After having spent a few days with a new Mac Pro (base configuration with 4-core, Dual D300, 12GB RAM), we can say that it really is a Mac made for Softron! We also had the chance to test a higher end configuration (8-core, Dual D700, 64GB RAM), to see what you could achieve with each configurations and Softron’s playout and ingest software.
INGEST with MovieRecorder 2
When talking about MovieRecorder, which still uses the QuickTime APIs, the most important factor here is the CPU. The GPU is not used a lot and the basic configuration (Dual D300) will be just fine. The better the CPU, the more channels you’ll be able to do.
Generally speaking, we can say that we were able to achieve one HD 1080i Apple ProRes (LT) ingest per core.
- 4 channels on the 4 core
- 8 channels on the 8 core
Note that we were then using a little bit more then 70% CPU then, and the computer is then at its limit. For safer operations, you may want to use for example a 6 core for 4 channels and a 12 core for 8 channels.
Also, these numbers will be different with other frame size and fps, as well as with different codecs.
PLAYBACK with OnTheAir Video 3
In OnTheAir Video 3, both the CPU and GPU are important, specially when using the SMART resize and graphics.
Basically, the CPU will be used mainly for the decompression of the files. So if you want to decode 4K video clips encoded in H264, you should consider using a higher end CPU such as the 6 or 8 core.
The GPU will then be used for resizing the file to the desired resolution (if needed) and overlay graphics, so the requirements of the graphics card will be bigger:
- the more you use videos of different resolutions that require a resize to fit in the output
- the bigger the « target » resolution = the resolution of your output. (NTSC = easy, 4K = a lot to of dots to calculate!)
- the nature of graphics that you want to overlay and the number of layers (Text and still images = easy, animation = hard)
In our tests, using the Dual D300 configuration, we were able to read files in ProRes LT, resize and overlay a ticker, a still image, a clock, and a rotating logo (source = movie ProRes 4444 file), all that on a 4K output.
Using the D700 configuration, and more importantly the 8-core (for decompression) we were able to add 3 more HD outputs on top of that 4K output, which is pretty amazing.
Conclusion
The new Mac Pro is really the most powerful Mac that we have seen so far. On such a small form factor, it is pretty impressive to be able to do all that, and the more so, silently. Now we’ll have to invest in our converters, hard drives and other peripherals so they are silent too. Maybe the next big hit in the industry is already not 4K anymore, but... silence
)
Our tests are not finished yet, and we will come back with more feedback, and long term tests with more video outputs.
As usual, we give these results for information only, it is not contractual as it can vary following your specific configuration, and we always recommend that you run tests with the demo versions available on our website.