single Apple 30" display for the desktop and a 58" Panasonic 10-series plasma via HDMI or optionally dual link HD-SDI.

CONTROL SURFACE & PERIPHERALS:

We'll look at the Tangent Devices Wave panel for operating Color, and a Wacom tablet.

More to come...