Which Precision to possibly crush?

We are streaming the implosion of a building on campus from multiple angles. The idea is that if we have good views of the event online, people will not try and attend in person.

One of the cameras is going to be very close to the building that is coming down. If something were to go wrong, we could lose an encoder. This brought up the question - which mobile Precision would best survive a building falling on it?

My choices were an M3800, M4700, and an M6700 Covet. The M3800 is much tougher than I have expected it to be, but it was out. The M6700's red color would make it easier to find in the rubble, but it is my primary system. The left the M4700 as the machine that we are counting on to stream the action from a very up-close and personal view.

We expect to have several thousand people watching, and no one will be allowed within 1,000 feet of the machines for several hours before the blasting. System stability is very important. So far, the M4700 ( http://streaming.appstate.edu/winkler ) and M3800 ( http://streaming.appstate.edu/gardner ) have been streaming without a dropped frame for the last week. It will be interesting to see how it goes Sunday at 8am.

Here is the M4700's location -


This is how close it is -

 

this would be fun to watch

 

You should put a toughbook in the building that is getting demolished.

 

I have to agree, if you don't need serious horsepower for the encode etc then PLEASE go snag an old Toughbook CF-19 or CF-30, a 31 is a bit overkill and pricey normally. spraypaint it a bright color or something so you can find it and let it do what it is made for .... hostile environments to the extreme.

 

We are doing 1080p encodes direct from a blackmagic HD-SDI to USB 3.0 converter. The USB is processing 192 megabytes (1.5 gigabits) a second and crushing it down to 1000kb/sec for the video feed. It is then feeding servers for Flash and iOS.

We have to have quad core processors for a couple of reasons. The dual core processors will run at 75-80% load and then hit 90% when there is a lot of motion. We tried an ultrabook with the ~25watt low power dual core and it stayed pegged at 100%. So the main reason to use a quad is because when the entire frame moves over the 12 seconds that the building implodes, it will have the processing power. The second reason is that we cannot physically touch the systems for 3 hours before the implosion. They have been running at around 40% load for a week, and seem to be doing fine. I have more faith in the Precision at a mid level load than a dual core system with a high load.

I do understand that the company imploding the building is putting GoPros in plexiglass boxes to film the implosion from the roof and inside the building itself. That is going to be some cool footage.

 

Make sure it has complete care?

 

You are dropping a building on a laptop. I would suggest the cheapest machine that fits the bill CPU. Mainly because, well, you are dropping a building on it.

 

needs to be a quality and stable machine. there are no re-takes here.

 

Bokeh, how did it go?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

True.

Maybe an older M4500 or something like that.