Robin Price

I have a client who wants three things visualised at once as well as load of sensor based stuff, I told them either donate a spare iMac for each thing from your office or pony up for a decent rig with matrox triplehead2go. It looks like they're taking that option and they want my advice on which one to select.

My preference is to stick with mac because a) I'll be using a kinect and it seems better supported there and b) if I recommend a PC I'll probably have to end up building it which is another day down the pan, normally I'd have just told them to go for a mid price mac pro but since Apple pulled them I think it's a toss up between a high end iMac and a non retina macbook pro.

The installation is going to be running at least two webcams (one kinect, one logitech 910 HD), an Arduino and the triple head so I guess if I use the macbook I'll need a hub and I've heard those things can be sketchy.

The more I think about it the iMac seems the best option, does anyone have any experience of using those with a triplehead? They're all fitted with nvidia 6XX.

Or alternatively do any PC heads want to make a recommendation?

The installation will be running a green screen with depth map composite for people to be photographed putting their arms round sports stars (cheesy but fun) on one screen, an opengl physics based visualisation of a ball kick based on some sensor data from an Arduino on another and a hi score sheet on a third. I think one hi-end machine with a decent graphics card should be able to churn that out.

My preference is to stick with mac because a) I'll be using a kinect and it seems better supported there and b) if I recommend a PC I'll probably have to end up building it which is another day down the pan, normally I'd have just told them to go for a mid price mac pro but since Apple pulled them I think it's a toss up between a high end iMac and a non retina macbook pro. 

The installation is going to be running at least two webcams (one kinect, one logitech 910 HD), an Arduino and the triple head so I guess if I use the macbook I'll need a hub and I've heard those things can be sketchy. 

The installation will be running a green screen with depth map composite for people to be photographed putting their arms round sports stars (cheesy but fun) on one screen, an opengl physics based visualisation of a ball kick based on some sensor data from an Arduino on another and a hi score sheet on a third. I think one hi-end machine with a decent graphics card should be able to churn that out.


can-anyone-recommend-a-jitter-matrox-triplehead2go-rig

I'm working fine with triplehead2go and both non retina MacPro and IMAC; Be aware to choose the right version regarding the connexions (eg DP version) and adapters etc.(eg. DP to HDMI) you will need for your screens/projectors; I suggest stronlgy to buy only high quality adapters. (Cheep one's risk to break apart easely).

Hi,
I'm working fine with triplehead2go and both non retina MacPro and IMAC; Be aware to choose the right version regarding the connexions (eg DP version) and adapters etc.(eg. DP to HDMI) you will need for your screens/projectors; I suggest stronlgy to buy only high quality adapters. (Cheep one's risk to break apart easely).
Hubs are tricky.....
Best, Helmuth


our visuals guy got the thunderbolt->dvi TH2G, and he's tremendously happy with it. Runs it with the newest mbp.

...running three visuals patches on one machine though, that... is not something I'd like to get into. And I'd opt for the most powerful solution for the job, and that might very well be: A gaming pc, with the beefiest graphics card set I could find. Hell, it'd probably be cheaper than the maxed out iMac anyway.

our visuals guy got the thunderbolt->dvi TH2G, and he's tremendously happy with it. Runs it with the newest mbp. 

...running three visuals patches on one machine though, that... is not something I'd like to get into. And I'd opt for the most powerful solution for the job, and that might very well be: A gaming pc, with the beefiest graphics card set I could find. Hell, it'd probably be cheaper than the maxed out iMac anyway.


to avoid the hub (and not only also for stability according to my experience) you can use an Arduino Ethernet and send OSC messages. For my performance rigs I completely abandoned serial/USB connection with Arduino as I encountered cashing serial connections a few times. You can connect the Arduino directly to the Mac with a cross-link cable (CAT6 Ethernet cable). And as as side effect there are no problems with limited distances....

+1 for the PC rig. There you can choose/add/replace your components according to needs and include a powerful graphics card. iMac has a tuned-down mobile gfx card.

Though the hardware is a factor, programming skills will be of even more importance, with all those camera's, render outputs, etc in 1 system...

I run my own performance system with kinects, arduino-like sensor inputs, 4/5 displays (gfx card + triplehead2go outputs) on a self-built i7 2600k hackintosh with GTX670 gfx card.

Btw, why do you think kinect is better supported on Mac? For Max, the Windows dp.kinect external actually is the best, if you ask me.

+1 for the PC rig. There you can choose/add/replace your components according to needs and include a powerful graphics card. iMac has a tuned-down mobile gfx card. 

Though the hardware is a factor, programming skills will be of even more importance, with all those camera's, render outputs, etc in 1 system... 

I run my own performance system with kinects, arduino-like sensor inputs, 4/5 displays (gfx card + triplehead2go outputs) on a self-built i7 2600k hackintosh with GTX670 gfx card.  

Btw, why do you think kinect is better supported on Mac? For Max, the Windows dp.kinect external actually is the best, if you ask me.


Cheers for all the replies, I'll have a chew....

From my admittedly cursory over view of the Kinect scene I just thought I saw more stuff for the mac, I use both but I've done a lot more video stuff recently on the mac, mainly with Syphon and VDMX (not that I'll be using that for this project).

The kinect bit just needs to take the depth map and use it to key a portion of the image over the top of a foreground image, so I'll multiply that portion of the depth map with the chromakeyed image and then put that at the very top layer.

I'm a bit worried now that I'm not worried enough about this project, I thought a chromakey + depth map one video plane, and two other separate OpenGL render contexts wouldn't be too scary. One of them's going to feature a rugby ball being launched at a goal with an impulse decided by the data from an Arduino speed sensor and the other's going to have a high score board. Too late now, I've put the bid in and I'll just have to do it, I quoted for an iMac and they seemed cool with it but I might try and spec out a PC.

From my admittedly cursory over view of the Kinect scene I just thought I saw more stuff for the mac, I use both but I've done a lot more video stuff recently on the mac, mainly with Syphon and VDMX (not that I'll be using that for this project). 

The kinect bit just needs to take the depth map and use it to key a portion of the image over the top of a foreground image, so I'll multiply that portion of the depth map with the chromakeyed image and then put that at the very top layer. 

I'm a bit worried now that I'm not worried enough about this project, I thought a chromakey + depth map one video plane, and two other separate OpenGL render contexts wouldn't be too scary. One of them's going to feature a rugby ball being launched at a goal with an impulse decided by the data from an Arduino speed sensor and the other's going to have a high score board. Too late now, I've put the bid in and I'll just have to do it, I quoted for an iMac and they seemed cool with it but I might try and spec out a PC.


Really depends on the frame rates, resolutions etc you want to achieve.

Can anyone recommend a jitter matrox triplehead2go rig